User blog comment:ForestFairy/How to Take the Fun Out of Trolling/@comment-29313037-20150618161004

Decent advice, but it only really accounts for the lowest-common denominator in regards to the trolling collective. Here are a few different scenarios:

1. Many trolls educate themselves on local guidelines and policies, to the point where they know exactly how to skirt around the rules and not get blocked. They feed on the tendency of local administrators, to zealously and blindly follow the rules set in-front of them, and nothing more.


 * In these cases, it sometimes takes months for these trolls to finally slip-up, or for the community in general to finally get sick of them enough to try and boot them using community consensus.
 * It has been said to me before, that Wikia Staff will step in when these scenarios arise. This has not been my experience - Wikia Staff will almost always digress to local rules, even if Wikia's basic ToU/ToA are broken. Only if illegal behaviour is observed, will they bypass local wiki rules.

2. There are, of course, the trolls that are in positions of power. People that manipulated others to get into their positions, and always act nice to the people they need on their side. But once your use to them is used up, they use their popularity to essentially get away with murder.


 * This is one of the harshest realities, as by the time these trolls get into power, the people they abuse are likely attached to the wiki, and have no other similar wiki(s) to go to. Way too often, I see people say: "Just leave and find another wiki..." - but for many of us, our home-wiki(s) are the only reason why we bother with Wikia.

3. One of the most tenacious forms of trolls, are those that go over and beyond in their knowledge for local guidelines and policies. They purposefully look for vague and ambiguous rules, to challenge and keep the wiki in constant debates and arguments. These trolls are almost always sock-puppets, and only seem to hang around wikis to keep them in constant chaos.


 * I remember on my home-wiki, it eventually got to the point where we were tired of a troll of this exact nature, and finally blocked them. To outsiders, though, this troll looked legitimate - just a user that was concerned for the wiki, and was trying to start earnest wiki discussion. To the point, in-fact, where a Wikia Staff member stepped in and tried to unblock them, even though their disruption had been plaguing our wiki for months.

These are just a few examples of what I have had to deal with during all of my years here at Wikia - especially during my times as a Sysop. None of these cases are simply ignorable - to ignore these types of trolls, leaves them to further their discord across the wiki to the point of essentially shutting down constructive community activities and editing.