There are several levels of response possible.

The first and best is some gentle suggestions and guidance in the thread itself. Many people attempt this. As long as you’re not being totally condescending doing it, bravo! If someone really is well-intentioned and just doesn’t understand the impact their words or phrasing are having this usually fixes things right up. I sometimes do this myself. HOWEVER I’ll only do it once or twice. After that it’s pearls before swine. But I’ve also found that if I’m not casting pearls the swine usually stops. This is where the ignore suggestion comes into play and it’s a decent one.

The next option is to flag. I try to moderate the blog every evening and I do check flagged comments. However I’ll usually only do it if a comment has two or more flags, so in order for this to be effective people need to take the flagging system seriously.

After I’ve checked the comments I make some kind of judgment call. I either do nothing, warn the person, or ban them. Being somewhat annoying, not having proper grammar, or spouting an unpopular view are not grounds for warning or banning. Personal attacks usually get warned at first. Flagrant awfulness gets you banned right away.

Here’s the tricky part. When there’s a back-and-forth, who do I warn or ban? This is another strong argument for not engaging trolls. If a guy (or gal) is out there just spouting stupidity into a vacuum and making the site look shabby it’s easy for me to warn and then toss him (or her). But if that same stupid guy is getting egged on and baited every third comment then I have to factor in that he was helped in his stupidity and it’s less easy to bring the hammer down. The reason I show restraint is because I do have the final and ultimate authority here and I’m careful not to abuse that. Even if I’m 99% sure that a guy is going to get banned from Post One (and it often shows) I still won’t actually do it until he’s shown that he’s worth it. If you’re making people doubt it’s him because you’re participating too, you’re putting off his exit instead of helping the situation.

If something needs immediate attention, either because of flagrancy or repetition, I always encourage people to e-mail me so I can check on it sooner. This is your third option.

Here’s the bottom line: the health of this community depends on you. I’d love to be here 24 hours a day making sure everything was hunky dory. Other people depend on me for other things and I can’t do that. It’s up to you whether this community continues to shine or devolves into the muck. How you handle trolls is a part of that. No troll in isolation can put a dent in what we’ve built here, but when the community starts believing in trolls and paying attention to trollish behavior more than it believes and pays attention to the mission of this site, we’re in trouble.

A fair note of warning to borderline folks in parting. Me not being here 24/7 means that your participation is like me leaving you in my house while I go to work. If I can’t leave you here without 92,000 complaints arising…if I have to come home and spend half an hour a day checking up on what you did…you have to go. I’m not taking time from my kid and family and Blazer research and writing and consulting with contacts just so I can make continual judgment calls after reviewing your comments. Even if nothing you say is over the line, being continually close enough to get negative attention will eventually get you booted as surely as swearing will.

—Dave

I haven’t been exactly kind to our new guest, it’s hard to be at times. I think there is a reason for that. I appologize if you feel attacked and try to state exactly what I see as the problem.

Last year when Oden went down, this was a place where I felt comfortable coming, where I could find other people who were hurting as much as me. This was the place for some perspective and wound liking. The problem with someone trashing our guys here after a bump in the road like this is that we’re all fans of that guy. Regardless of what happened in the past, we have to live with it as they are on our team for the forseeable future. We bought the stock, second guessing doesn’t change that. The jersey is on that person, and that means I take them in, the good with the bad until they prove me wrong. Oden has only played basketball and had some unfortnate injuries. He hasn’t taken everything we have given him and gotten himself into trouble or been lazy in his approach coughDariuscough. I, like almost everyone else here, want to believe that Oden can be the dominant big man that many predicted. So far in his career he has encountered some horrible setbacks. And I share his pain. I come here to find other people who are hurting like me. Instead, in the last few days, I feel like there has been some salt poured on an open wound. This is my biggest problem with what has been happening. I don’t mind differing opinions, and maybe you’re right, but honestly I could go to a number of other sites to hear people trashing the guy I and the rest of the city are resting our hopes on. I hope you can understand that.

There is a number of people who have different views on different players. I would be willing to engage an enlightening debate about them any time. Howeve, after an injury, people are hurt and have the tendency to put thier defences up. Please recognize that and try to be respectful of that. Thank you.