How to deal with Internet trolls.

Everyone has them. Trolls (on a blog) are those commenters who consistently post comments with the sole purpose of being annoying and inciting a reaction. I have two regular trolls on my blog. Every comment they post is in some way insulting, irritating, rude, obnoxious or otherwise unwelcome. At first, I puzzled as to why they read my blog since they are always attacking me for what I write. After a while, I realized, however, that they get some kind of personal pleasure out of being hostile. They seem to have fulfilment in attempting to provoke an offended reaction.

At first, I read their comments, sometimes posted them (the less offensive ones) and replied. After awhile, however, I simply stopped posting their comments since they added nothing to the blog, but detracted from its overall friendly tone.

Recently, however, I have come up with a new plan of approach to those posters I know to be trolls. I simply DON’T READ THEM. When I see their name on the headline to a comment post in my email, I just don’t open it.

I think this is funny and most appropriate. Now, when these trolls post their bile, I am sure they imagine that somewhere, far away, I am annoyed by what they have written. However, in truth, I have not even read what they have written. They have now selected themselves out of my consciousness, because of their habitual offensiveness.

So, if you are suffering from an attack of the trolls – do what I do – and refuse to read what they write. Furthermore, don’t post it. In time, they will probably give up posting.

Does anyone else have a solution to the problem of Internet trolls?

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

On being considerate on public transport.

Today, I journeyed on a bus. It seems a simple thing to do, but a lot of people conspired to make it a hellish trip.

I shall explain. Shortly after I boarded the bus, a group of school kids got on. They were secondary school children of about 16 years old. There were, I estimate, 25 to 30 of them. They crowded out the bus, standing in every nook and cranny and taking up every available seat.

Now, I have no issues with such groups of school children, usually, but, today, they did something en masse which I found quite insufferable: they spoke. Now, I am not about to speak out against Singlish again. The fact that many of them did use Singlish is not the matter I am concerned with. What bothered me was the volume with which they spoke. They competed with each other to speak above the volume of their fellow school children. Each child had to speak loud enough to drown out their competing neighbours, who, in turn, spoke louder so that they could be heard. What happened, almost immediately, was that they were all speaking as loudly as they were physically capable of doing.

The cacophony was deafening. I did the only thing I could: I put my fingers in my ears. Now, this achieved two things: it brought understanding, sympathetic smiles to the people opposite me, who had no trouble grasping what it was I was troubled by - and it lowered the volume just enough to be less than painful. What surprised me, however, was that, EVEN WITH MY FINGERS IN MY EARS, the bus load of jabbering school children was STILL too loud to be comfortable.

I kept my fingers in my ears throughout the journey and there was no respite from the deafening overlapping roar of voices around me, for, to my misfortune, the school party did not get off before me.

It struck me as strange that simply because a lot of 16 year olds were in one place together that they should think they have the right to become an unpleasant nuisance to everyone around them. No-one has taught them to consider their fellow human beings. A bus is a small space. It cannot take much noise before it becomes discomfiting. Adults don't talk much on buses. Adults sit in silence. I think teenagers should too. At least, they should not speak at a volume that they become unpleasant to everyone on the bus.

Schools play a part in this. They should teach their charges how to behave in public. Not becoming a cacophonous mass of teenagers is one thing that they should be taught to do. If they want to speak - then why not all choose to speak quietly to each other. Then, there would be no need to raise voices until all are shouting at maximum volume.

All the children were dressed from head to toe in light grey, should anyone be able to identify the school in question and communicate my observations to someone in a position to influence them.

I wasn't the only person who found them unpleasant. Many of the faces, nearby, showed as much discomfort as no doubt mine did. The only difference is, I put my fingers in my ears. Perhaps the others didn't want to draw attention to themselves.

I did note something about the teenagers' conversation: none of them within earshot (most of the bus) were saying anything that was worth saying in the first place. Their conversations may as well not have happened for all the purpose and content they imparted. I only wish they had realized that and didn't bother to speak in the first place.

I had a funny thought as I sat there. I wondered what they would think if I spoke up and told them to be quiet. No doubt they would think me most odd, for trying to shout above them, to get them to be quiet. Yet, strangely, none of them seemed to consider that they were all shouting in the first place - so why should my mooted request for them to be quiet be seen to be unusual? In the end, I said nothing, but just kept my fingers firmly in my ears.

There is no doubt that one's own car seems an attractive idea, at times like this. There is no way there is ever going to be thirty teenagers shouting at once in my car, that's for sure.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)