The trolls... they are growing in numbersFollow

What are we supposed to do instead, nerd-rage, holler, scream, and shout at the monitor at the idiots? Or are we supposed to type in all caps, and start cussing them out (then we get reported ourselves for inappropriate language and harassment)?

There is indeed a time and a place to simply do nothing. When is that? Anytime there's nothing you can do about it.

Report, blacklist, and move on. Nothing else we can do. Trolls exist because they get amusement and entertainment out of annoying people. As soon as they stop getting their 'fix', they'll move on to something that Does give them entertainment. So doing nothing is literally the best way to handle a troll. Let the group wipe, or just keep doing the dungeon if possible, or vote-kick him. Or simply leave and requeue. Or, perhaps, you can just simply stand there and don't do anything at all -- the troll will either be forced to pull himself (let him get killed and don't engage) or he'll get bored and drop group.

The people nerd-raging, yelling, typing in all caps, and displaying their anger is only egging the trolls on. That's why there are trolls in the first place.

Edited, Oct 7th 2014 2:55pm by Lyrailis

^^
This.

Though it'd help if they just simply gave Arcanists protect naturally to deal with this issue. I mean, why not? Would it be THAT unbalanced?

I honestly don't know. But at the same time, the fight is over in mere seconds IF everyone pitches in. Down one DPS and Tank, it took a few minutes... and no point was proven since we still won.

*EDIT* I don't remember if the healer was WHM or SCH I was too busy trying to DPS with BLM and throw in a few random heals while staying on the move

Edited, Oct 7th 2014 11:35pm by Perrin

You can do whatever you'd like to do and I'm not here to tell you that you can or can't. I was just pointing out that when someone is clearly trolling you, if you give them the response they're looking for, they'll continue to do that.

It's not a personal attack and I'm not trying to shame you, but your response is actually encouraging to them. Basically after successfully trolling you they're more likely to try it again on someone else. Seriously, don't take it personally. I'm not blaming you for being the reason trolls exist so don't take it that way, just take it for what it is.

This is an interesting discussion, so I may as well chuck my experiences in!

I'm a career tank (sitting on PLD I109 and WAR I108), and I have bumped into pretty kick every example given in this thread. I tend to avoid using the report function because I feel most situations can be diffused/dealt with at a player level if approached correctly. A quick example for ya...

Ran a Stone Vigil HM with myself as tank, a smn, a drg and a whm. No OP aoe class here, so marked up mobs, which the drg ignored completely. I'm confident enough not to lose hate, so just let him carry on for a while. He then proceeded to run into the boss arena and pull the 1st boss. I sat down, asked the healer not to heal him, and let him die. He kicks off saying how I should have pulled off him. I replied if he wants to play tank, level pld or war, if not, attack what I mark, don't pull before me and all will be well. 1 death was all it took for him to stop being a dbag. Fair enough I could have reported him, but why bother when I could teach him an important lesson instead?


Of course, the report function is invaluable in some situations (had a T1 tank a few months back who refused to fight and wanted to be vote kicked, got 7 reports for his trouble), but usually if I'm tanking a dungeon my RL Bro is healing me, so we usually just deal with situations ourselves, especially if it involves overzealous dps.

We, as a player base, need to keep it simple.

Obviously, reporting isn't meant for every little thing. In the example above, I did not report any of the players. I perhaps could have with the WHM who kept pulling everything repeatedly, but I didn't because I was aggravated. Unfortunately in the famous "changing marks" example, there was just simply not enough for me to report them on, as you said, not enough proof. But that's not the point.

If players are doing a bunch of different things to debunk the play of others, they are considered grief tactics. This is, by definition, anyone purposely and usually, repeatedly, causing things to happen that shouldn't be, like pulling a boss as a DPS when no one is ready in a duty, or AFKing during fights. It is NOT just one thing that happens that could potentially be an accident of some sort. These kind of things should be reported, and if you want, you can leave. Do not engage in an argument with the trolls or add to the dismay - as this is what they want and this is when they succeed. That doesn't really help your case if you report them, and that is actually feeding the troll. Simply leaving and reporting is not. You ruin it for them by not giving them a response they can respond back to.

In my example above, what I did was not feeding the trolls. I chose not to play with them, and they were out a tank. That ruins it for them in my eyes, especially since I knew they were all knew each other and that situation is less than ideal, as they would probably have to quit and requeue. Sure, maybe they got another tank, but at that point it isn't my problem - just as it shouldn't be.

Filth, there is no option to turn certain things off, like making people listen to you or work as a team. What the action is isn't relevant to the overlying problem. We keep going back to the "changing marks" thing, when in reality this isn't even scraping the issue at all. It's also a terrible example and being taken out of context. One could say this is a poor attempt at trying to troll due to how often it keeps being discussed here on the forum. Is it obvious? No. It's not. Trolling is about getting the reaction out of people. We all get that, and we understand that. But there needs to be a clear way to handle the trolls.

Just because some people ignore these trolls, doesn't mean that the next group these trolls run into will do the same. The suggested action for dealing with trolls really only works if you can isolate them 100%. This isn't the case, and you have no reason to be part of their misbehavior. You can simply leave if you want, or you can wait until there is enough evidence to make a report on the player and then leave, or just tolerate it and still make the report. Reporting trolls for ill-behavior is not "tattling," it is simply being part of the solution.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Edited, Oct 9th 2014 6:15pm by Stilivan

I've gotta admit I actually agree with Filth to a degree here. The report function is a fantastic tool to safeguard players and allow them to report genuinely aggressive/abusive/trolltastic players, there is no denying that. But take a look at it from SE point of view. They probably receive hundreds, if not thousands of complaints a day, and if their complaints team is anything like their customer service team, it is likely understaffed and unable to cope with the sheer volume if complaints received. If they receive complaints ranging from people standing in residential zones being vile for no apparent reason, or a dps playing around with marks, I can guess which one will take priority, and which one will be filed under "deal with never". I agree that by doing nothing we won't fix the issue as a whole, but there is always a way to deal with these situations, and it doesn't always have to be by feeding them. Dps changing marks? Continue attacking the one you marked as 1, and if they pull aggro, it's their own fault. Dps pulls a boss? Walk out of the arena before it's locked and wait for them to die. Trolls get bored if they don't get a response. If they end up only punishing themselves, let them, they will soon get bored and either leave (with instant reps in most cases) or shape up and get on with it. Of course if they are being vile, report away.

Funniest example recently of bans being thrown around willy nilly is surrounding hunts (shocker). Omg you pulled early, report! I would be willing to bet none of those reports have been actioned because it isn't actually griefing in the slightest, how can someone pulling an unclaimed world mob ever be considered griefing when anyone at any level can pull it? That's where dealing with it at a player level is far more effective (blacklist/remove from hunt link shells etc).

I do - Feed them to the trash mobs or boss. Like Bards who run off and shoot things before the tank even gets within aggro radius lol.

Sure Filth, that's what happened. I'm clearly unintelligent and I am unable to tell the difference between a troll and someone who is impatient. I'm from the internet, afterall. I am new to the game, and also all human interactions! Thank you for showing me my wrongs!