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I just ran across a little article in Forbes while I was waiting to get my hair cut that explained how internet blogs are a legitimate threat to major corporations.

Basically, since any Tom, Dick, and/or Harry with so much as a dial-up can post a blog and start libeling at will... numerous corporations have taken significant hits at the hands of random haters or (much more commonly) dodgey competitors. Anti-blogging is actually a business now. You can hire somebody to surf the blogs and stay on top of the trash that is being talked about you... so that you have a chance to quickly respond with the truth or retaliate with your own attacks if you wish. Geesh.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a former 2+2er who is now a "famous" tournament player. I asked why he didn't post anymore and he said... "trolls."

I've since also had brief conversations with two other players whom I would consider to be in the top 20 tournament players in the world. One had only a few posts, and I asked him why. He said he tried to "break in" to the forum crowd, but the criticism was relentless. In his introduction thread he was severely criticized for certain hands he had played on TV. I don't mean fair criticism, either... a few folks were downright mean in a personal way. The other player used to be a ubiquitous poster and now almost never posts. Most assume it's because he's too busy, but it also has to do with the fact that any serious strategy post would instantly degenerate into a disgusting flame war between people attacking him and people defending him.

To some extent, this is just human nature and, you know... meh. But there is something to be said for promoting responsible posting (as SlackerMcFly calls it.)

The trolls won't go anywhere, in fact I'm sure they will dutifully reply to this. But the regulars can certainly lead by example and the moderators can do their part to continue a "zero tolerance" policy for trolls.

A fourth example may be when "DownWithFamousPoster" called out FamousPoster in a thread. He was pretty quickly banned and the post was deleted... but I haven't seen FamousPoster on the forum since. Not that DownWith... was the sole cause. There was plenty of trolling going on in the block thread anyhow.

Irieguy

PS: The difference between playful ribbing or inflammatory banter and trolling is really quite obvious. (Reference just about any SFB thread to see examples of all 3.) Though, I guess I don't expect this post-script to prevent this thread from deteriorating into an argument about whether or not I am a troll.

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So your "Negreanu should read the STTFs" thread should have been immediately locked as soon as it popped up?