To Blogher's own editors?

You are SO right, but it's hard sometimes not to fight back when someone is being just plain malicious.

I try to remind myself that when I get "trolled" online, the beauty of the Internet is that it's like a vast ocean. With all that new content replacing the old each day, bad things seem to "wash away" with the tide, and readers (mainly...) soon forget.

Well, they forget if we ignore the trolling in the first place!

Annie
www.SmartatLove.com

While not verbally "troll-ey" (is that a word??), I love Deb Lacativa's reaction to "sweet young things on MySpace" who linked to her photos and stole her bandwidth.

You can read about her sweet revenge plans here.

Warning: Do NOT click over with food or liquids in your mouth.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

You cannot currently ban IP addresses on free wordpress.com blogs. There are ways to blacklist posts that contain certain words, etc but you have to be careful applying them in case you ban actual comments.

Sassymonkey, Sassymonkey Reads, and Sassymonkey Eats

I'll amend the post!

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

I'm pretty lucky in that I haven't had to deal with too much on my own site, just some banal, childish crap. I've noticed it more on some of message boards I've been on (not here, thankfully). At least one person has been holding a grudge against me for a couple years, and has said some pretty cruel, unnecessary things. I'd rather not get into a fight and have myself removed from the forum, so I try to let it go. It's like there's this bravado that comes from hiding behind a computer screen. In my experience, people remember their manners when they're standing three feet away from you, plus online discussions can get completely blown out of proportion. It's very junior high at times.
Five Dollar Camera

I have been very, very lucky so far and have yet to fall victim to anything worse than internet spamming. I can only imagine how icky it feels to have someone abusive invade your space in the way some of you describe.

I think one thing we do owe each other is to make sure and applaud each other's successes and write about the good we find on the web. I try and link to the sites that I find interesting and acknowledge the good, smart writing (especially women's writing) that I find.

I have only recently found BlogHer and I love that this space exists. I don't always agree with what I find here but most posts are thoughtful, interesting and beautifully written.

To hell with the trolls. We are better than they are.

laurie
www.notjustaboutcancer.blogspot.com

I've had my tussles with trolls - I prefer to call them blogtards, but that's just me.

I'm actually of two minds about this. I agree that ignoring them is the most powerful response, because it deprives them of their very oxygen - attention. BUT - sometimes it's just too much to pretend that it didn't happen. Because sometimes, it hurts.

I once responded to a blogtard, albeit indirectly - it was a particularly pissy blogtard who actually started her own blog to protest me and what she saw as the cult-like comportment of my readers, all of whom she understood to be 'Kool Aid moms,' and characteristic of mommy-bloggers generally. I ignored her, dutifully, until I received word that she was running a contest to find the Worst Kool Aid Mom Ever - title to be awarded on Mothers' Day. This struck me as pure, hurtful evil, so I struck back by holding my own 'contest' - the Great Mommy Blogger Love In, which provoked a huge outpouring of love and solidarity. I didn't link her, I didn't mention her blog name, but I did make it clear on my own blog that I was responding to hate with love.

I NEEDED to act, to cleanse my psyche of all the ick and yuck that was being splattered around by this blogtard - I couldn't just leave it alone. And I'm glad that I didn't, for my own sanity, and for my heart.

Her Bad Mother

Great post, Lisa.
I've also been fortunate in that I haven't been trolled to the extent of some others, though I do get enough snide comments and e-mails to keep me from feeling left out. Fortunately, I have a pretty thick skin - which I credit to doing investigative journalism, where most EVERYONE hates you - but every now and then I have to wrestle the urge to bite back.

Dana
Mamalogues.com
In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Pop Mama
Since Eve

So what I did was fairly drastic. I don't know if it was right or wrong, but my site is a mess as a result. I panicked. I disabled all the pictures, hid my Flickr account from the public and deleted a number of posts.

