Why "Just Don't Feed the Trolls" is not always a sufficient answer. Hello to everyone visiting from MeFi. Here's a piece I've been linking elsewhere, that gives a more vivid firsthand account of what it's like dealing with such threats and abuse, and how hard it can be even deciding to show up another day and deal with more of it, much less decide exactly how to handle it.

I also appreciated this example of speaking up against the "type 1 troll" having a beneficial impact. One of the main reasons "Don't Feed the Trolls" falls short as a universal pat answer is that it assumes one's only possible goal in speaking up would be to induce a change of heart in the individuals doing the trolling. Many of the stories people have shared in response to this video illustrated how speaking up can be a net positive for your community as a whole, regardless of whether it inspires some epiphany in the trolls themselves. Gauging the usefulness of speaking out strictly by tracking whether a miraculous troll epiphany occurs is often missing the point IMO.