Forum Moderators: phranque
He got mad and start posting messages like "you started a war with me, now you will see... i am going to create lots of messages and you can delete them. i have 24 hours and i look forward to play with you". he really pissed me off with that.
1 hour ago he emailed me saying that he knows that I own and operate the domain but I cannot tell him to stay away from my domain. He will go on with these activities. He says that he can visit my domain and write to my forum whenever he feels so and I am not going to stop him because he has the right to do it!
what do you think? as the owner of the website can i tell someone NOT to visit my site anymore? if i cant do that then i feel like i own a house which has no doors and where everyone can come in and i cant say anything :(
help...
Don't worry, you're not alone - most people who run a forum meet these types of people! ;)
Check out the forum community building section [webmasterworld.com]. In particular, the topic, "What to do with a major troll [webmasterworld.com]".
Scott
You said you blocked him, but then said he was still posting. What sort of blocking features are provided by your forum software? It sounds as though you're not using them to full capacity.
Be prepared for attempts at retaliation, because a lot of people have got it into their heads that the internet should be a free-for-all with no barriers, but someone has to pay the bandwidth and police the libel.
I block "users" all the time. Most of these are just bots, but sometimes it will be real people, and it's not that uncommon for pests to get angry and threaten to hack your site, or simply to keep signing up and posting insults. The first step is to find out this guy's IP and block it if it's static. Definitely contact his ISP, and keep evidence of his abuse so you can email it to them to make the case against him.
If his ISP don't boot him it will be up to you to set a forum cookie that will make his posts visible only to himself. People won't feed the troll if they don't know he is there, and he will soon get bored and go elsewhere. Remember, you have all the power in this situation, and you don't have to put up with him.
it looks like i can make his life harder but there is always a way around and if he wants, he can always come back :-¦
Of course, the down side is the troll may be bright enough to figure out this is happening and just come back around via a backup persona that you haven't yet limited.
As the troll is already rattling your bridge supports, I'd be somewhat surprised if the troll has only one user-id at your site at this time)
why do people do this?
As an admin, I hate my cell phone and only use it for emergencies. As a user, I hate my cell phone and only use it for emergencies.
Heh. Ditto.
my guess is that websites (signups) will turn to this solution because using an email+confirmation link does not help in any way anymore. that was ok when we only had one email (email address at ISP). what does a confirmation email mean /protect/ today to site owner? nothing. someone can open 100 email accounts in one day.
dont you agree with me?
set a forum cookie that will make his posts visible only to himself
Brilliant.
He wasn't too web-techy and was thinking more along the lines of vending machines and the like, but it's a solid vision! :)
I don't think we're quite ready for requiring mobile phone numbers for registration on forums yet. Perhaps in a few years, charging a nominal fee via SMS will be mass market and industry standard for operating forums?
Personally, I wouldn't whip out my credit card to pay $3 or so to register somewhere, but I'd happily fire off a SMS to pay the charge.
Scott