I'm angry, I'm upset, and I'm going to use alot of precaution in future. Say what you want about me, but my kids should be off limits to serious threats and vile critisism. I have readers emailing me left right and centre, and so I'm torn about whether to blog about it. My instincts say no. Not more than I have already.

The person(s) that threatened my kids have gotten the best of me. I have no idea if I'll get that back. I've always said that if blogging ever becomes a chore, I'll quit.

I'm hurting, and I suppose I'm doing too good of a job hiding it. I'm teetering on the edge of internet - wondering whether to just disappear, or stick it out.

Karen

--
Troll Baby

Motherless

Troll Baby Graphics

Lisa - I do agree that we should ignore. I thought about it a lot with regard to what's happened this week with Sweetney, Dooce and Joy Unexpected. I've met each of these women in person or via other projects, and they are all nice people. They don't deserve such an attack.

I've had trolls - bad trolls - before, but my trolls did not post online. They went after me in the real world. Fortunately for me, it didn't end up hurting me the way one in particular wanted it to hurt me, but then again, she didn't make fun of me publicly, either. She just tried to get me fired.

Writing about trolls here is not ignoring them, either, but maybe we shouldn't, not completely. Of course, shunning is not the same as ignoring, not in the way you suggest. Shunning is overtly avoiding, seeing, acknowledging we see, and then not responding.

We should reassure each other that we should not let trolls stop us from connecting. What bloggers do is offer someone to talk to when you're up or you're down, someone who's been through something similar to your experience even if you don't have any friends locally that are going through whatever hard thing you are going through at a particular time. Writing about it helps, and hearing from others who have been through it helps. Reading blogs of other people who have been through it helps. So no, we shouldn't stop because someone wants to say something mean or hurtful.

But it will hurt, it does hurt, when someone makes fun of us. In some ways, we never do get past middle school ourselves. We all want to be liked, and there is nothing dorky or stupid about wanting to be liked. It is human. We are social beings.

At the same time, if you blog professionally (and by that I mean running ads), in some ways your blog is your job. While people aren't always overtly mean at work, they do stab you in the back, try to steal your ideas and try to form coalitions against you. (Or maybe that's just been my career.) What do you do? You call all your best girlfriends together, stab stickpins in a personal, private voodoo doll, and be civil when you see your sworn enemy in the restroom. If you let her see you sweat, then she knows that she got through. Perhaps I've spent too much time in corporate America, but I think there's some translation here.

Writers, artists, creative people are criticized. Their performances are ripped apart. It's part of the territory. Just because our blogs are personal does not mean they're not creative works. This is why I agree with you that shunning is probably the right thing to do. Shun, and write well.

Because as M. Kennedy always says, writing well is the best revenge.

Surrender, Dorothy - When I was your age, we just let them ride in the back window.

When anyone acts a fool (and I pity the fool) I usually treat them like I do my own child or the children I work with.

"You hate me? Well... I LOOOOOVE you!"

Showering assholes with love and "thank you so much for your opinion!" usually throws them off and they don't come back.

And then I delete the comment, days later. So far (over the course of blogging for four years) this has worked like a charm. Every. Time.

I would SO love to block a certain stalking IP from my blog. It got so bad that I stopped posting recently, hoping she'd get bored and get out of the habit of checking compulsively on my blog. (I do know who she is, pieced it together and checked in with a website admin. to confirm. Maybe she doesn't realize that I can "see" her every click? And that I know that the anonymous comments are hers? It's not rocket science...geesh...)

I use blogger, so I clicked on the link you provided and read all the way through to the end. The conversation there wraps up with this:

"I guess the instructions for this script aren't very good. I did mention in the first post that it had to interact with the server, but didn't explain what this meant. ...the script must be on an SSI page. In most cases this would be a .shtml page. The only way to do this with a blogspot blog is if you put the pages on a server with another isp. This would allow you to rename the index file to index.shtml. There isn't really any alternative method to block ip addresses. If you are on your own hosting you can do the same with a .htaccess file, which would be a better solution than using a script."

If anyone finds a blogger hack to block IPs, please let me know!

