Reporting a persistent troll

[beachbum1958]

Right now, I'm being haunted by a particularly annoying litle nose-picker who posts badly written, mostly incomprehensible hate comments about my stories, slating characters, storyline, content, plot, dialogue, use of language, in fact everything; this geezer is obviously bitching in a language that's probably not even his second language, as his written English is unique, to say the least.

My question is, I suppose, how can I get this litttle dick-turd off my back, or is there even a way? Is there some kind of reporting mechanism that Laurel actually pays attention to?

In the last 3 days I've deleted 12 comments, on 12 different stories, because it appears he's trolling my entire story list just so he can tell me how much he hates me, (which is fair enough, it's still a free internet, and I can just delete this twerp's comments) but it's beginning to annoy me that they're all generally the same song; I hate how you write, your stories are rubbish, you don't know what you're doing, your use of English is wrong, this is an incest story, why is there romance, (followed by: this is supposed to be about sibcest, why isn't there any romance...which there is, in everything I write, but I feel comprehension is possibly not this joker's biggest strength) you should be writing everything in a way I approve of, gibberish, gibberish, gibberish.

How can I bazooka this bozo?

 

[RejectReality]

You can report the comments from where they appear at the end of the story by clicking the little triangle in the bottom right corner of the comment. Laurel has been known to nuke especially rotten people in the past.

Of course, the jackass could have a new IP/account in a heartbeat, so it may very well only be a temporary solution.

You can go to your user options and choose to disable all anonymous comments on all stories, or disable feedback entirely. Obviously, with the latter, you sacrifice all feedback, and with the former, you sacrifice all the good anonymous comments you would have received, which usually outnumber the nasty ones.

https://literotica.com/my/#/user/options

Honestly, what always works best is to leave nasty comments up, or perhaps only remove those that attack other authors/readers.

Some of these jerkwads only go on tears when you delete one of their comments. They're watching and waiting for it as a trigger.

As often as not, other readers will come to the story's defense, drowning out the hater, and providing positive advertisement for your story.

Only you can decide whether leaving up such comments is acceptable to you. There's virtually no way to stop it short of blocking everyone. You can irritate them, but stopping it entirely just isn't possible.

If you're worried about a single troll leaving nasty comments on all your stories and hurting your readership, don't. Maybe if it's the only comment or one of a very few comments on the story, but otherwise, it's a drop in the bucket that most people will roll their eyes at.

 

[rae121452]

i have one of those, too, tho he's not as rabid as you describe. i wish there was some mechanism in place but i've yet to find it.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think the best way to respond to these people is not to respond to them. Don't reply to them in any way. Don't delete their comments. Don't take the bait.

I've received vicious comments to a Loving Wives story, but it never spread to nasty comments about my other stories. And I think one reason is that I didn't let myself get baited by these folks.

The best strategy for trolls? Ignore them, and let sweeps take care of their votes and let Laurel take care of their nasty comments.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

.....

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[beachbum1958]

My evil-weevil is actually dumb enough (or too clueless to cover his tracks) to post his comments under his username, Dark_Love192, so, as an annoyance to this numbskull, I've temporarily disabled all feedback, just to f*ck with his head, and to save me the embuggerance of periodically combing through my user page to see whether or not he's stuck his pointy little head up over the parapet again.

I usually leave up the mad, sad, angry, or seriously deranged comments because they make me laugh (one nutbar told me he wanted to bite my nipples off and rub salt in the open wounds; I choked on my Snickers, my wife had to take me outside and punch me on the back...), but this geezer has seriously got on my tits; if he was at least funny, shouty and right-wing, or barking mad, I'd be happy, I love those comments...

 

[BiscuitHammer]

If you ever miss the vitriol, you're more than welcome to borrow a few of mine, I have legions of them.

As for what to do about them. All my stories have a warning that announces illiterate flames will be snickered at and deleted. Why? They don't bother me, but I've had more than a few devoted readers vent to me about them and reading them. So, tbh, I delete them for the sake of my pleasant readers.

My Disclaimers and ending Author's Notes are often a venue for me to say mean things about trolls. I find if cathartic to skin the little bumsniffers once in a while.

Best of luck, and I hope you prevail.

- Biscuit Hammer

 

[GrandTeton]

I have on occasion left them up as the worst I could do to the scum was to leave them exposed to the world. Might have worked, since that particular idiot never darkened another story.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm of the school of thought of RR. By deleting the comments the troll-in their pea brained mind-think they have gotten to you and now they will keep doing it and keep cackling like a Hyena when you keep deleting.

Its what they want. In fact....if this troll ghosts these boards you gave him a hard on by complaining. I'm not saying you shouldn't come here for advise, but again you're dealing with a person with the mentality of a six year old.

Leaving the comments up shows him you're reaction is 'yeah, whatever' and it takes the wind from their sails. Also as RR said leaving his ignorance on full display will cause other readers will comment on what an asshole he is.

