WHAT IS A TROLL?

Usenet is not a controlled environment, there are no 'owners' of afpf, and no moderators either. It is possible, in fact probable, that we will come across posts that offend us, or really irritate us. First we need to know whether this is part of an on-going discussion and is a genuine response to a debate. If this is not the case, DO NOT REPLY !! This is probably a 'troll' trying to upset the equilibrium of the news group. This is done by personal attacks on our friends, naturally we feel we need to jump in a defend them, and hey presto !!! War ensues. The other method used is to start up a very contentious subject, such as racism or religion. The troll has achieved their aim, and they stay around to fan the flames.

So how do we control what happens in our group? The first, most important, as well as easiest, thing we can do is IGNORE the posts that are inflammatory. Secondly we have tools in our news readers that allow us to block any post that is sent by a particular person, or a 'kill file'. It is debatable as to whether these work, as often, the original post is not deleted when someone does reply to it, so you can't avoid it, unless you do IGNORE it !!

What is a 'kill file' ? This is a method by which we block certain posts from certain specific people to our news reader ONLY, not to the group, as we have no moderator, this is not a possibility. Each browser has different ways of doing this, so if you have any problems with this, please click on my name to ask me for help. Toddy

Jim has added this information for Netscape users Netscape help