- Amanda M
Imagine Bright Futures

> Besides, when you ban an IP address,
> you're not just banning that one person, right?

Depends. If they're on a DSL or cable modem connection, chances are that they've got a static IP. In that case you can block the connection by IP (using .htaccess). However, there's a well known company (AOL) that uses a handful of IP addresses for it's gazillion customers. Best to do an IP check to see who owns it before blocking! ;-)

> What if she logs in from work? Or her local library?

Yup - that's a problem, though there might be some recourse by contacting the employer or the library.

> And what about those IP addresses that change with every log in?

If the dynamic IP in question is from a network you don't think anybody but her is using to access your site, you can block the range of the IP by lopping off the last quadrant of the address. For example, if the IP is 12.34.56.78 you'd block 12.34.56. (don't forget the period!)

Hope that helps,

-Bob
bobafifi.com

usedviolins.com

fluteplayer.net

I emphatically agree: ignore them, if you can.

We've had our share of trolls, which is to be expected on an opinionated, political, feminist community site. They've almost all been MRAs (men's rights activists). (If you don't know about them, consider yourself blessed.) Often they would start off pretending to be reasonable, but as you engaged them in discussion, they would ignore your points and focus on irrelevancies, and work hard to steer the discussion into their manufactured controversies.

When they would get personal, I would block them. Offensive ad hominem posts often get deleted.

One thing I've done is use the spam filter. Since the trolls have tended to use the same tired talking points, the spam filter "learns" how to identify them, so even if they used different IPs, different email contacts, different names, their posts would get caught. Seeing how their trapped posts would get more and more angry with frustration, I figured that was probably the best way to deal with them: take away their voice.

--
media girl

New to having a troll? In light of all of the frenzy, maybe a light bit of tongue in cheek humor on how to handle your new troll can lighten it up a bit and take away some of this new person's power.

Who me? A smart alec? Nevah!

~Jenn~
Mommy Needs Coffee | Mommybloggers
Aggroqueen

Usually I ignore them; however, there are some people who seem to assume you're afraid and so escalate situations when they realize they're being ignored. At this point, I usually tell them what I think of them, let them know that I will not give them public coverage in anyway, (No Hope for link!; so many seem to be after attention as in hoping I'll speak of them in a blog post or something), and then I stick to my guns.

I got quite a few trollers after I wrote about Sheriff Jack Strain down in Slidell, La., and his comments on people from New Orleans, meaning black people, and people who wear dreadlocks. Despite his defense later that he spoke of the actual criminals in a particular case, many who saw the video could see he spoke of black people from New Orleans in general. Some of his supporters were quite nasty. One in particular made it a point to attack my literary work, which had nothing to do with the Jack Strain issue. Once I let him know privately that I would never respond publicly to his nonsense and that I would no longer answer privately, and equally important, I'd never allow his comments to post on any of my sites. He moved on.

After dealing with my ex who for a time watched everything I did online, I invested in some serious statistics programs that picked up IP addresses. Unless you're dealing with a genuinely dangerous, devious person, most trollers stop when they realize you know their IPs, which is how I nipped a lot of nastiness in the bud during the Jack Strain thing. I responded to a few of the meaner anonymous commenters who returned calling themselves by different names by posting the their IP addresses and their locations. I guess the redistribution in power unnerved them. If you're trying to be nasty with a sheet over your head, but realize I see through the sheet, then game over.

My ex chilled out after my attorney made it clear he would bring the behavior to the attention of law enforcement and once he realized I even knew it was him when he'd stop at a computer kiosk in airports before he went to his apartment just to check on me. I'm not sure what that was about since he was usually on his way back from visiting his girlfriend in California, but since I'd been told this type of behavior in a former spouse or lover can be a precursor to them doing you bodily harm, I didn't take it lightly.