At least try leaving the next couple alone and see what happens. Worth a shot because even if laurel fries him, he'll be back under another IP

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Let's see I shut down anonymous comments. I shut off voting and I shut off comments on my LW stories. So I get a email via the feedback portal from some ass that wants to leave me nasty comments on the LW stuff.

He called me classless and a chickenshit. Those aren't his words but that's what I heard when I read them.

So I sent a reply. He replied. Now I have his email address with his real name.

 

[lovecraft68]

Let's see I shut down anonymous comments. I shut off voting and I shut off comments on my LW stories. So I get a email via the feedback portal from some ass that wants to leave me nasty comments on the LW stuff.

He called me classless and a chickenshit. Those aren't his words but that's what I heard when I read them.

So I sent a reply. He replied. Now I have his email address with his real name.

That's a rarity, a troll leaving you a way to reply.

 

[beachbum1958]

Good advice all round; I'm going to bed now, it's 2:30 in the morning here in Cannes, and I really can't be dealing with this anymore; consensus says leave him to his retarded pasttimes so everyone can see what an idiot looks like, so that's what I'll do. Thanks, one and all

bb1958

 

[sr71plt]

The flip-side view of this is that if you leave comments on your story that you believe are unfair, irrelevant, incorrect, or that just bug you enough for you to complain on the discussion board about it, you are letting the commenter control and play you by leaving them up. The Web site gives you control to delete any comments you wish and negative comments can affect the number of readers willing to read your story. I have and will delete comments I believe are unfair or just attacking me as a writer or for the story's category. I've done so through the posting of 1,000 stories and, although I posted a lot of these stories in an often-attacked category here (GM), I've never had an identifiable story troll stay around very long. They want to see that their negative comment is there and that they control/own you to the extent of you feeling like you can't just delete it.

 

[JasonClearwater]

The flip-side view of this is that if you leave comments on your story that you believe are unfair, irrelevant, incorrect, or that just bug you enough for you to complain on the discussion board about it, you are letting the commenter control and play you by leaving them up. The Web site gives you control to delete any comments you wish and negative comments can affect the number of readers willing to read your story. I have and will delete comments I believe are unfair or just attacking me as a writer or for the story's category. I've done so through the posting of 1,000 stories and, although I posted a lot of these stories in an often-attacked category here (GM), I've never had an identifiable story troll stay around very long. They want to see that their negative comment is there and that they control/own you to the extent of you feeling like you can't just delete it.

I'd second that. Once they realise you'll delete their comments, POOF! They disappear. Actually, most of the troll comments I get are when I head out into the wilds and get 'fuck off back to GM with your gay shit!', but even that's rare these days.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Agree with Pilot. My analogy is a dog turd on your lawn or crap tag graffiti on your fence - you'd quietly clean that up without a fuss. Why is a story any different?

Also, comments serve as advertising. Why would you advertise your work using a repetitive shouting man ad?

There's no "badge of honour" in rewarding the stupid for writing stupidity. Write me an intelligent comment (to show that you can actually think original thoughts) and I'll leave it there. I'd also leave up the spectacularly stupid comment for others to see, but I seem to avoid them.

 

[JasonClearwater]

That's a rarity, a troll leaving you a way to reply.

Wasn't there a hack happening recently, where some troll was spoofing email addresses, and sending messages from other members, only it wasn't from them at all?

If it's an AH member, or an author, and not just some oddly brave-for-a-change random, I'd be cautious about assuming you know who it is.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I have and will delete comments I believe are unfair or just attacking me as a writer or for the story's category. I've done so through the posting of 1,000 stories and, although I posted a lot of these stories in an often-attacked category here (GM)

I have no idea whether it deters the trolls, but at the very least deleting homophobia etc. seems like a kindness to the readers. I want people to come away from my stories feeling good, not attacked.

Thankfully that's still a hypothetical for me, so far my comments have been bigot-free without any need for pruning on my part, but I know some categories attract that kind of thing.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have no idea whether it deters the trolls, but at the very least deleting homophobia etc. seems like a kindness to the readers. I want people to come away from my stories feeling good, not attacked.

Thankfully that's still a hypothetical for me, so far my comments have been bigot-free without any need for pruning on my part, but I know some categories attract that kind of thing.

I've noticed comments that are very bigoted as you say and very over the top hateful and threatening will end up being removed by the site. Whether they search for these from time to time or a reader reports them I don't know, but I've seen comments vanish from my stories and I didn't remove them.

Also depends on the category. In LW there is so much hate spewing that I think the small faction of decent readers there are just used to them and pay them no mind.

 

[Emirus]

In the last 3 days I've deleted 12 comments, on 12 different stories,

How do you delete an individual comment without deleting them all? I can only see that you can switch off comments but then all comments will surely disappear?

