What are the best ways to keep trolls either off your boards, or within your rules of your forum? They seem to be all over, IRC is overrun with them and I have avoid using it for that reason anymore, but I still visit many boards that it seems people don't know what to do with manipulative idiots.

When you say trolls, what exactly do you mean? Each person tends to see this differently which is why I ask. Anyway, if its your forums, start banning people who are going against the rules of the board. Some things deserve warnings before banning but some behavior should never be tolerated.

What are trolls? I have never heard of them on anything except for little troll dolls or in fantasy. I gather they have something to do with forums but what else?

I too have a difficulty figuring out who is referred to as a troll. I cannot find a definitive description for the term and it seems like the term might well mean different things in different forums. From what I can gather, they are supposed to be members who initiate controversial topics that leads to flames. I can't see what's wrong with a controversial topic.

The biggest problem with trolls is when they have a loyal following in the memberbase, and try to lead some big uprising against a forums staff. This actually happened to me once last year, and i'm still shocked about how much it divided both the memberbase and staff

There really isn't much that can be done about trolls who are tech savvy and know how to manipulate people and information to their advantage. IP banning does nothing to control such things these days and in trying to get rid of them you will be left with their fanclub who calls you names and acts out because you banned the "wonderful member just trying to voice their opinion." Trying to deal with things while they are in their infancy and deleting/editing/etc topics and conversations that go this way are your best bet. Show them they can debate but not flame/fight and they may go elsewhere.

Real trolls, not just cranky posters, just have to be banned and ignored. There's not a whole lot you can do except banning IP addresses! Real trolls have too much time on their hands and are just looking for less-moderated forums.

katie - a troll is a person who comes on to a forum or chat room with the intent of stirring up trouble. This is done in many ways, like flooding (repeated and quickly posting the same post), attacking posts already up, flaming other users, or posting WAY inappropriate things: like nasty pictures, debates about abortions, lewd stories...

I say, ban em! You got the power, use it.

Sometimes you ban them but they come back as another user, then you ban their IP address, but they are tech savvy so they do a go around and still come back. I think persistence is a great attribute at this point, hopefully they would just give up.

I believe that anyone who posts content that goes against the culture of the forum should be banned, but in general, the members should avoid feeding that troll. If they are consistently ignored, they will eventually go away.