"I question the very basis of your question/the assumptions behind your question!!" [more inside]
posted by jimmyjimjim on Aug 23, 2009 - 311 comments

I think it was here that I came across a great webpage listing forum trolling techniques that read like an academic listing of informal logic fallacies. It had things like finding errors in small and irrelevant details, ad-hominem attacks, using provocative and loaded terms, shifting claims, concern trolling etc... I've looked for it several times recently and can't find it. Anybody remember the link?
posted by srboisvert on Aug 2, 2009 - 25 comments

An open letter. [more inside]
posted by dirtynumbangelboy on Jul 3, 2008 - 96 comments

Can we add a flag for trolling? Or is this covered under one of the existing flags?
posted by msalt on May 22, 2008 - 163 comments

hey, bruce? I, and other folks, aren't too thrilled with what you're saying in the Elyse Sewell thread. Let's talk about you over here, and keep talking about her over there. [more inside]
posted by heeeraldo on Jan 6, 2008 - 260 comments

quonsar, are you trolling or just dumb?
posted by Pope Guilty on Nov 13, 2007 - 384 comments

Could we perhaps gently show Gnostic Novelist where the door is? I would link to some of the more egregious of his baby-smearing-doodoo-all-over-threads, but it's probably simpler just to look at his posting history.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy on Aug 26, 2007 - 204 comments

I think the moderators should please actually READ the question before deleting it. I asked a valid question about dinner table conversation, and the moderator deletes it on reading the word "troll". I cry unfair!
posted by markovich on Jul 5, 2007 - 80 comments

Fucking flag it and move on. It's not about YOU.
posted by mkultra on Jul 3, 2007 - 173 comments

Is this in any way acceptable? By which I mean posting a question that you "know" will be flame-bait, and then taunting those who answer?
posted by CKmtl on Mar 12, 2007 - 43 comments

This kind of thing should result in an instaban.
posted by SpecialK on Oct 6, 2006 - 71 comments

In case any of you slept through your Women's Issues class in college, here are the cliffnotes.
posted by Civil_Disobedient on Aug 6, 2006 - 216 comments

It started off as an innocent thread about D&D. It degenerated into a trainwreck of trolling and vituperation. But then, at the last, it was rescued by a truly outstanding comment. This is both what I hate and what I love most about metafilter.
posted by dersins on Mar 6, 2006 - 28 comments

There seems to be a contingent of people on this website (we all know who they are) who feel the need to pollute threads that would be otherwise relevant, reasonable, and/or interesting. They come in, spew their opinion, and then proceed to turn thought-provoking material into a three ring circus. After having to sift through heaps of vitrol to find comments that even remotely relate to the topic at hand twice today, I've had enough. Your need to have your last word in a public meeting space that prides itself on civil, topical conversation is disgustingly revealing of your immaturity and arrogance. As a user of this site who is primarily a lurker, I want to make a statement on behalf of those people who come here for the fascinating content: If you feel the need to troll and argue, shut up already.
posted by potch on Jan 2, 2006 - 144 comments

Is it possible to engage in a debate with a Conservative on MeFi without calling him a troll? I give you this example.
posted by mkultra on Dec 16, 2005 - 198 comments

If you hate it so much, why are you here? (1, 2, 3, 4)
posted by Optimus Chyme on Nov 10, 2005 - 297 comments

Who's "trolling" now? Don't we have enough vituperative political "debates" around here without somebody singling out and baiting certain individuals by name?
posted by davy on Sep 20, 2005 - 351 comments

Hey refugee/racist people, get your own thread. Eight comments into it, the troll succeeds and we're no longer talking about the camps. Good work.
posted by tomharpel on Sep 11, 2005 - 80 comments

I say die New Orleans die.
posted by Optimus Chyme on Sep 3, 2005 - 75 comments

Dios is blatantly trolling. Again. This time, there can be no doubt in my mind that he is simply posting ridiculous, inflammatory and disingenuous comments for the purpose of starting needless arguments. If he had bothered to read the post, he would know that his point is invalidated completely. Do we have to tolerate his constant shitting on any political thread?
posted by [expletive deleted] on Aug 31, 2005 - 45 comments

Ladies and gentleman, welcome MeFi's newest troll!
posted by trey on Jul 29, 2005 - 304 comments

Some constructive suggestions for dealing with trolls . . . [more inside]
posted by Zonker on Jul 8, 2005 - 55 comments

This is the thread for any complainers about the Mary Cary thread and the trolls that ran about it.


