Dealing With Trolls

Some of us have been experiencing a new troll on the block this past week or so. Dioclese, Dick Puddlecote, Lorien Jolley and myself.

As has happened before, we talk to each other and exchange details as appropriate – including the IP address of the offender, whether he is using proxies or not. What is different, however, is the approach to dealing with them. My own is outright belligerence. When dealing with Dickie Doubleday a couple of years back, I refused to be cowed. I’ve recently emailed Dioclese, so I’ll paste that email here as it says pretty much what I want to say about the troll, his MO and his mentality:

Actually, I’m not convinced Bane and Rickie are the same. I am convinced Rickie is the same person who trolled me and a few others a couple of years back until he got his fingers severely burned. There are a number of reasons for my suspicions. Firstly “voice”. We all write with a distinctive voice, using the same syntax and Rickie is identical to Dickie Doubleday along with his obsession about comment moderation and apparent hypocrisy among those of us who complain about loss of liberty. The wording is identical. And his constant insistence that I delete comments that disagree with me. I don’t and have said so often enough. The only way anyone could be sure what comments I delete is me and those people I’ve zapped.

When it comes to freedom of speech he is using Salinsky’s rules for radicals – force your opponent to abide by his own rules. Except he isn’t. Private individuals have no obligation to provide anyone with a platform to mouth off. Trolling is not an exercise in free speech it is an abuse of it. An attempt to force another to their will by holding the charge of hypocrisy over their heads. My approach has been to deal with it head on. Someone threatens me I face them down. DD did this to me on a couple of occasions. One of my commenters made a rude remark about him and he demanded that I delete the comment. Yup, that’s right, our “freedom of speech” expert demanded that I remove a comment. He even gave me a deadline or he would up the ante with the trolling. The comment remained firmly in place.

The next time he threatened me he said that he was going to expose me to the motorcycle training school I work for and the DVSA. My response to this was to write a post exposing the threat and letting him know that they were waiting for his call. He never came back. If their threats don’t work, they have no weapon.

Interestingly, your approach of “bring it on” seems to have had the same outcome.

And finally, DD was using an IP from Virgin Media in Norwich. Bane is using Eirecom in Dublin. Bane is more shouty and has a different voice. It’s possible they are one and the same or are working together as the tactics are much the same. I suspect, not, however. Also, Bane has no stamina. He’s tried it on at yours, mine, Dick Puddlecote’s and Lorien Jollye’s and we have all given him short shrift. The gang of trolls threat hasn’t materialised and is unlikely to. If he really had a gang of trolls they would have hit by now.

Yes, you did read it right, the fearless keyboard warrior, that great champion of free speech demanded that I delete a comment that was uncomplimentary about him – or else. I think that probably says all we need to know about these people, really.

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Update:

It seems that “Rickie” is getting all upset with me. It’s true, of course, that I have no proof he and DD are one and the same. Speculation is just that, speculation. However, before we fall for his crocodile tears, let us not forget that this is the person who left comments on a number of blogs under the name of “Rickie” outing me – giving my real name and the details of one of my clients. Although this is in the public domain, the intent was to cause harm.