This too shall pass...

This is a good forum (even today).

This universe runs on bell shaped curves. There are “fine” woodworkers, avid duffers and “sawdust makers” (like me). There are good netizens, clueless minions, and, well, three letter acronyms that roll off the tongue like a four letter word.

Several years ago I was one of ten moderators for an RV forum with, literally, hundreds of thousands of users and many tens of thousands of active users. It was a difficult and mostly unrewarding task.

At one point, we “fathered a troll” on our humble little forum. This brackish and fetid individual had amassed a good two dozen user names (that we knew of) and had “curated” them over the course of several years. Before his rein of terror, he had done his homework and carefully planned out his mayhem.

For some time we moderators tried to “put him in the ground” where he belonged. It was unpleasant work and he was able to use the good will of the other forum participants and the anonymity provided by the inter tubes to hide in one dumpster and then the next. Despite our best efforts, this dung beetle persisted.

After an extended battle…we gave up. Several moderators quit. The forum participation dwindled. Dark days.

In our disgusted and war-weary state, the best we could manage was to tell each incensed good forum participant that the ONLY solution (and a difficult one) was to just ignore the SOB. We didn’t think they would heed our advice, and didn’t really think anything would get better…but miracle of miracles…they did.

At long last, a great many pompous threads went with zero replies and our troll eventually moved on to greener pastures.

Similar dark days are upon this forum at present. Some people are pretending otherwise. Some people are temporarily amused. Some people are appalled and looking around for some other place to call home.

I looked today and see a whole cornucopia of drivel out there from the hemorrhoid (and its beautiful sock puppet) that has festered upon this land. Sadly, it is early days of the pestilence. The good people here have not yet come to understand. Most of the aforementioned puddles of drivel have amassed a dozen or more replies. The offender is no doubt quite literally in hog heaven.

Some day the good people of the forum will grow weary of the troll. Many of them will go elsewhere (for awhile). Those that remain will realize they long for the days when this was a woodworking forum rather than a soap opera.

Trolls survive and persist on replies, nothing more. You can’t “win” except by not playing.

For my part, I am content to just peek in once in awhile and see if the new day has yet dawned.

I’m going to go make some sawdust while the humidity here is still down in the 80’s.

-- Last week I finally got my $*i# together. Unfortunately, it was in my shop, so I will probably never find it again.