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So what about the trolling behavior in comments?
People do not complain about his posts, let me repeat that, his posts are not the problem. Nobody cares about his opinions. Nobody minds that he likes third parties, that part is fine.
It's the behavior in comment sections that is the problem. How is it that we have a rule 4 that prohibits trolling, but we allow a user who consistently exhibits comment behavior intended to simply irritate whoever is interacting with them? Low effort, consistently full of logical fallacies, frequently misrepresenting himself and others, etc. These indicate a troll.
Again, it is comment behavior that is the problem. How many of his comments need to be removed before it is identified as a problematic account? I think we deserve some transparency here.
Where and how do you draw the line with regards to trolling behaviors in comments sections?
edit: Let me quote him from just below here, where he replied to someone replying to you right here:
Does this add anything to a conversation? Does this further discourse in any constructive way? Does this encourage people to positively participate in our community?
I appreciate your effort here. It seems like the answer is that this user gets special treatment. Maybe it's a mod or admin's alt and no one is brave enough to stand against it.
I think they're just erring on the side of free speech in general. They've always been fairly lenient with comment behavior that isn't extremely blatant. Since they don't seem to understand the nature of these things, we sort of have a responsibility to educate about it.
I know I have pointed out trolling/suspicious behavior by this account a few times. The mods I've talked to never seem to care and just tell me to block them, as if that actually solves the problem.
That's part of the problem too. They don't understand what a dedicated troll's real long-term goals are. Good on them for never having been one, but I'd rather have a rare example of a healthy large internet community than a trolly one.
I mean, when I try to explain this to mods (I have more than a couple of times) I get crickets. They don't seem particularly concerned as a whole.
Yeah I've been growing a little frustrated as well, as my tone in that earlier comment probably indicated. But a troll isn't the only stubborn person around here, and I actually care about this community and the broader Fediverse project.
I agree, they don't seem particularly concerned, which is why I've steadily pivoted more towards general conversations on what trolling actually is, what the classic trollface.jpg really represents, and methods by which it seeks to accomplish its goals. If this or any other community I'm active in is going to allow these behaviors, it won't be able to claim ignorance of how it all works.
It's admittedly a big topic though.