Cory Doctrow has a few suggestions for anyone running a blog or a forum on what to do about trolls.

Each community has it’s own level of tolerance, when it is reached, what to do?
He makes the point that most geeks are of a take-no-prisoner variety, but that most people using the internet like community and thrive on civil discussion.

Enter someone who is often under-valued online. The troll-whisperer.

I saw a troll whisperer in action at Street Prophets a few weeks ago, when the blog had it’s first troll who was not able/willing/ or participating with intent to further the good of all.
 
The troll whisperer (Wolfie) spotted the problem person before they sounded the alarm and give him room to comprehend.  It deteriorated quickly and said troll was deleted and banned. He is unable on his own blog to figure out why he is perceived as harmful to this community. He sees the difficulty being ‘the other’, a few ‘individuals’, the SP blog itself, the ‘philosphy’ - not his own approach or agenda) The troll spotter quickly got intuitive help from a second person sensitive to the needs of the group.

What happened next was important. Having removed the person and the thread from their midst Street Prophets made the decision to discuss  their first troll openly. That surprised me, and rather than backfiring, the discussion helped lower anxiety, confusion and anger and kept things moving forward. 

One one level I feel badly for the fellow who became Street Prophets first troll, you have to be pretty thick headed to get booted off that blog.

He appears lonely and genuinely confused as he rationalizes his way through why he didn’t ‘fit.’ Appearances can be deceiving. Thing is, feeling badly isn’t going to lessen his toxicity.

He functions fine on his blog by himself.
Street Prophets is functioning as a group blog just fine without him. 
On any blog or in any online group, people can get labelled as trolls and get whined about in the heat of discussion, when they aren’t really trolls at all, just temporarily annoying.

That’s where moderators and experienced people can step in and re-direct. 
Most of us have watched good moderators technically and literally split the discussion as suggested in Cory Doctorows piece; usually after having a bit of a go at each other in their own ’space’, the trolls depart.  I’ve watched good bloggers with that sixth sense slow down or verbally close a discussion before it deteriorates, and I’m hard pressed to explain some of their ability.

Street Prophets uses both technology and people to keep discussions civil, and keep people coming back to participate. They respected their technology, they respected their troll-whisperers and they respected their community by co-operating and making the decision to discuss the circumstances openly. By extension, we readers/lurkers are respected also.

Troll whisperers are gifted, and it’s good to see technology driven people understand them and give them tools to make their jobs easier.
Doctorow: ” There is a wealth of troll whisperer lore that isn’t pure intuition and good sense, techniques that can be turned into tools for the rest of us to use.”

There is, and to geeks and whisperers everywhere, thanks.

(Kathy Sierra took the infamous post off her blog and moved it to a separate page.  She is honest - it’s not okay, those threats changed her thinking and behavior, she hasn’t posted since April)