In the business of live entertainment, one thing you must learn to understand in order to survive is hecklers. Today's hecklers are called "Trolls" and they are really just sadistic cyber bullies.
I have always had to deal with hecklers and usually made them part of the show. In fact, many of these same nasty individuals would follow me and show up just to call out some insult attempting to engage me and get me off track. They seemed to think they were clever.
They actually caused an increase in my following because there were fans that never missed a show in anticipation of what I would say back to these twisted individuals. There was a mutual hate shared by the audience for the hecklers and eventually, as the heckler became more and more cruel, the audience would deal with it for me by coming down hard on the offending victimizer and, sometimes, having them thrown out.
Today, over the internet, there is great opportunity for hateful bullies to muck up and ultimately ruin an online discussion with their interfering senseless insults. They belittle anyone good and honorable by adding sexual slur to their names while working in misinformation to cause the victim of their slander to get off point. If they can accomplish flustering their target and the victim attempts to retaliate, it is called, "feeding the troll".
What to do About Trolls
I never feed a troll intentionally. If I am getting flustered, I step away and go do something else, or just leave the site entirely. When there are multiple trolls this is the only way to win. Answering them creates a feeding frenzy and blog-battle that only wastes time and space. I have better ways to use my time.
I handle trolls in the same way as hecklers. I do not take their bate. Sometimes I use their bate against them. After a few times of doing this they usually get so flustered that they curse me, insult me and write something totally stupid blaming me for ruining the site and stating (in all caps) that they will never return. They leave. This is followed by cyber high-fives all around.
It is essential to never engage a troll about a subject you are not well-informed about. They will demand scientific proof. This keeps you busy. Since I already have done my research, I usually have a list of links to provide for them. I dumped 50 links on one troll who demanded links. He was really upset about it. This is an example of using their bait against them. His response was that if I wasn't going to take him seriously, he had nothing more to say. Of coarse, he also called me a "stupid c*nt" among other inappropriate things.
Trolls often have screen names like "freedomseeker101" or "nevadarancher545" (that one was following me around the Cliven Bundy articles comment section) "texnev26" was pretty nasty and seemed to enjoy his sadism. The worse by far is: "Jeffery McCain".
I do not know if Jeffery is a troll in the usual sense, he just seems to like to try to bully me and shows up everywhere belittling me and telling me I am delusional. When a bully is this relentless, I just take all of the fun out of his action by heaping great gobs of sympathy on him and responding with concern and sadness. As his comments are public and recently did become a permanent part of my YouTube persona. I took all of the sting out by explaining publicly next to his comment that he really is just an obsessed fan and bully who has a twisted way of showing his love. That if I really am so unappealing to him, why not just go away? It must be love and I am blessed. Boy is he going to be mad when he reads that! I imagine he will write something nasty back. People will then begin to check in to see what I will reply. Just another heckler doing their job.
I have always had to deal with hecklers and usually made them part of the show. In fact, many of these same nasty individuals would follow me and show up just to call out some insult attempting to engage me and get me off track. They seemed to think they were clever.
They actually caused an increase in my following because there were fans that never missed a show in anticipation of what I would say back to these twisted individuals. There was a mutual hate shared by the audience for the hecklers and eventually, as the heckler became more and more cruel, the audience would deal with it for me by coming down hard on the offending victimizer and, sometimes, having them thrown out.
Today, over the internet, there is great opportunity for hateful bullies to muck up and ultimately ruin an online discussion with their interfering senseless insults. They belittle anyone good and honorable by adding sexual slur to their names while working in misinformation to cause the victim of their slander to get off point. If they can accomplish flustering their target and the victim attempts to retaliate, it is called, "feeding the troll".
What to do About Trolls
I never feed a troll intentionally. If I am getting flustered, I step away and go do something else, or just leave the site entirely. When there are multiple trolls this is the only way to win. Answering them creates a feeding frenzy and blog-battle that only wastes time and space. I have better ways to use my time.
I handle trolls in the same way as hecklers. I do not take their bate. Sometimes I use their bate against them. After a few times of doing this they usually get so flustered that they curse me, insult me and write something totally stupid blaming me for ruining the site and stating (in all caps) that they will never return. They leave. This is followed by cyber high-fives all around.
It is essential to never engage a troll about a subject you are not well-informed about. They will demand scientific proof. This keeps you busy. Since I already have done my research, I usually have a list of links to provide for them. I dumped 50 links on one troll who demanded links. He was really upset about it. This is an example of using their bait against them. His response was that if I wasn't going to take him seriously, he had nothing more to say. Of coarse, he also called me a "stupid c*nt" among other inappropriate things.
Trolls often have screen names like "freedomseeker101" or "nevadarancher545" (that one was following me around the Cliven Bundy articles comment section) "texnev26" was pretty nasty and seemed to enjoy his sadism. The worse by far is: "Jeffery McCain".
I do not know if Jeffery is a troll in the usual sense, he just seems to like to try to bully me and shows up everywhere belittling me and telling me I am delusional. When a bully is this relentless, I just take all of the fun out of his action by heaping great gobs of sympathy on him and responding with concern and sadness. As his comments are public and recently did become a permanent part of my YouTube persona. I took all of the sting out by explaining publicly next to his comment that he really is just an obsessed fan and bully who has a twisted way of showing his love. That if I really am so unappealing to him, why not just go away? It must be love and I am blessed. Boy is he going to be mad when he reads that! I imagine he will write something nasty back. People will then begin to check in to see what I will reply. Just another heckler doing their job.