Troll: A Usenet Troll is someone who goes into a news group just to cause trouble and grief. Their intentions are to cause other people to start arguing with them or with each other. They thrive on the attention they receive from other people. They feed on your responses.

Flame War: A Usenet Flame War is a heated argument between two or more people. The flame war can extend outside of just one news group through cross posting or cyberstalking, and the flame war can include more than one thread in any news group. Flame wars are not just your typical disagreements between these people but are usually personal in nature. Personal attacks like name-calling and use of profanity to belittle the other person. A flame war can include an off-topic arguments between two or more people in any one news group.

What to do if the news group you are reading contains a Troll or a Flame War: The best policy is to ignore it and to stay out of it. There are many different methods to help you ignore a Troll or a Flame War. You can just delete all posts in that thread, delete all posts by that author, or use a killfile. Whatever you choose to do, just remember to ignore it. Most Trolls will leave a news group if they are not receiving any attention. Remember, Trolls thrive on attention.

What to do if the Troll is in your killfile but continues to change their account name: If the newsreader you are using can detect different pieces of the header look at the header of the Troll's post. Pick a header that shows up in all of their posts, and killfile them based on that header. Trolls will change their user name and account name if they believe they are being killfiled. So a good trick is to find the one header that will do the trick. But be careful. If you choose to killfile based on a domain, you will end up killfiling all people who post through that domain. If you cannot find one single header that will do the trick for you, the go back to just ignoring them.

I cannot emphasize enough to ignore the troll and do not feed the troll. It is extremely important that you learn to ignore them.

What if you find yourself involved in a flame war: Many people get involved in flame wars by standing up for someone else or they feel they need to stand up for themselves. If you find yourself involved in a flame war it is very important that you just stop and go back to ignoring the troll. Otherwise, you yourself are turning into a troll. It is easy to get wrapped up in arguments that get out of hand, and it is hard to get out of them. Give yourself time and possibly give Usenet a rest if you find it hard to stop.

Should you complain to an ISP over Trolls and Flame Wars: No. Most ISPs will do nothing about Trolls and/or Flame Wars. They are not there to baby-sit users, but to provide a service to users.

Should you complain to a news group on Usenet Abuse: No. They cannot do anything about it either. Most of those news groups will tell you the same thing, to just ignore the Troll and stay out of the Flame Wars.

Should you cancel the Troll's posts: No do NOT cancel anyone else's posts except for your own. By canceling other people's posts you are committing Usenet Abuse. That is Abuse OF Usenet. Flame Wars are an example of Abuse on Usenet, and cancellations are an example of Abuse of Usenet.

What if someone is forging your account: Forward a copy of the forgery to your ISP with full headers explaining where you found the forgery. You may wish to warn your cyber-friends of the forgery and suggest that they take a look at the full headers before judging a post that is not like you. Most forgeries are easy to detect and most people have the capability of viewing full headers. I suggest that you also complain to the Abuse person of the ISP/domain where the forgery was sent. Inform them that your account was forged. If the forgery took place through a remailer, ask them to block your account from being used in the 'From' header to prevent future forgeries on your account.

If anyone has further suggestions you may email me at: nimue at teleport dot com. I will be glad to include any suggestions that are legit and helpful along with giving you credit for your suggestion. Thank-you, Tracy