What Is a Troll File?
Internet trolls are people whose online behavior is intended to disrupt a discussion. Trolls can appear in chat rooms, blog comments or forum threads. In the early days of the Internet, newsgroup users could add the name of a troll to a "troll file," better known as a killfile or KILL file, to make the troll's posts disappear. As the Internet grew and changed, the problem hasn't disappeared, but trolling can be minimized in various ways.
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History
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The term "killfile" refers to a Usenet newsgroup reader feature enabling users to maintain a file containing a list of names or addresses. The reader software would then parse the file and omit all posts from users in the list. After a user added another to a killfile, the addition would often be announced to the group by posting the word "plonk." Although Usenet is no longer as widely used, the term has persisted as slang for ignoring or hiding a user's posts or messages.
Message Boards
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Today trolls are commonly found on Internet message boards. To combat this, most Internet forum software includes a link in each forum post enabling you to ignore a specific user. When you click the link, the software will hide all of that user's posts from you. While a forum community often doesn't agree on exactly what constitutes a troll, this feature allows users to make that decision for themselves. Unfortunately, this feature usually doesn't prevent other users from quoting the ignored user's posts.
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Blog Comments
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Trolls also appear in blog comments, especially where comments aren't screened by the blogger. While some blogs may have an ignore feature or enable users to vote posts down to hide them, most rely on the blogger to police the trolls. Moderating all comments or just those from new users can minimize trolling, as can requiring a Facebook login, which forces people to post comments under their real names, or at least a name under which the commenter has registered a Facebook account. Persistent trolls may require banishment, however, which can be accomplished either by adding their name or address to a blacklist in the blogging software, or by adding their IP address to the site's .htaccess file.
Chat Rooms
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Public chat rooms can also harbor trolls, but it's usually easy to tell if someone's disrupting a chat, and at that point the moderator can ban the troll. Internet Relay Chat also includes an /IGNORE command that allows you to hide individual users. The best course of action in any circumstances is to obey the maxim "Don't feed the trolls." Often a troll who doesn't elicit the desired reaction will calm down or go away.
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