/ not complaining, just preventing snarks on the MeTa page. Metafilter is rated G well for the most part. *shakes fist at Mary Cary*
posted by wheelieman on Jun 15, 2005 - 52 comments

"And that clot is blocking your wife's cervix."

First, bait emotionally susceptible people with some easy trollery. Second, after you've drawn out some victims, call them "shallow hags" and tell them to "take [their] self-absorbed neuroses to an appropriate forum." Third, deliver the knockout blow: attack them with their own medical conditions!

All in a day's work for Mayor Curley: defeating infertile, shallow internet hags everywhere.
posted by Mid on May 13, 2005 - 149 comments

I grant that my first comment in this thread was a little troll-ish, and I'm sorry about that. I probably contributed a pretty bad atmosphere to the discussion there. But was this really warranted?
posted by koeselitz on May 2, 2005 - 36 comments

Excuse me ignorance for a few moments, but I in all honesty cannot for the life of me understand why bevets is being considered a troll/flamer in this thread about evolution.
Now, I am a full proponent of the Theory of Evolution. However, that said, all bevets is doing is disagreeing with the Theory. Some people like orthogonality decide to actually respond to bevets' ideas. Not to pick on any one user, but then you get bshort who sounds more like a troll than bevets by not even thoughtfully responding to bevets' creationist ideas.
In all honestly, if byver wants to have an open dialogue about this topic, what is the problem? Does that make him a troll if he earnestly wants to discuss the topic, even if you all think he sucks at it because if so, then a whole LOT of users would be trolls with whom the masses just happen to agree with.

*note* I do NOT intend this thread to be a pileon over bevets (enough of that happened in the thread), but rather what makes a troll vs. a good poster since all I see here is a very strong disagreement in ideologies.
posted by jmd82 on Mar 26, 2005 - 59 comments

I disagree with the decision to close this MeTa thread. I understand that you made a decision regarding the topic, and I understand that it could have devolved into name-calling, but as it stood, the comments were reasonable and without personal insults. A better discussion could have ensued regarding flagging etiquette and how to deal with obnoxious comments; in fact, the makings of a good conversation regarding what constitutes a flaggable offense existed. I just felt that the closing was premature.
posted by BlueTrain on Mar 7, 2005 - 92 comments

Could we get a "troll" option for flagging?
posted by norm on Mar 7, 2005 - 30 comments

The reality is that they stand around thinking they are playing a video game until somebody gets hurt. This is pretty egregious trolling.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket on Feb 7, 2005 - 52 comments

Fucking maniacs, or, the life and oeuvre of one luckyclone. Though a prior specialist in one-liner snark (rare exceptions), this user hasn't made a coherent comment since December 6.
posted by dhartung on Feb 1, 2005 - 17 comments

Attention store manager: Cleanup in aisle 38721. Troll juice has been spilled, making people cry.
posted by Saucy Intruder on Jan 18, 2005 - 107 comments

A thread about some irresponsible thing Bill O'Reilly said is followed with some pile on comments and a few insights. Then, ten comments and forty minutes later, this: "Jeebus, how does this qualify as a FPP?" It seems that on the new MetaFilter, post policing is the new troll.
posted by tomharpel on Dec 23, 2004 - 36 comments

Have we been trolled?
07 Dec 2004 : Cost to me £96.99 : PapPal Donations £0.00 : Reaction on Metafilter - Priceless

Read back through his comments on the original thread with this in mind, and the whole thing smacks of a self post.
WHBT? WHL? HAND*
*W = we
posted by jester69 on Dec 7, 2004 - 18 comments

