Topic: Boing Boing just published a Q&A regarding its Moderation Policy.

Hyperlocal relevance: Well, really it's meta hyperlocal in its relevance, in that I found much of the content edifying with regard to blog comments and thought it should be shared with my fellow OlyBloggers.

Favorite part: Disemvowelling. I love it. I need it. I want it for OlyBlog.

Edit: I left out the hyperlink the the actual article. Stellar.

On at least two occasions in the past few months, I have asked the docents to step in quickly when I experienced what I considered to be gratuitous personal attacks here on Olyblog and nothing happened on both occasions.  In the absence of prompt docent moderation, I bbelieve conflict will escalate.

I do wish that when any of us ask for the docents to step in and ask another poster to refrain from personal attacks that prompt action by the docents would follow.

Absent quick action to squelch the baiting and taunting, the gratuitous personal attacks, this site will continue to be a hostile environment on a regular basis.

I am a docent at OlyBlog, which is dedicated to hyperlocal news and discussion of topics related to life in and around Olympia, Washington. OlyBlog's mission is to promote citizen journalism and to provide a resource for sharing knowledge and discussion about Olympia (and immediately surrounding areas.)

OlyBlog is awesome and fun. However, throughout much of the history of OlyBlog (over 2 and 1/2 years now) there have been users of the site who participate in a way that is disruptive and discourages participation by a broader audience. Personally it has been aggravating and frustrating to deal with some of these individuals, there are about 10 or so of them, who bring an attitude of prejudice, of combativeness, of aggression and intolerance for any ideas but their own. Some users' behavior is downright nasty, hostile, provocative, antagonistic, hostile and dishonest. (sorry, yes I realize this isn't a thesaurus.)

We're not alone here on OlyBlog in dealing with the issue of how to moderate discussion.

Calculated Risk:

I cannot make anyone stop responding to pointless or nuisance comments. You have to want to restrain yourself, because you understand that the only way to get rid of them is to fail to give them the attention they want. A "troll" is not just someone whose comments you disagree with, or even just a nasty or badly-worded comment. A troll is someone who does not, under any possible set of circumstances, care what you think about him or his comments. He merely wants attention. Negative attention will do. The more you disagree with him, the more he is able to tell himself that he is persecuted and victimized or the only voice of reason or one of the elite few who has the God's-eye view of the world or whatever his current delusion is. If he isn't merely a narcissist who thrives on feeling attacked, he's just some putz who enjoys irritating other people. Therefore, you "feed" the troll by paying any attention to him at all. It does not matter what you say in response. Any response to a troll just encourages the troll.