It's no secret that the fediverse has trolls. Trolling is IMO antisocial and disruptive. We have a few on dbzer0, with one casually saying they have 100 alts. I have to say, I'm unsure how to deal with this. I'm unsure how to deal with someone this dead-set on bullying people, even wanting to recall admins. I have been told this troll probably has ASD (as offensive as that is to me) and that I can't impose my beliefs on others. But I have never banned people for disagreeing with me, my problem was that I and others were trolled and harassed. You could tell trolls things like "please leave me alone" or "stop replying to me multiple times" or even "stop following me" and that does not get actioned because it is not against the rules to harrass people this way. Look at the disengage rule, it doesn't apply to these situations. And try hitting the search button for "troll" on the rules.
I've been told yes these trolls are annoying and disliked by many (if not most) people and yes they drive away people like me from participating at all on lemmy or matrix, but that is not enough of a reason to ban. There are also trolls who report everyone they argue with and use their account solely to argue and troll. I don't want dbzer0 to be known as the place that houses trolls that get anyone who argues with said trolls banned. Report abuse was not ok in other forums, but it is rarely actioned here. The trolls I am talking about have their accounts housed on dbzer0 btw, a place that is not supposed to be freeze peach.
I know many of our users like to tell off right-wingers and libs. That can be fine if it doesn't get out of hand ("kys" is explicitly banned). I could say, let's not allow people to troll, but maybe some only want leftists to not to be trolled. For instance, one group of trolls we have is antivegan. Is that considered an example of leftists that shouldn't be trolled (and I do mean trolled, harassed - not just disagreeing)? Right now, there is a lot of room for trolling all sorts of people. One reason for our zionist rule is because we had zionist trolls that weren't breaking our other rules even though our code of conduct does not allow supporting genocide. Our anti-AI rule was because others were harassing some of our stable diffusion mods. People have been sent nasty PMs as well. You can troll on this instance and get away with it as long as it is not explicitly stated as not allowed in our rules. I have been told it has to be explicitly stated, one of our trolls is a rules lawyer who believes they were given permission to troll before their account was made.
So tell me about your experiences with trolls. How do we fight them? How can we change or add to our rules? Which trolls have been bothering you?
This meta post was finally posted in response to my comment here:
Why can't you just ban the trolls? If you have multiple users who are reporting someone multiple times why do you have to ignore them? Why can't you change the disengage rules to cover being harassed? Why isn't the depression of community engagement not sufficient to remove someone from the community they are a detriment to? Reports are a vital function of the user -> mod -> community -> user cycle, the abuse of reports should be punished.
I think the execution of the code of conduct by a moderator or admin should be in the pursuit of protecting marginalized members of your community rather than centering the rights of a troll.
This summer will be 6 years with hexbear and there are people that will continue to press upon the limits of the code of conduct without breaking it while engaging in the behaviour you described. In my opinion those people who troll are a net negative and won't change so I ban them. People should be cycling accounts anyway for opsec reasons.
This series of mastodon toot's were shared with me a few years ago and I think they have great advice:
https://mastodon.social/@ifixcoinops/105778289798706182
I can't ban trolls and must ignore them because trolling is not listed as being against the rules. Admins can ban trolls for another reason but this is very murky. I've tried to argue for multiple trolls to get banned but it led nowhere. It does bum me out when I see users getting trolled, I want to help them. I think if I was the only one being trolled, I could ignore it much better. The code of conduct even says you shouldn't harass others but sadly I get overruled and it is exhausting trying to advocate for others when I have trouble doing it for myself IRL (I am disabled). Report abuse should not be allowed but I've read the phrase "chilling effect" so many times I want to lobotomize myself. If users are scared to make reports, the chilling effect makes them not want to report their petty squabbles. If I ban trolls, they have a chilling effect of not wanting to use their accounts to spread hostility and negativity. I think my becoming an admin scared some of the trolls (chilling effect of someone who is not a bro becoming an admin), but they shouldn't even worry about it because the worst that will happen is I will make a ban, they appeal and get unbanned, and I am told I am being mean to someone who may have ASD. If I think a troll has alts, I am supposed to keep it to myself. That's why I'm trying to get trolls banned. Because maybe others already experience the chilling effect of not wanting to participate due to trolls. There are a few topics I don't talk about anymore, veganism is one, because I know it's asking to be trolled and no one will have your back. I know a lot of women left the fediverse because of how toxic it became towards women. Heck communities/instances have been moving to Piefed just to get away from downvote trolling and other troll behaviour.
Skill issue
I am so sorry to hear that you and many other are on the receiving end of this so called chilling effect.
What you describe is part of the reason we removed downvotes, maybe consider the benefits such a change could have for the divisionsbyzer0 instance.
To me one vegan woman is worth more than 10 trolls, as such I do not care about their feelings or the impact banning them would have other than protecting the space for the people who are marginalized elsewhere.
The main way of determining governance here is upvote/downvote so how does permitting the 100 troll alts help the instance?
Banning someone isn't being mean to them it is fulfilling your duty as a community manager which can be part of an admin's role.
I'm closing I still think you should just ban them, and of they get appealed then when the behaviour is repeated, ban them again.
I would like to think the other admins here could see the benefit and if not the worst that can happen is you aren't an admin anymore in which case it isn't your problem anymore.