thats a wonderful thought.
So we take the high road and just ban them (we've been down this path).
Next thing you know they are calling vendors, and posting everywhere how they are wrongfully banned. Now we look like the assholes. Then jeeps start showing up at Sema with banned licenses plates.
It's kinda like the hands up don't shoot the media pushed. If it goes on unchecked people start believing it to be true.
Nope, they can fuck right off.
No one said to do that either. There are other ways of handling trolls and many, many forums have handled it successfully over many, many years. Do you honestly think your way is the only way?
Move offending posts into their own thread and lock it save for the original poster. Lock his account so he can only post to that thread. OP gets one shot at either explaining why his original post wasn't a troll or acknowledging it was and asking for reinstatement. Either way, problem solved. Either the troll is gone, though given a chance to redeem himself and failed. Or he admitted his error and returned to the fold.
Escalation rarely, if ever works (I'd say never but I don't really like absolutes in cases like this because there is always an exception) and only serves to tarnish the reputation of the forum itself and the Mods, who should otherwise be above petty arguing and bickering as their chief roll on a forum is to maintain some semblance of order. Not sow chaos by attacking trolls.
But what do I know. Clearly you have all the answers and have tried all alternatives. Clearly no other forums have ever successfully dealt with trolls because the only place they appear is here.
