Forum Trolls and Impostors

Dealing with the subtle ones

[rogerd]

Clearly, most forums can't verify every detail in every member claim. Here, for example, it is important to verify that someone claiming to be a search engine rep is legitimate; however, if a new member claims to have ten years of coding experience or own six big sites there's no real way to check.

I've noticed in forums that sometimes a member will develop a detailed personal background which, unfortunately, is phony. Often this member will create a provocative post, appealing for input from fellow members. In the altruistic forum environment, other members will often craft detailed and heartfelt replies to the original post.

Usually, it takes a while for other members to become suspicious. One thorny problem is common; six thorny problems in a week starts to look odd. The next phase is members or mods questioning the authenticity of the member in question. At that point, however, the mods/admins have a dilemma - there's no proof that the situations or background are bogus, it's more a feeling that people have.

My general approach has been to give them the benefit of the doubt for a while in the absence of proof (inconsistency of story, IP used for past trolling, etc.). While this avoids false accusations, it also lets the potential trolling continue.

I'm curious what techniques others have used to combat this kind of thing, or if you even worry about it. If the posts are within the site's TOS, I suppose, they don't hurt much; OTOH, they can be corrosive to the community if people feel that other members may not be real. But what's the admin to do? Demand proof that "WorriedMom" really has a kid with cancer? Her posts may make for interesting reading and discussion, but other members are pouring out sympathy and you'd hate them to feel they were duped.

Thoughts?

[ScottM]

That's a tough one, Roger. It's been my experience that people are getting better and better at spotting such trolls. Call it "Forum skepticism" or something like that.

Luckily, my forums tend to be in the area where posters tend to "stretch the truth" somewhat, so each post is already met with a healthy does of skepticism.

You brought up a good one with the "worriedmom" and I don't have an answer for that one. I suppose it takes some really good moderating to watch for that.

I'd be interested in hearing from folks who DO have a "worriedmom" on their forum, though.

[vkaryl]

Not a "worriedmom", but a man with various life problems ongoing and increasing.... Thing is, I've "known" him online for 6 or 7 years, and his "life" is consistent within that timeframe.

After the first year, if a person is consistent in hisser online persona, you pretty much have to accept it as "real" within those parameters. Anyone who is playacting online is going to screw the pooch within a month or so....

[rogerd]

I agree that most impostors eventually out themselves; some member with too much time will search the troll's past posts and find clearly contradictory information. Usually, though, that comes later in the game. By that point, some senior members with good BS-antennae are already privately and publicly questioning the member's authenticity.

This in itself is a problem. When a senior member challenges a potential troll (in the absence of conclusive proof), the mod or admin is faced with unattractive choices: Let seemingly hostile posts stand in a thread, or edit a valuable senior member to protect a possible troll.

[vkaryl]

Yes. That's one of the two-edged swords of running a forum or fora. You just have to do your best with the available info....

[bakedjake]

What are you talking about? There's no such thing as a troll.

/me ducks

[vkaryl]

*laughing* Got us, huh, jake?

Honestly though, you can't assume "trollness" just from a month or so of posts UNLESS the individual has outed himmerself in a BIG way. I don't actually have the problem myself any more, because all my fora are private/by invitation of current members only.

I remember when though.... *sigh*

[whoisgregg]

Demand proof that "WorriedMom" really has a kid with cancer?

In a situation where a poster may end up gaining not only textual sympathy but financial gain (through unsolicited donations from other members), what do you think would be the effect if a moderator/admin posted something to the effect of:

We are very sorry to hear your story WorriedMom. To our members, please be aware that we do not confirm with any members their situations. Please help WorriedMom with advice and support, but always be sure to confirm with third parties before considering financially supporting any cause. Sorry again for the pain that you are in, WorriedMom.

In other cases where members post trumped up stories of "I've been a webmaster for 50 years" I don't know what the forum owner or mods need to do beyond what they would normally feel right doing. (If it's just a benevolent and friendly exploration, then why destroy a person's virtual escape? If it's fraud with a malicious purpose, then I'd think you'd always ban the user and possibly also publicly bebunk the fraudsters claims.)

[vabtz]

I've run a forum for quite sometime we have 2000 registered users an about 200 active ones on any given day.

I fixed this problem like so:
- I don't moderate, I wrote a slashdot style karma script that allows people to be demoted or rewarded. The mean trolls got killed real quick

- Added some code that allows members to see who has posted from that IP before. This killed the "I'm so funny and sneaky" trolls and the "Mrs X pissed me off I am going to post her nudie pics via alias"

- Stopped caring and just threw the BS flag when ever I felt in threads. Since I don't moderate I can do that. I don't have to be fair, the members moderate not me.

- Added an ignore feature

- Stopped babysitting my forum members. They are adults your not responsible for them.

[GaryK]

The consensus seems to be trolls usually wind up outing themselves. That's certainly been my experience. Usually what happens is the moderators start raising questions in private about the inconsistencies in a certain member's stories. I will not tolerate public discussions about this. But long time members usually will start to contact me by e-mail or SiteMail and ask if I'm aware that a member's story doesn't seem right.

Eventually it gets to a point where we can't really remain silent and yet to remain silent is doing our members a disservice.

That's when I do some investigations of my own and will usually wind up contacting the member to politely confront them with the facts. If I get a bad feeling about the reply I still won't out the member, but I will delete and ban them.

I also make use of all the tools at my disposal to try and confirm things. Search engines, specialty websites like ones that list obits and death notices, other forums in the same category, and so on.

Above all, like anything else in running a forum, all this must be done with tact and sensitivity. That means in private and without hostility.

The members will know what happened when suddenly a member they've been suspicious about shows up as a former member.

[Lorel]

What to do to prevent Trolls and Impostors?

I would suggest, being as this is a "webmaster" forum ,that everyone must provide a URL of their home page to prove who they are when signing up for this forum (and let them decide if they want it displayed or not).

That should eliminate a lot of fluff.

[rogerd]

A URL might be a qualifier for some forums, Lorel, but on other forums one is lucky if the member has an email address, much less a web site!

If the impostor doesn't make a lot of specific claims, it can be tough to "out" them.

[vkaryl]

I think, rogerd, that Lorel means THIS PARTICULAR FORUM (meaning WebmasterWorld) should require each and every one of us to provide home page info when registering....

Kind of silly, methinks....