I can generally agree with "don't feed the trolls," but I've found there are circumstances in which they need to be addressed head on. The Jon Somnez debacle on Twitter is an excellent example.
That said, I'll slap a huge "don't try this at home" label on it, as it has taken me about a decade of forum moderation and IRC experience to get to this point. If you're going to take on a troll, you have to make sure...
You initially address them in a manner that will account for honest mistakes and general social inexperience. (You mentioned this, and you're right on.)
You are confident you can rhetorically paralyze them in a short span of time; the goal is to ultimately defuse the situation, sending a clear message that "this behavior is not tolerated here." (Formal debate experience and college communication courses really help here.)
The trouble with everybody ignoring a troll is that it sends a message that their toxicity is somehow a valid, protected perspective that is protected under "tolerance". Never tolerate toxicity. Trolls are bullies, and without fail, bullies are cowards. This is why #2 above is so important: trolls don't really put much effort into thought, so if they can be rhetorically paralyzed, they'll ultimately flee a community. It sucks the fun out of trolling for them. They enjoy an argument, but not a public loss.
Alternatively, if the troll doesn't flee, they will in the least be forced into exposing themselves as irrationally aggressive (versus their preferred subtle passive-aggressivity), at which point any somewhat healthy community (and its moderators) will have the evidence necessary to defestrate said troll.
Like I said, it's taken over a decade for me to develop the rhetorical skills to incapacitate a troll. I have some natural proficiency at rhetorical combat, but I'd still say that skill is 90% practice. Until you have been able to put in that time, it's best to leave the trolls alone.
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Thank you so much for writing this!
I only want to add one thing:
I can generally agree with "don't feed the trolls," but I've found there are circumstances in which they need to be addressed head on. The Jon Somnez debacle on Twitter is an excellent example.
That said, I'll slap a huge "don't try this at home" label on it, as it has taken me about a decade of forum moderation and IRC experience to get to this point. If you're going to take on a troll, you have to make sure...
You initially address them in a manner that will account for honest mistakes and general social inexperience. (You mentioned this, and you're right on.)
You are confident you can rhetorically paralyze them in a short span of time; the goal is to ultimately defuse the situation, sending a clear message that "this behavior is not tolerated here." (Formal debate experience and college communication courses really help here.)
The trouble with everybody ignoring a troll is that it sends a message that their toxicity is somehow a valid, protected perspective that is protected under "tolerance". Never tolerate toxicity. Trolls are bullies, and without fail, bullies are cowards. This is why #2 above is so important: trolls don't really put much effort into thought, so if they can be rhetorically paralyzed, they'll ultimately flee a community. It sucks the fun out of trolling for them. They enjoy an argument, but not a public loss.
Alternatively, if the troll doesn't flee, they will in the least be forced into exposing themselves as irrationally aggressive (versus their preferred subtle passive-aggressivity), at which point any somewhat healthy community (and its moderators) will have the evidence necessary to defestrate said troll.
Like I said, it's taken over a decade for me to develop the rhetorical skills to incapacitate a troll. I have some natural proficiency at rhetorical combat, but I'd still say that skill is 90% practice. Until you have been able to put in that time, it's best to leave the trolls alone.