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Edit:

I am not reopening the question, but note that currently there is a question written in the distinct style of the resident troll and it has so far attracted 4 answers, 3 from our top users.

End of Edit

I created a tag for trolling. Not sure if this is the proper way to deal with this situation, I can see the tag being abused. Please advise if you have concerns. I also do not object to others deleting the tag if they strongly disapprove of it.

Having the tag could make it easier to identify recurring questions.

Seems to me that some people misunderstood my proposal, which was not to create a new category for low quality questions (no one should be declared a troll for asking a poor question) but to tag the repeated questions of a few users, so people know them from a mile away. Anyway, the tag has been deleted, and I will not recreate it.

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    $\begingroup$ Not sure how to feel about this tag. Ultimately these sorts of decisions are something to be discussed by the community, so I will wait to hear from some other members of the community first. For now I am skeptical of the use of such a tag. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 17:10
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    $\begingroup$ I don’t like the tag. Maybe we should have an option for closing question due to being of poor quality. I noticed that these kind of questions often start with some assuming that some facts holds whereas they don’t like for example the recent question which started by stating that most industrial earnings are in energy, without any proof of that actually holding in reality. We could have a rule that if someone asks some question that makes some factual (as opposed to hypothetical) claims it should link to some data confirming them or be closed $\endgroup$
    – 1muflon1 Mod
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 19:39
  • $\begingroup$ What is trolling? $\endgroup$
    – user20574
    Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 9:29
  • $\begingroup$ @user253751 Trolling $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 9:42
  • $\begingroup$ @Giskard In the context of SE, what does it mean that isn't covered by an existing close reason? $\endgroup$
    – user20574
    Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 11:46
  • $\begingroup$ @user253751 Trolling is not easy to identify, especially on a forum with a lot of lay people and non-native English speakers. Closing is also slow, hence people are still engaging. This was my argument for the tag. Such questions will eventually be closed. $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 12:28

1 Answer 1

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The best way to deal with trolls (throughout the Internet) is to ignore them, or at least not interact with them, especially not in a way where they can see who interacts with them. Trolls crave on attention.

So flag the post for moderater attention; downvote (that's anonymous) and vote to close (it's harder nowadays to figure out who closed a question if you don't have the reputation necessary to cast close votes) can be appropriate too.

A tag like [trolling] is simply giving them too much attention, in a wrong way. Tags should define the topic(s) a question is about, see e.g. the Help Center article.

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    $\begingroup$ I agree, but new users regularly interact with the troll, as I did when it was new, because it does not wear a sign on its head. The tag seeks to warn new users. As for flagging, I have done that before changing the tag. $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 11:14

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