[Enchantra]

There has been a recent influx of so called "Forum Trolls" we have been monitoring. Trolls post to incite forum discord, to incite anger and frustration because they get their kicks from it. They will post offensive language or images or even poke fun at other members as well. They are not here to learn bonsai or to help others, they are only here to cause problems. Some forum trolls are even existing members who have been here for a while but they have yet to cross the line completely.

So if a Troll posts to your thread or you are reading postings and you find a troll posting, what should you do?

1) Do NOT reply to the posting.

2) Hit the report button at the corner of the posting. Use it, it is your friend. If you do not wish to do that, Drop both Joe and I a PM and we will deal with it as soon as we can.

3) If the troll strikes by PM, don't respond to the PM and don't delete it, forward it to Joe and I and we will take it from there.

Unless we know about the troll behavior we cannot stop it so we rely on the forum members to let us know if they see anything amiss or anything offensive.

Joe and I work hard to keep this forum a place where everyone can discuss bonsai civilly and freely. If someone is not living up to this standard, we need to know. Joe and I cannot read every post every day to see what is out there. We do our best to scan postings but we do miss things. So as Members we ask that if you find a Troll, let us know, he/she will be dealt with appropriately.

Thank you.

-Moderation Team

[4bonsai]

I would think there would be a way to scan the postings without having to "fish" through them all to find these posts or without having to rely on the members, though I do agree that members are a way to find problem posts. Maybe someone might be able to create a program that can scan and report these posts to you. It would be an easy way to find them. Even the members can't find all of them. I could check it out and let you know what I find.

[4bonsai]

I found this website, http://www.freedomfo...ocumentID=11538, but I don't know how relevent it is to our issue. I'll let you decide. I can try to find something else but not at the moment. Time for bed.

[Enchantra]

Thanks 4bonsai.
So far 95% of the ones we have come across are new members and we nail them before they typically get more than 10 posts. Joe and I have found a few of them and then a few have also been reported by members while we are offline and at work.

The software you linked to, is a possibility, but I do not see Dan using something like that. Dan has to approve software changes.

[4bonsai]

Yeah, I was just trying to find something that might be helpful. I understand he has to make the decision. Oh, that was the best match I could find to my search criteria before going to bed. Might be others but I don't know.