Forum:Troll

"In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional or disciplinary response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."

I'm not sure that it is constructive to apply the term "troll" to wiki participants. A real internet troll would be easy to recognize. For example, someone might might come to the Fiction Wikia and start endlessly posting rude and nonconstructive comments about the stories. Even in a case of obvious trolling, I think the best response is to explain why certain types of contributions are not welcome here. Does calling someone a troll ever help to deal with a problem?

The Fiction Wikia is still discovering good ways to support and encourage collaborative writing. There are many different types of fiction and everyone should realize that not everyone shares the same interests. If someone invites you to collaborate then you can always politely say that you are not interested in a particular genre or a particular collaborative project. Polite discussion should be able to guide participants at this wiki towards enjoyable collaborations. Even if you feel that someone is engaging in trolling, it is most effective to specifically address the problem (I think you are too pushy in trying to get collaborators, I think your comments were not constructive) rather than try to label someone as a "troll". --JWSchmidt 22:27, September 6, 2009 (UTC)