What does a troll really want?

[_beastie]

I rarely read the other forum, so really don't know what's going on with MG.

But I remember him from years ago, when he was obviously really questioning and doubting the church. He was far from a troll then.

But at some point, he decided he was just going to believe. It was better for his life.

I think it was after that decision that his posting behavior gradually began veering in this direction. I think that he is so determined to justify his decision to just believe, no matter what, that he just wants to shut down the information that troubles him. It's too bad. If he really just wants to believe in peace, he shouldn't participate in online forums that open discuss problems with the church in the first place.

[Guest]

I mean. Mission “F” ing accomplished, right? Having someone like Grindael posting publicly absolutely decimates Mormonism's historical and doctrinal truth claims. MG made it his mission in life to derail thread after thread and bare his testimony. Cool.

- Doc

[_Maksutov]

If the Jubilee didn't work and someone valuable has left, bad behavior has been rewarded and will recur.

Action is needed. Moderator queue sounds good. Sorry, mods.

[_Xenophon]

I will start by saying I perceived MG's behavior towards grindael to serve no purpose but to shut grindael down and derail his threads. Mod queue seems to be the historical response to this behavior so I see no problem with that.

That said, I'm not sure that we as a community responded the correct way. To EA's point I think we often responded in kind to MG's derailments with some similar behavior. And although the purpose of that was to disrupt MG in his trolling, I fear we may have possibly made the situation worse in many ways. With only a few active mods anytime their report box is filled we create a scenario where they are too overwhelmed to actually do anything. We should be able to self regulate better than this.

I'm not sure it was the right call, but I personally decided to disengage from MG as best I could, despite plenty of temptation to punch back. We might have been better served redirecting out attentions from MG's derails to further the discussion that grindael and others were trying to create. I often watched threads spiral further out of control when multiple posters piled onto MG as opposed to just engaging those MG tried to post. Yes, often MG deserved to be called out, I'm just not sure it is productive.

That is my two cents anyways, feel free to disregard it.

As an aside, has there ever been discussion about expanding the mod list? Are we just afraid of too heavy a hand or too many cooks in the kitchen? It just feels that 2 mods that work full time on other things may not be enough to handle the load. I will obviously defer to their judgment on that matter though.

[_Res Ipsa]

My own experience as a mod on another board was that self-help inevitably made a problem worse. Ignoring a problem poster seemed to be the only effective form of self help, but it’s very difficult in my experience to persuade folks to stay silent when faced with bad behavior.

[_Lemmie]

Here's the thing. Doesn't this all fall into the category of Tobin Syndrome? If so, mod queue is what makes the most sense.

I agree. it's time to stop saying "both should ignore each other." Grindael has not posted on a thread started by mentalgymnast since December of 2016. Mentalgymnast has promised to stay off grindael's threads over and over, but he has yet to keep his word. He has been trolling grindael incessantly since at least 2014. How many chances should he get?

[_Jersey Girl]

If the Jubilee didn't work and someone valuable has left, bad behavior has been rewarded and will recur.

Action is needed. Moderator queue sounds good. Sorry, mods.

Two posters have left. grindael and IHAQ.

[_Jersey Girl]

I mean. Mission “F” ing accomplished, right?

You got it.

[_Jersey Girl]

Here's the thing. Doesn't this all fall into the category of Tobin Syndrome? If so, mod queue is what makes the most sense.

I agree. it's time to stop saying "both should ignore each other." Grindael has not posted on a thread started by mentalgymnast since December of 2016. Mentalgymnast has promised to stay off grindael's threads over and over, but he has yet to keep his word. He has been trolling grindael incessantly since at least 2014. How many chances should he get?

I'd be willing to guess that Shades is unaware of the totality of the trolling. How many chances should he get? Given that he's trashed thread after thread, followed grindael around when grindael hasn't initiated contact with him in nearly a year, agreed with Shades' directive to not begin grievance threads in Terrestrial and the fact that he broke his word and started another grievance thread within 24 hours of the directive, and now his persistent trolling has driven away two posters?

I'd say he's run out of chances.

But I'm not in charge here. What makes the most sense is mod queue. We also used to have suspensions around here. I do think mod queue is the appropriate response to the behavior. A poster on the queue has two choices. A) Conform to board standards or B) Reduce participation or leave.

He's had many chances to conform voluntarily. He's either unable to do so or he simply disrespects the intent of this board so much that he just doesn't give a damn. I mean, he agreed to abide with Shades directive the other day and within 24 hours, he broke it.

He either can't control himself or he won't. I think that the mod team needs to step in and take control of him.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I'm placing Mental Gymnast on ignore until he makes amends to Grindael and both he and IHAQ come back. MG is only the 2nd poster I will have put on ignore.

- Doc