E-Media Tidbits

Travis S., via Flickr (CC license) The troll under this Seattle bridge may be easy to spot, but online trolls are trickier to manage.

Basically, a troll whisperer is an online community moderator who has an uncanny ability to keep trolls (nasty commenters) at bay. Forums and blogs marked by intelligent, respectful discussion undoubtedly have a troll whisperer behind the scenes.

I've done some troll whispering over the years (more by accident than by design), and during that time I've developed a couple tricks for managing troll incursions:

• Don't take the bait. Community leaders need to know that their responses serve as examples. If a moderator takes the bait, others will, too.
  
  
• Be private. Public humiliation doesn't benefit anyone. Trolls will use it as justification for further vitriol and the community itself will see that embarrassment is allowed. Rather than berate a troll in the open, moderators should use email or private messaging to engage in a back-channel dialog.
  
  
• Set Up a Neighborhood Watch. All Web communities have regulars who can be counted on to stand guard when a moderator isn't available. Moderators should foster relationships with these regulars. Get to know them through their posts, address them directly in the public forum, and (once they've earned your trust) drop them a note through a private e-mail address. These types of relationships give regulars a stake in the community, and when something goes awry they'll let you know.

I know other troll whisperers are out there, so please chime in with your own community management tips and tricks.

Tidbits contributor Tish Grier adds: "The challenge is in recognizing a troll in the first place! That, I think, takes a keen eye, sensitivity to the subtleties of language (as in when someone doesn't have a good grasp of English) and time to monitor and investigate.

"What goes wrong at most newspapers is that there is little respect for those of us who know the social terrain online and can do the job. Rather, as I've discovered from talking with friends and others who work at papers, many papers will promote sales staff or customer service people to handle online interaction, and not give them any clear community guidelines -- a must for most businesses that blog and others who allow comments and message boards.

"So, with no community guidelines, coupled with people who don't understand online social interaction, why are papers surprised when there are trolls a-plenty?

"Are they then willing to hire troll whisperers when things go wrong? That would be nice, but probably not. Not when it's cheaper to goad the customer service people or the college interns to do it.