I'm not sure he ever understood that I simply recognized his IP when I saw it or I recognized his patterns when he used someone else's pc. In that instance, ignoring him was not the option. I'd write about the "stalking" because I wasn't speaking to him during the divorce. I think it helped him to see that those who commented found his behavior abusive and usually gave me advice on how to press charges. Significant-other stalking is probably not what you're talking about though.

There was a woman I should've ignored, but didn't. She began copying whatever I did as though we were in some kind of competition that no one told me about. If she read I was doing a certain thing, then she would try to do something similar and beat me to it. She also started a campaign against me on a site that where she thought she should be the only "star." Spooky. I let her know I was aware of what she was doing, and her response was to start a special blog to say mean things about me. That's when I realized it was best to ignore her completely. If her imitation had been genuinely due to admiration, no problem. Clearly, the imitation was prompted by something else. This happend several years ago. Today, my first line of action is no action as in ignore the troller.

I don't care if people follow me around and do it often. That's a fan base. It only bugs me when I know they mean me harm.

But you're right. Ignoring them should be our first instinct. And having the reputation of not tolerating nonsense helps as well. I ended up posting this piece a while back, My Definition of a Stalker and noticed some of the spookier people stopped following me around. Maybe they didn't realize their actions were strange. I need to add that AOL quote you used.

Uh, I think I responded to something you wrote yesterday. LOL. Er, I'm not following you. I'm trying to figure out Blogher. You must've hit on something that intrigued me again. *smiles*

"Love is liquid. Be drunkards!" ~~Nordette

This has been a great read for me. I have not been struck by Internet Trolls yet, but I await them trembling. I have however taught online for 6 years and think; IMHO, perhaps some of the strategies that work there might also work for trolls.

I agree ignoring them can be an effective strategy. I have also found though that responding with kindness and agreement helps too. Just today, I watched a blogger from a fairly large blog, respond to a comment about poor writing on the site, with a snap that, more or less, said, “ quit complaining; if you don’t like it; don’t read it”, Yikes!

My response would have been. “I’m glad you brought that up! I know my writing is not always the best. I have something to say, but don’t always say it well :-) This is a skill on which I am working, as most of we bloggers are! I’d love it if you had some resources to share with me to improve writing!”

This type of response, I believe works particularly well with women – but also some men. From years of averting “flame wars” in the online classroom…this is my best strategy…oh, yes, I agree…ignore and delete is a great option if option A doesn’t work!

MC Milker

"Blogtards", I love it. We have so much fun with our new blogging lexicon!

Seriously, a 4,000-word post scared me so much that I decided to close my personal blog and go underground to create a private one for family and friends - by invitation only. I plan to follow the links you provide here to report this individual's suspicious post to authorities. I did report the incident to Blogger.com, but they took a week just to send me a cookie-cutter reply. Now, I realize they are not the right recipient of the notice. To put it mildly, this post read like it was written by the next Unibomber. Very scary pontificating, slurring almost everyone, from lesbians to blacks. Very narcissistic. Even worse, it didn't have anything to do with my original post! This made me think that this attention-freak was posting this all over the Internet and some authority should be alerted. What a blogtard.

I'd like to know if anyone else had seen something like this?

I had been thinking about letting go of my personal blog for a while so I can focus on my more professional blog. It's not monetized, I just take it more seriously. I even have a proofreader.

I thought this more controversial, topical blog would potentially draw the ire, so upon launch I put carefully worded Ground Rules up in the sidebar to spell out fair play. I think that really worked. I recently modified those ground rules to simply say "keep it clean, not mean". I didn't think I had to spell out that if they don't, their comment will simply be deleted. I have only had to do that twice in two years of blogging. I hate to do that because it's all about the dialogue.

This experience has also prompted me to get a PO box so that I can change my domain registration and still have my home address unknown. I also will be using this on my checks going forward. I am sure there will be other uses. A small box only costs $40 per anum in my town and is well worth the extra protection.

Lisa,
Thanks for this post and the links. Very topical.

Teri Tith
Childfree Blogger & Founder
Purple Women & Friends
www.PurpleWomen.org