Hello everyone,
We've had a few issues recently, and to best support your fellow humans that make up this online community, we need to go over a few things. I'm going to speak broadly and without specifics, because what I really want to impart is an approach.
There will always be someone that posts something inappropriate here - whether that is spam, politics, or trolling, etc. We have two guidelines to cover the reactions to such things: 4. Do not post in reaction to guideline violations. 5. Do not feed the trolls.
When we say "don't post in reaction to guideline violations," we mean this in the most complete sense possible. The obvious meaning is not to reply negatively toward someone which creates or furthers an argument. As you all know, we are charged with keeping arguments off our boards at all times. While a few still need reminders about this, this isn't the main reason why I'm bringing this up. Even our kindest, well-meaning members can still violate this guideline in a way that creates or furthers problems.
The meaning we need more of you on board with is to not respond about it at all. The lesser issue is that it leads a discussion away from the OP's question and on into talking about the drama around posts that aren't there anymore, effectively preventing the issue from ending. This is a challenge for moderators if they've already cleaned out an issue - and then they need to come back and clean out further discussion on that subject so that the OP can get the answers they seek.
The larger issue is when this happens and there is an overt behavioral problem happening, such as the presence of a troll. The guideline is to not feed the troll. Any and all posts replying to the troll, after the troll, or about the troll - including polite thank you posts or other general commentary about it after it's "over" - feeds the troll, encouraging them.
As a reminder, trolls are yelling - or prodding - into the void of the internet hoping someone will listen and react to it. They get nothing out of it - and they don't even know if anyone really sees it or cares about it - if they don't get a response. The only "response" to effectively deal with it is to not publicly respond to it or about it. And, of course, please Report it, so we can remove it, ban it, etc. As always, thanks for your patience for that. I'd speak more about how moderators address trolls, but this isn't the place.
I recognize this entire post is in opposition to what I'm trying to encourage. I'm doing exactly what we don't want you to be doing in this forum. ;) Thanks for understanding that I need to get this message to everyone. As such, I won't be allowing any commentary on this subject in this thread or others.
Thanks to you all for being vigilant. The best way we can help our fellow forum members is to avoid any public response to - or about - behavioral issues.