Blogger tracks down and confronts his "troll"

Very interesting piece in The Guardian about a columnist who confronted a person trolling some very nasty comments his way for years, including threats to his family that came through regular mail. This guy's response to his troll was pretty amazing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/26/day-confronted-troll?CMP=twt_gu

Reminds me of this:

Except it was more of an emotional stabbing.

That is crazy. I would of snapped that kids neck in half...

That was a really good article, thanks for sharing. Crazy story too.

Troll turns out to be 17 year old cry-baby. How is anyone surprised by this?

Good on him for being the better man!

There is a line, if you cross you have to be man enough to back it up.

That's beyond trolling. Sending that sort of mail and shit...seems more like psychological problems need to be addressed.

@TheHumanDove said:

That's beyond trolling. Sending that sort of mail and shit...seems more like psychological problems need to be addressed.

Seems a promise to get the kid help was part of the deal for the guy not to press charges.

I wouldn't call that trolling I would call that harassment by a clear psycho path. It baffles me how the authorities could do nothing about this when the guy is receiving death threats.

@stryker1121: wow... now that's the definition of "giving someone a break."

It's funny how it's always some kid who obviously had to hide behind a screen to threaten and empower himself, probably a social misfit and this was his way of letting out angst and anger.

Great read.

I don't find the NY Times to be sensationalist at all. It has a slight liberal bias, if anything.

For a while there I hoped this would be an introspective-spiritual journey where a man confronts his inner troll.

@psylah said:

Reminds me of this:

Except it was more of an emotional stabbing.

This really brightened up my day. Thanks XD

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Internet

@stryker1121 said:

Very interesting piece in The Guardian about a columnist who confronted a person trolling some very nasty comments his way for years, including threats to his family that came through regular mail. I know The Guardian is considered the NY Post of UK papers, but there's nothing sensationalistic about the piece. This guy's response to his troll was pretty amazing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/26/day-confronted-troll?CMP=twt_gu

I dunno what the NY post is, but the Guardian isn't considered sensationalist, that's the Daily Mail or the Daily Express.

@Snail said:

I don't find the NY Times to be sensationalist at all. It has a slight liberal bias, if anything.

For a while there I hoped this would be an introspective-spiritual journey where a man confronts his inner troll.

Hehe, you mean, he finds out the person who did all the pranks and threats online was no one but himself? Damn that would've been some weird Shyamalan-ian ending.

Look I enjoy a bit of trolling now and again, all in good fun, and that is not trolling. That is called harassment.

That was a pretty good read actually. I would say the boy's actions were more of harassment than any actual trolling but the thing to take away is that people can and will go to all sorts of lengths to be assholes if they know they won't be accounted for it. Moral of the story: some people really shouldn't be allowed to use the internet.

Man, fuck the internet sometimes.

I wouldn't have been the better person and taken the high road. I would have just started fucking with the kid and making him panic.

That article was pretty crazy. I was thinking "Holy shit man" and then he said "And that is how I came to shake the hand of a troll." That's where I laughed.

would have still gone after the kid legally. Some serious threats were thrown around. Hes17 so it would be expunged depending on the court dates, but hed deserve every bit of punishment

And this is why I've personally adopted a stance of not saying anything online that I'm not going to say to someone's face

I read that on his blog earlier today. Very good read, I feel for him. I can't imagine how difficult that little shit made his life, and I would've strung him up. Trolling is one thing, but that's just abuse.

The length of time this went on is the amazing thing to me. I would have pressed charges, regardless of my relationship with the family. You don't want to ruin a kid's life but dragging family into it deserves some jail time, or juvie, or about 500 hrs of community services at a Jewish retirement home.

That's not trolling. Trolling is making stupid threads saying ____ is the best and ____ is the worst just to get people to call him an idiot or fly off the handle. What that piece of shit did was criminal and revolting. I was hoping in the part of the story where he told the kid to stand up that he was going to kick him in the nuts as hard as he could to make sure he didn't get a chance to procreate.

I would have beaten the shit out of the kid. 
Also, relevant:

This story was good until he got so caught up in being the better man he let a person displaying clearly illegal and pathological behavior get off scott free as long as he promises to go to a hand holding therapist who will coddle him. Protip, don't be surprised if therapy fails and the kid goes on to take the next step.

Wow.

Geez, that's a lot worse than saying PS3 and Skyrim both suck balls, individually, but especially together.

Kudos to the writer for his cooler head. My reaction when facing that little piece of shit would have been far less restrained. Great post.