 

[lovecraft68]

The flip-side view of this is that if you leave comments on your story that you believe are unfair, irrelevant, incorrect, or that just bug you enough for you to complain on the discussion board about it, you are letting the commenter control and play you by leaving them up. The Web site gives you control to delete any comments you wish and negative comments can affect the number of readers willing to read your story. I have and will delete comments I believe are unfair or just attacking me as a writer or for the story's category. I've done so through the posting of 1,000 stories and, although I posted a lot of these stories in an often-attacked category here (GM), I've never had an identifiable story troll stay around very long. They want to see that their negative comment is there and that they control/own you to the extent of you feeling like you can't just delete it.

We've debated this before and I could list some reasons to back my reasoning, but won't. Its all been said before by many people many times.

In the end it comes down to as you say the site gives the author full control of what we do with comments meaning they're saying you're an adult do what you deem best.

So each author has to decide for themselves what the best way to handle is and there's really three answers. Just let things sit there, delete them, or disable which I never recommend.

The OP asked for opinions, he's getting them.

 

[lovecraft68]

One reason why I leave comments is I believe in freedom of speech. Not liberal freedom of speech where every day there's a new word or topic that you're lynched for saying or using, but true freedom of speech.

If someone spews hate be it at a race or a gender or sexual preference etc...they are free to do so. Its their opinion. I deem it ignorant and don't feel that way myself, but they have the right to be an asshole and people have the right to look at it and say, Jeez what an ignorant prick.

Again this is why I will always stand by the thought that is this site dropped anon this shit would end. Because anon is okay with you thinking anon is a hate monger, but even hiding behind Joeylovesboobs isn't enough protection for them because then people will know "Joey" for what he is.

Drop anon and this place becomes a lot friendlier and more inviting. Especially to people who are easily offended.

 

[FaeLissa]

One reason why I leave comments is I believe in freedom of speech. Not liberal freedom of speech where every day there's a new word or topic that you're lynched for saying or using, but true freedom of speech.

If someone spews hate be it at a race or a gender or sexual preference etc...they are free to do so. Its their opinion. I deem it ignorant and don't feel that way myself, but they have the right to be an asshole and people have the right to look at it and say, Jeez what an ignorant prick.

Again this is why I will always stand by the thought that is this site dropped anon this shit would end. Because anon is okay with you thinking anon is a hate monger, but even hiding behind Joeylovesboobs isn't enough protection for them because then people will know "Joey" for what he is.

Drop anon and this place becomes a lot friendlier and more inviting. Especially to people who are easily offended.

(note all uses of 'you' here is the generic version, not personal)
They gots a right to spew their poop. We gots the right to spray it off our lawn. Freedom of speech means the gov can't censor you - does NOT mean we gots to put up with you. Newspapers can refuse to print, websites can refuse to show, peoples in a park can shout you down. Freedom of Speech is specifically a leash on gov, NOT on peoples what doesn't want to hear your hate. Peoples what want to spew hate gets a free pass from the gov as long as they is peaceful (which they aren't, but that's another rant). Does NOT mean I has to put up with it - I can turn them off in any way I want as long as it is nonviolent. Deleting their comments is nonviolent.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

(note all uses of 'you' here is the generic version, not personal)
They gots a right to spew their poop. We gots the right to spray it off our lawn. Freedom of speech means the gov can't censor you - does NOT mean we gots to put up with you. Newspapers can refuse to print, websites can refuse to show, peoples in a park can shout you down. Freedom of Speech is specifically a leash on gov, NOT on peoples what doesn't want to hear your hate. Peoples what want to spew hate gets a free pass from the gov as long as they is peaceful (which they aren't, but that's another rant). Does NOT mean I has to put up with it - I can turn them off in any way I want as long as it is nonviolent. Deleting their comments is nonviolent.

I have to agree. They are perfectly free to say whatever they want - on their own space.

 

[oggbashan]

This is my response on a much abused story (minor edit for my typo):

Comments edited years later.
12/16/14 By: oggbashan
I had left all the abusive and racist comments on this story for nearly ten years. I have now deleted some of the worst.

My real mistake was putting the story in the wrong category. It should have been in fetish. Some people seem to react badly to any suggestion that a woman can overreact to a husband's insensitivity. They think that it is OK for a man to be an arsehole, but a woman can't be unless she is punished for it. If you are that threatened by a fictional story, don't read it!

Apparently fictional women can't be assholes.

 

[FaeLissa]

This is my response on a much abused story (minor edit for my typo):

Comments edited years later.
12/16/14 By: oggbashan
I had left all the abusive and racist comments on this story for nearly ten years. I have now deleted some of the worst.

My real mistake was putting the story in the wrong category. It should have been in fetish. Some people seem to react badly to any suggestion that a woman can overreact to a husband's insensitivity. They think that it is OK for a man to be an arsehole, but a woman can't be unless she is punished for it. If you are that threatened by a fictional story, don't read it!

Apparently fictional women can't be assholes.

Is many peoples what thinks even RL women can't be assholes ... then they meet me and think all women are.