Re: feeding trolls
- From: "Don Moody" <dpmoody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 10:08:52 -0000
"Richard van Schaik" <f.m.a.vanschaikREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:47cf454b$0$46881$dbd43001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Don Moody wrote:
"Jill" <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:13su7dl2j4g7r05@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Those of us with adequate kilfiles and such filters are blissfully
unaware of a problem, if there is one.
Pretty please, can it stay that way?
;o)
--
No! Because someone always will respond and their response will get
past your filters.
Not needed, on the first sign of a troll post I set the thread to
ignore. Saves a lot of unwanted posts and reading.
Unfortunately, killing a thread is only another kind of filter and it
can be bypassed very easily. Simply start another thread under a
different title, as has happened in this case else you wouldn't have
seen what Jill and I wrote.
In the same way, a determined troll can bypass any filter, and it will
always be so. Whatever criterion is used as the basis of any form of
automatic rejection rule, the troll only has to find a character
string which does not meet the criterion. Since there is an infinite
number of possible character strings whereas all rules operate only in
some finite part of information space, there always be a way round a
rule. In practice filters operate only when trolls are also
intellectual pygmies. Since that covers the majority of trolls (and
spammers), filters are a practicable partial solution. But never ever
will they be a theoretically complete solution.
The problem is common enough in reverse in genealogy. How many
hundreds of postings have there been on this group along the lines of
'I can't find Person X when I search Database Y', and how often does
someone else promptly find X in Y? It's always because the searcher
has tried to apply a filtering rule without understanding the
structure of the database or the nature of the information in it. The
simplest example is failure to search on a sufficiently wide variety
of possible spellings of the name.
So we come back to the general problem of dealing with trolls and
spammers who have enough wit to bypass filtering rules. The ultimate
answer is not what rules we may each set up on our computers. It is to
pull the plug of such people. Not let them post anything at all
anywhere. ISPs exist through their connectivity. So require, by law,
that if an ISP receives a complaint of trolling or spamming by one of
its own customers, it is required immediately to pull their plug and
never reconnect them. If it turns out to be a customer of another ISP,
then your ISP is required to pull the plug on the other ISP until the
boss of the latter personally guarantees that his customer's plug has
been pulled and the customer is being prosecuted. There will be
screams of anguish, and drivel about freedom of speech. My guess is
that it would take all of a week from enactment of the law in the UK
to get all UK ISPs in line or out of business. The relief, and
money-saving, for everyone would ensure that other countries get their
acts sorted too. In simple terms. if you can prevent crap being thrown
at the fan, it won't be spread all over the place.
Even places which are notable as sources of crap would come to heel
very quickly because the legitimate businesses and people in those
places cannot afford to be cut off from the world because the plug has
been pulled on all their ISPs, That's a force which would make any
government enact the necessary laws very quickly indeed. Then we can
all get on with serious matters without continuous interference by
sickos and criminals.
Don
.
- References:
- feeding trolls
- From: Jill
- Re: feeding trolls
- From: Don Moody
- Re: feeding trolls
- From: Richard van Schaik
- feeding trolls
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