How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community

This is a great article about online communities and stupid trolls who anonymously post messages to irritate people.

How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community


a great quote: "Don't let assholes rent space in your head."

a great technique:

Troll whisperers aren't necessarily very good at hacking tools, so there's
always an opportunity for geek synergy in helping them to automate their
hand-crafted techniques, giving them a software force-multiplier for their good
sense. For example, Teresa invented a technique called disemvowelling -- removing
the vowels from some or all of a fiery message-board post. The advantage of this
is that it leaves the words intact, but requires that you read them very slowly
-- so slowly that it takes the sting out of them. And, as Teresa recently
explained to me, disemvowelling part of a post lets the rest of the community
know what kind of sentiment is and is not socially acceptable.