Troll Patrol!

The Troll Patrol is place to let us know about shit-disturbers so we so we can go stomp the offending party into sweet, squishy troll pulp.

A troll may:

• post offensive messages only to get you angry
• post the same thing over and over again to take up space and ruin the flow of the forums
• post only to intrude on your goodwill and advertise some crap-ass site or try to sell you bootleg copies of something
• start hurling insults left and right in hopes of starting a flame war
• intentionally antagonizes people, or generally just makes a forum less enjoyable for everyone else (intentionally mind you)
• attempt to post under other pseudonyms, or use the anonymous posting method, to hide who they are

A troll is not:

• someone who -- in the course of a real debate or discussion -- pisses you off with a opinion that is different from yours
• someone who doesn't use proper English spelling or grammar. Yes, it's annoying, and we'll speak to them, but they are not a troll
• someone who is merely young or stupid or inane. Leave the short bus kids alone, unless it gets really bad and you need to report them.

Who should post in this thread:

• Post here if you want to report a troll. Put a link to the offending post, list the person's name, a brief description of the problem, and that's it. No extra commentary is required.
• The admins prefer to be contacted privately via Steam to hash these things out, but if necessary, the accused may respond here with an explanation.

Who should NOT post here:

• If you're not an admin, and you're not reporting a troll (or responding to an accusation), don't post in here. It's not your job to scold people about their behavior. This is not the place to debate whether the admins are being harsh or not, nor is it a place to make jokes or engage in trollish behavior yourself.
• This is not a public court of debate. Nor is it a place to make jokes; there are a thousand other threads where you can do that.

I can't believe I have to say this, but....:

• Two wrongs don't make a right. I don't care if your target happens to be a jerk, asshole, troll, whatever. That doesn't give you the right to troll them back. It just means that you too are a troll. Trollish behavior will be evaluated independent of who you are addressing.

We thank you in advance for helping out us by keeping the forums pleasant and troll-free. Remember: please do not feed the trolls by engaging with them in the forum. Just report them here and we promise to quash the problem quickly.

Note: from time to time we're going to clean this thread out. Once trolls (or potential trolls) have been dealt with, there's no reason to keep the posts around. Again, this is just a housekeeping measure, not to censor anyone. Members of the { } can feel free to discuss trolls in the private forums, if they feel more comfortable with that. Plus a lot of you know an admin's personal email, so you can always hit us up there.

Hey, you guys are idiots. Listen to Lady Killer and stop posting garbage in the Troll Patrol thread.

I'm sorry, but "gtfo Jin" and the stupid idiocy that Jin posts on a regular basis do not sound like jokes, so if one more idiot says lrn2joke, then you better lrn2run cause I'm going to chase you down with a pitchfork and stick you up on the walls.

Jin, I don't give a fuck if that's how you normally are, you're also normally a troll. Why did you make a new account?

Heres the protocol for dealing with THREADS you think are trollish:

1. You DONT post. Because posting will a. bump the thread, b. feed the troll, c. get you banned
2. POST THE THREAD HERE.

THATS IT. Two steps. Easy peasy.

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Wrong. Read the first post again. There is NO excuse for being a troll on these forums. "The other guy deserved it" is #1 on the list of bullshit reasons.

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People need to stop posting in here to add their goddamn commentary every time something gets posted in here. READ THE FIRST FUCKING POST.

Again: the admins are monitoring this and will chime in when necessary (see Chuckles' last response in here for reference). If you are not an admin, and you are not reporting a troll, don't post in here.

You don't need to post your thoughts about someone's suggestion, GMan. We are aware of what is proper and what is not.

Some of you regulars forget that people aren't always visiting our site on a daily / monthly basis. The subscribed threads option allows them to easily find their old threads upon returning and rejoin the conversation - which is how I view this thread. Nothing to see here, folks. Carry on.

Tell me if I posted out of my place in 'The Metal' thread ... but I don't feel comfortable calling someone out here without first trying to reason with them (without being a total dick) in the thread.  A lot of this kind of crap might be avoided if we showed each other a bit of mutual respect and posted to that effect to each other (gently) to that effect.  Is it a better idea to simply come here first?

The OP in that thread has been banned. Hopefully everyone else in there will chill out now.

Cypher - use good judgment. Obvious trolls should just be reported here. If it's someone you know, it'd still be better to deal with them offline. If you have questions, contact an admin and just have them weigh in.

Honestly - the best way to handle this sort of thing is to be the bigger person and stay out of the fray. Lead by example - stay on topic, don't make it personal, don't engage the idiots. The admins will deal with people who are acting inappropriate.

i think this has crossed the line from debate into name-calling.

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There are several people getting a touch snippy in there. I've got my eye on it, but so far the debate has been merely childish. If truly incredible personal assaults start happening, heads will roll. Until then, please carry on and don't engage in the tired old "People who like Halo are stupid ass monkeys!" debate, okay?