"Troll" may have a respectable lineage on the Web but, frankly, for some of us who joined later in the day, it seems like a quaint, medieval way of classifying anyone who's the least bit provocative, thought-provoking or even unorthodox. Recently, any forceful, strongly-worded attempt to spark discussion with a non-mainstream viewpoint, generally from the Left, has been lamely denounced as a "troll". Could it be time to give the ye olde troll accusation a well-deserved rest? I hope so. The English language is one of the richest in the world and troll sounds parochial, pimply, nerdish, cliquey, incestuous and, ultimately, meaningless.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Aug 30, 2004 - 78 comments

Trolling MetaFilter is not very useful: "I'm making shit up to provoke a reaction."
posted by NortonDC on Aug 22, 2004 - 17 comments

Trolling Ask Metafilter is not very useful.
posted by cmonkey on Aug 21, 2004 - 63 comments

ParisParamus, 4 am JST : "How long will there will cowards logged into Metafilter?"

ParisParamus, 10:37 am JST : "Metafilter: keeping as many liberal and pacifist a-holes inside, so they do the least amount of damage possible in the real world."
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on Jul 7, 2004 - 100 comments

Waah!Filter : Talk about posting your petty grievances in the Blue! Heheh.
posted by mischief on Jun 18, 2004 - 47 comments

It might as well have been titled "This is today's senseless bickering thread". No real content, just more trollish junk. Delete please?
posted by fvw on Jun 17, 2004 - 68 comments

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything when Witty decided to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to ruin amberglow's thread with his particular (read: vapid, boring) brand of insane troll logic. However, he then decided an interesting course of action would be to make a similarly unwarranted (perhaps even moreso) comment in an unrelated thread.

Therefore, I politely and humbly request that Witty please refrain from making similarily irrelevant--and snide--comments in the future, at least in in the blue.
posted by The God Complex on Jun 14, 2004 - 124 comments

"As for the purpose of this post, I guess I wanted to see if you loud-mouthed, violently prejudiced morons on Mefi had it left in you to try and rationally adress a troubling issue that doesn't jive with your incredibly narrow viewpoints."

Thank you sir may I have another
posted by scarabic on Mar 26, 2004 - 149 comments

"What is this post other than newsfilter?" {more inside}
posted by anastasiav on Mar 12, 2004 - 46 comments

Blatant front-page troll.
posted by nicwolff on Jan 19, 2004 - 34 comments

We've all seen what can happen when MeFi devolves into pointless personality conflicts: the site gets hijacked to propogate something that 99.9% of the users don't care about. We've also all seen one member virtually drag another into such conflicts, making a two-way crapfest out of what was originally just one-sided goofiness...[more inside]
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly on Oct 7, 2003 - 24 comments

Come on do we need this type of trolling here? (more inside)
posted by SuzySmith on Jul 26, 2003 - 32 comments

Is he baiting us? Noted ex-Mefite Steven Den Beste, in self-imposed exile, says he left because we got "stranger and stranger" and, according to him, the inmates are still running the asylum. Are we guilty of lefty groupthink, or is SDB focusing on the posts that annoy him and ignoring the diversity of opinions here, and quit in a huff because we wouldn't all agree with him? (Note: we've talked about him before on Metatalk.)
posted by mcwetboy on Sep 25, 2002 - 85 comments

Trolls disguised as pleas for piss tests? Maybe someone should just ask ponchogaddo to stop pissing all over the threads.
posted by insomnyuk on Jul 2, 2002 - 16 comments

At the risk (feh, who am I kidding?) of pouring salt in the proverbial wound, I'm going to draw attention to this thread. These two users were apparently engaged in some buffoonery, and perhaps the community was a little harsh, but their reactions really made me mad. Do I, or we, or MeFi in general, really need these guys maliciously baiting other users?
posted by Yelling At Nothing on Jun 16, 2002 - 56 comments

See now, here is my question, with all sincerity, does MeFi continue to allow such troll posting because MeFi (semi-secretly) agrees with the poster, or just because MeFi wants another excuse to beat a dead horse?
posted by BlueTrain on May 20, 2002 - 72 comments

Us declares itself above the law.

Other than one or two people here and there talking about the topic at hand, this thread was basically a shouting match and trolling session. Is this the level of debate that now passes for inteligent from the MetaFilter community?
posted by Zool on May 6, 2002 - 20 comments