Sonic News Network:Don't feed the trolls

Don't feed the trolls is a policy on Sonic News Network that discusses what to do (and what not to do) when dealing with internet trolls and vandals.

Definitions
Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Sonic News Network. Trolling is any attempt to disrupt the editing of the Sonic News Network in order to elicit emotional or heated responses from other users.

Trolling and vandalism are not necessarily the same, although there is often overlap and vandalism may be used for the purposes of trolling. In general, trolls are more interested in the attention they receive than the act of vandalism itself, meaning the most effective way of fighting trolls is to prevent them from getting this attention.

Note that terms like 'vandal' and 'troll' are subjective, as they rely on judgements as to the relevant users' motives. Vandalism and trolling are done out of malice; any edit made in good faith is not vandalism or trolling. Calling someone a troll or vandal when they have made only good faith edits is itself a form of trolling, and should be avoided. Also, one of the key ways of not feeding the trolls is to not call them trolls.

Example behaviours
The following behaviours are typically associated with trolling. This list is not exhaustive, and some of the behaviours listed may actually be done in good faith. Editor judgement should be applied when assessing controversial edits.


 * Adding profanity or obscenities to any page.
 * Uploading inappropriate images.
 * Modifying a template in a harmful or disruptive manner.
 * Changing the names of pages to disruptive, irrelevant, or inappropriate names.
 * Deliberately provoking other users to anger, perhaps through insults or persistent pestering, or otherwise being deliberately annoying for the sake of being obnoxious.
 * Attacking the opinions of other users, often without justifying one's own opinions.
 * Being unwilling to accept consensus or attempt to reach a compromise, which may lead to edit warring.
 * Any other unconstructive or vandal-like behaviour that is repeated warnings and explanations why it is inappropriate.

What to do
Users must not feed the trolls on this wiki. Whenever a user reacts to those who provoke them, they are giving those who provoke them what they want. The more a user reacts, the more the troll will continue what they are doing. Conversely, if users do not react in over-the-top manners, then the trolls will move on.

On wikis, it is necessary to have some form of reaction to individuals such as vandals, as users must revert the damage done to pages. This, however, is a calm and limited reaction. For most users, the appropriate response to vandalism is
 * 1) Revert the vandalism, if you know how.
 * 2) Inform an administrator, giving the affected page and the username of the suspected vandal (but don't glorify the incident by saying how bad it was). (A list of administrators can be found here.)
 * 3) Nothing. The first two steps are all that's needed for an effective response to vandalism.

There are some things that users should not do in response to vandalism.
 * Do not make blogs about instances of vandalism you have seen.
 * Do not making pages that list vandals and trolls.
 * Do not spread panic among users by telling lots of people about vandalism, even in an attempt to rally them against it.
 * Most importantly, do not post insulting messages on a suspected vandal's talk page. Do not say that they will be banned. Do not accuse them of vandalism and do not call them trolls.

At all times, good faith users should maintain the calm and limit reactions by fixing the mess and then going back to what they are here for: contributing legitimate content and helping to make this wiki the number one source for all things Sonic the Hedgehog.