A Brisk Life

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 21:44:24 -0000, Gloria Goitre

Couple of things I learned about myself by being in usenet over the years. The problem isn't with the trolls, it's with me. If a troll infuriates me so much, that I get out of control in the things that I say, than I have a problem. I need to be in control of what I do.It was that realization that allowed me to simply ignore the trolls. And that is the most effective thing that you can do.Because they hate that more than anything else. Trolls are attention seeking individuals that have emotional difficulties. If you met them in person say at a party, and talked to them for a while you would realize in short order what sick people they are.I am also conviced that many trolls suffer from some variation of a personality disorder. I do hope that at some point in their life, they seek therapy, because for them it represents terrible suffering.

At any rate, getting back to how to block these individuals from view, I have found over the years that the best news reader ever written for handling trolls bar none is SLRN. It has filtering capabilities that are unmatched yet very easy to learn to use and it isn't as complicated to set up as leafnode. SLRN filters on a score system so you simply score them out of existence, and you can score on *any* text in the NNTP header. The scoring system is dynamic and works quite well with nym shifters. It can even use wildcards. It works much better than anything pan has dreamed of, or Knode or any other news reader I have ever used. Leafnode and SLRN is a better combo, but a bigger pain to set up.

SLRN also has many features that give you extra information about Trolls, and control information about yourself. It's very customizable.

Happy hunting,

Mathew