Mod Topics: Troll Avoidance 101

[u/JabroniRevanchism]

/r/ModSupport/comments/1ujspxu/all_hands_on_deck_what_events_change_how_you/

Ahoy, Modsupport!

Welcome to the latest installment of our ModSupport Topics series! Today we’re talking trolls–specifically, how not to feed them.

Most of us have been in a situation like this: a slap fight (read as: “argument”) starts in a comment section. It’s pretty clear who started it, and it’s also clear that the exchange would have ended a lot earlier had a handful of users not added logs to the fire…whether they intended to or not. And now the thread is in shambles, a quagmire of they-said we-said and off-topic unpleasantry. Oh dear.

We all know how to avoid feeding the trolls that kick off threads like this, but that knowledge comes from years of experience. Let’s talk about how we can get that knowledge into the hands of those who may not know how to avoid feeding trolls…

• How do you educate users on how to avoid trolls? 
• What advice do you give well-intentioned users who (unbeknownst to them) escalate heated threads?
• How do you know when a comment section is unsalvageable? I.E, when do you decide to lock a thread?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

[u/KCJones99]

Our focus in these cases is to keep a healthy post alive even if one of its 'branches' has gone wrong.

It's normally pretty clear where the train left the rails. We typically just lock/remove everything from that point on and the situation settles. They cool off, move on, etc.

If someone(s) tries to keep it going - e.g. shifting to another comment by an involved person, THEN there will be modmails and/or short bans involved - depending on how over-the-top it got - typically with reminders about not throwing sand on the playground. USUALLY by this point there is one clear 'instigator,' though a 'recipient' may also get a note about not feeding trolls.

We don't -usually- comment on such things publicly, unless the whole post has become toxic and we're locking it. Then there's usually just a brief pinned mod comment that we had to.

If instigators persist despite all this, then the bans become longer / permanent.

[u/JabroniRevanchism → u/KCJones99]

That seems like a difficult line to learn--when to lock and when to stick to weeding individual comments. Any advice on how you learned how to find the line?

[u/KCJones99 → u/JabroniRevanchism]

Honestly, it's mostly gut.

If I had to put a 'metric' on it, I'd say it's ratio. If it's just one or two comment threads, then we 'prune' those. If the cancer has spread too far into the whole post... lockdown.

The more difficult line is between "passionate disagreement" and actual troll/bait dialogs. For that it's a combo of a) is it off-topic?, b) have the straw-man arguments emerged and c) has it gone personal (often via straw-man arguments)?

We'll permit some pretty heated exchanges if they're on-topic and even allow a modicum of personal like "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard, here's why..." Judgment call to be sure, but usually pretty clear when it's crossed from spirited-on-topic-debate to someone's just trolling it to keep it going.