TROLL/S
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I’m a freelance journalist writing and editing the above website. For the last three years I have been repeatedly trolled by a person (or persons) using fake forum spam sources, initially in response to my opposition of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Most of the responses come from non-existent Yahoo accounts. The person or persons never use their real names. The police won’t do anything because it costs too much. Any ideas in tracking the troll or trolls down please?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi @jerrygreen85 – could you share more context, and a link to the page where you’re seeing this activity? We’d be happy to take a look.
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Many thanks for this. I actually write and edit the news website (I don’t like calling it a blog) newsfromcrystalpalace.wordpress.com
For the past three years I’ve been trolled by an individual (or individuals), initially over my editorial stance opposing Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
The responses come via wordpress.com and then also appear on my Google email.
The latest – sent by (email visible only to moderators and staff) arrived this morning in response to a story I’d posted:
Community: Man charged with Brixton murder… e-cargo bikes available to hire in Southwark…
“must be confusing for you this one eh jerry, a “black” killing a “black” as you would call them. As a racist you’re happy that a black has been killed, but you feel that to pretend not to be a racist you have to pretend that you’re surprised another black has done it.
maybe just stick to stomping around palace looking like a homeless peadophile? with a bit of luck you;ll be dead soon, you look like you’re in extremely poor health you rat scum”
This is an average message. The Google email – WordPress doesn’t give an exact time -arrived 11.01 pm Tuesday October 10th. Others have been far worse. I’ve blocked all the fake email addresses but, as you can see, they continue to arrive.
I’m not technically clever but some of the responses to my stories have arrived fairly quickly to them being posted. Just on the off-chance: Is there any way I can access who actually reads my stories please?
Thanks again. Jerry Green
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Well that’s an unfortunate comment, and I see others at your link too. Sadly this is a bit of a tough situation because your site is publicly available on the internet (as any news site would be) so anyone can view and comment.
One tool you have at your disposal however is the disallowed comments list, found in your discussion settings here: https://wordpress.com/settings/discussion/newsfromcrystalpalace.wordpress.com
You will see at the bottom of the page it is currently filled with a list of email addresses. This is the folks that you mentioned blocking, but of course it only blocks comments from those email addresses. It does work however, as I can see that some of the comments in the trash here were placed there automatically because they used an email matching your list: https://wordpress.com/settings/discussion/newsfromcrystalpalace.wordpress.com
With that in mind I’d actually recommend expanding on this by adding words (not emails) that you typically find in these comments — and these comments only — but you do not find in legitimate comments. A lot of the comments you get seem to be using some of the same words over and over, so this may be an effective way to cut down on the comments you’re seeing.
More info here: https://wordpress.com/support/discussion-settings/#disallowed-comments
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.
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Many thanks for your help. Various words added. In the UK there’s a new law which prevents swear words so the trolls have got round this by splitting the word up (i.e. aard vark or c ity).
One repeat question: Is there any way I can access who actually reads my stories please?
And any way I can block them before they send their comments please?
Thanks again
Jerry
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Hi again,
Many thanks for your help. Various words added. In the UK there’s a new law which prevents swear words so the trolls have got round this by splitting the word up (i.e. aard vark or c ity).
That is pretty interesting. I’d say in response that it’s also not a bad idea to focus on common words that would be very unlikely or out of place in a legitimate comment. For example, how many of your readership are normally talking about “homeless” or “scum” in their comments on the site? I did not see any when I looked through a few examples of comments you did approve here: https://wordpress.com/comments/pending/newsfromcrystalpalace.wordpress.com
The disallowed comments list can be as long as you wish and have as many words or terms as you think will help you to effectively filter this, uh, unpleasant activity. Also the folks leaving those comments will have no indication that anything is different on their end. It does mean that you won’t have to see it as much though, unless you go checking in the bin for deleted comments.
Is there any way I can access who actually reads my stories please?
And any way I can block them before they send their comments please?
The short answer is “no” or at least not effectively. The long answer is more complicated of course. We show all the data we have (traffic does not exactly come with a lot of identifying info like name, phone number, address, etc.) so we pretty much only know the info they fill out in the form, and their IP address.
It is possible to block traffic via IP address, but that is not built into WordPress.com by default, so it would require an upgrade as well as the installation of a plugin that adds IP block functionality.
The issue is that many visitors to your site may share the same IP address, especially if they are using the same provider and/or in the same local area as you. So you may end up blocking legitimate visits too. :(
Also if you blocked traffic, the trolls would just adjust. It’s easy to fake your IP address and they’d just keep trying until they get through, so they can keep doing what they’re doing currently.
But with the disallow list (especially if you add to it and refine it over time) is probably your best bet for quietly removing this from your view without tipping anyone off. Sadly in this day and age folks have more time than sense, I hope it’s a passing phase.
Let us know if you need further assistance or if you have any questions.
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I’ve put in a raft of the most common words the troll/s uses/use as suggested. Many thanks again for your help and advice.
Best Wishes
Jerry
newsfromcrystalpalace.wordpress.com
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