Community Management - How to Tackle Trolls • CMX Chat

Rozi S

Community Management – How to Tackle Trolls

May 12, 2024

Community Management: How to tackle Trolls

At CMX Chat, community management is a massive part of what we do and how we navigate the daily life of being an online community and business. In this blog mini-series, we will outline the key aspects of Community Management and how we address each area. Hear from our own staff and consider some examples.

First up, let’s jump in to the meaty stuff – How to Tackle Online Trolls.

Trolls will be in on every online community. They flock to it like moth to…well, you know how that story goes. They seek out people that they can mock, or take advantage of, and simply put, we don’t stand for that.

Is Community Management difficult?

Community management is like every other ‘public facing’ role. Though our community is online, in some ways, this makes things more difficult. Normally this is because trolls have a higher likelihood to be bold and obnoxious, as they consider themselves ‘faceless’. A good way to consider these types of scenarios is to liken them to face to face interactions – would you stand for them if they were in public? See some examples here:

1. Someone sending threatening messages.

This is an example of a breach of our community guidelines and in some cases could be a breach of law. At CMX Chat, threatening messages like this result in an instant ban. We pride ourselves on keeping our site and Discord Channel a safe place from any kind of unwanted message/threats.

2. Someone causing extended disharmony in the public community.

This is an example, of someone trying to cause ‘drama’ on an extreme scale. Whether it takes over conversation or forces our users to disengage from the wider chat, it isn’t ok. Our moderators don’t put themselves in the middle of these types of issues – instead they rise above and consider what is best for our users as a whole. A mute? A kick? A full ban? Each situation is different and is considered on a case by case basis.

3. Someone sending cruel DMs out of the blue.

If a user of any site is the subject of random abusive language from another user, this sparks the interest of moderators. Consider what you would do in this situation – if they are sending this to you, then what may they be sending to other users? In isolation, it may seem like a small issue, but the difficulty is drawing the line. Does it stop here? Or before? How far do you let this go? Is this person looking for an argument? Perhaps trying to bait someone?

4. Someone changing their name or bio to reflect something inappropriate.

We all enjoy something funny, whether it is slap-stick comedy or one liners. Some of us may also enjoy ‘dark humour‘, but when community management is considered, we must be mindful. A conversation with a user would usually be the first port of call – help them understand our concerns and hope that they can see their error. If not, then CMX Chat isn’t the place for them. This could be poking fun at historic tragedies, or something sexually explicit or joking that they are a predator. When there is such a huge concern globally about the safety of children, we NEVER take this sort of situation lightly. So in the more serious of instances, the user is automatically banned as we have decided as a community that we don’t stand to support that type of behaviour.

So, now that you have read some real examples, what would your answer to the question be of ‘is community management difficult?’

There is always a bigger picture to consider. Firstly, our primary goal is for our community to be a safe place for our users, but additionally, we want our community to have a reputation that is strong and positive. Any business knows that their reputation in their field is extremely important – trusted, transparent, safe and fun are the goals we want to always strive for.

I asked our Community Management Team how they tackle trolls and here’s what they said:

Here, ‘Kermit’ makes the point that she keeps herself removed from the emotional aspect of the job and that she can usually decipher the ‘type’ of troll she is dealing with.

What type of trolls are there?

This list is not exhaustive but covers the main areas that community managers come up against trolls:

The Bully – normally chooses one person to focus on and reply to every message they send, even if they arent involved in the conversation at all. Their aim is to drive a wedge between that user and the other members of the community.

The Parrot – this type of troll usually just repeats the same few words over and over. Their goal is to disrupt the flow of conversation and irritate and annoy others.

The Predator – unwanted sexual communication of any kind is not acceptable. The Predator troll will send explicit images, links to pornography, slide into DMs and try to gain any form of communication of a sexual nature. Often, their goal is to disrupt, but occasionally, some of these trolls get sexual gratification from these acts – enjoying thinking of people being embarrassed and uncomfortable.

The Con Artist – Different to a catfish, these types of trolls send links asking for money, or even offering money. They try to play into the idea that they are offering a service or that there is a funny video etc. Before you know it, you’ve opened a link that contains a ‘bug’ and your computer is hacked. That’s why on our Discord, we have a bot that enables video sharing through YouTube directly, so you can trust that if someone has shared a video saying ‘check this band out’ etc, its safe to open.

The Demon – this troll is always a blend of abusive and bigoted. They will say anything and everything to try to cause anarchy and unrest in the harmony of a community. Equally, they evade bans, try to find ways around them, and often have multiple user names.

‘Ash’ makes a really interesting point and it is something that our community managers are extremely proud of – CMX Chat has been established for three years now, and over that time, we have built a respectful and diverse group of people. So much so, that our users have followed our moderators examples and can mostly now identify trolls for themselves. They also actively protect one another. Isn’t that amazing? So now, when a troll enters our community, they have two options – respect our rules, or be banned. As ‘Ash’ mentions, we have members who started off as low-level trolls and ended up staying and learning from the other members of the community.

How to tackle trolls:

There is no one, hard and fast rule, but it comes down to being proactive and emotionally intelligent, which all of our moderators are. They assess each incident on a case by case basis and establish whether a ban, a mute or a warning is the correct course of action. Some people just need a little guidance, others need removed.

Creating understandable and simple rules for our users and our community managers to follow was the beginning, since then, we have added to this and learned from this. We gather feedback at every opportunity and have our own group chat where our moderators discuss their rationale and seek advice to learn from one another. Collaboration is key and our team do that extremely well.

If you need help to map out your community management plan, get in touch – it is something that we have been working on for a long time and are now very proud of.

Rozi S

Community Management – How to Tackle Trolls

Community Management: How to tackle Trolls

Is Community Management difficult?

What type of trolls are there?

How to tackle trolls:

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