The Petra Zone

What do you all think we should do about trolls, people who obviously do not like Petra but post here to ruffle us up?

I just de-activated one such user. If you are reading this, know who you are, and agree to quit trolling, email me and I'll grant access again.

De activating ... good idea? Bad? Simply let moderators delete troll posts?

where is freedom of speech,if someone does not agree with you
there a troll?

It's not a matter of disagreeing; I don't think anybody has a problem with that. I hope not, anyway, cuz we've had some pretty lively discussions. But there have been people who come around just to upset people, and I don't think that should be allowed. We have the right not to be subjected to that kind of thing, and Micah did say he'd let them back if they'd agree not to behave badly anymore. I don't understand why someone who doesn't like Petra would want to make posts on a Petra board anyway.

I love Petra,but my first post here I posted what I read or was told,and then was called a troll.I wasn't being negative just informative.

I don't think anyone called you a troll. If I recall correctly, they were just wondering where you got your information, and that's not unreasonable.
And then they thanked you later.

It's the people who obviously don't like Petra and come around making posts just to slam them who are the problem here.

Reviewer... I think there was another person on that thread after you; maybe he was being accused of being a troll. You came off as a bit antagonistic in your first post, particularly because it was your first post on the whole board, but you showed in later posts that you weren't trying to antagonize. Besides, if you were the "troll" in question, you wouldn't be posting now.

My 2 cents... you have to be careful and really tolerant, but at some point you do have to lock people out. I guess if you have a clear policy as far as trolls are concerned, and you issue ample warnings when those policies are violated and then the infraction continues, you can lock them out. We seldom had that kind of trouble on the old board, though... I think the main reasons people got banned was spamming, and we haven't seen that yet here.

only the trolls are not on my birthday list so if you don`t wanna be a troll it would be a good idea if you join it by dropping me a line with your birthdate, your name and email (the last two are optional) LOL.

Trust me reviewer, you were far from antagonistic. You're cool.

I'd support giving them a warning, and then banning them. Perhaps some forum rules should be put somewhere (FAQ?) so that people understand why they were banned-just so we cover all our bases on this.

There is no guarantee of freedom of speech on internet message boards. You're free to say whatever you want, but nobody has to broadcast your statements if they don't want to.

I say give the troll three chances: two warnings and then ban 'em.

micah wrote: De activating ... good idea? Bad? Simply let moderators delete troll posts?

Whatever u guys choose......

But I think -that's me- that "trolls" could talk inhere, on the NON PETRA RELATED TOPICS... don't u agree?

Anyone is welcome... a "troll" is someone who won't be civil about anything anywhere on the board. If they won't be nice in the Petra area, they won't be nice in the off-topic area either.

Did we get rid of the trolls?