These are big, bad and scary as my driver's license photoThey're out there! They're trying to take us down! They're ugly and mean and they're so, so rude! They're... They're... Trolls! What are we going to do? How do we stop them? We must launch a counterattack! Our Web site is in danger!
Snickering aside, let's talk about the troll problem. It is a problem, although, I grant you, not the biggest problem I have encountered this week.
Trolls should not be ignored, but they also deserve some perspective. People are rude (although what is rude?), and that's why we won't ever escape trolls as part of the Internet's culture. Internet life mirrors real life, and in real life, not everyone skips with Dorothy.
Nevertheless, we should try to maintain a Web environment of civil discourse.
I say news Web sites should use programs that look for key words and phrases that are obviously offensive, such as profanity, name calling and death threats, just to stem the onslaught. Next, readers should be able to flag a post as innappropriate, and Web editors should review and possibly delete those posts. Also, maybe Web editors and producers should actually VISIT the site from time to time and see what people are posting.
I don't think people should register to post. It's annoying, it's time-consuming and it's not going to deter anyone. If a troll is booted off, all the little stinker needs to do is log back on using an alias. This isn't worth my time logging on and it's not worth the time to banish a troll, either.
However, let's at least make an effort to maintain some limits and values on the Web. We might not be able to solve the problem, but we don't have to sit idly by as rudeness proliferates around us.
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