Don’t Feed the Trolls

let's see if my troll shows up #thingsthatareironic

Love it Elizabeth and Love you! Maybe you need a Troll Hammer

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Marguerite Crespillo, Sean Sherstone. Sean Sherstone said: RT @ElizabethPW Don't Feed the Trolls | Elizabeth Potts Weinstein http://bit.ly/rWhyq #thingsthatliveunderabridge [...]

Hiding behind @ & anonymity does not give anyone the right to tear down a fellow human. B a better human help someone today. (Which you do very well each and every day Elizabeth) Thank You!

hum, that gives me a new biz idea ….

See how smart you are!

Great video Liz! Mind if I call you Liz?

I'm glad I came across you on Twitter via a friend. Love your videos

Haters will always be haters. To me, they've always added wood to my fire. 9 times out of 10 I just completely ignore them all together. There is that rare occasion when I respond and when I do, it's just one time, bada bing, bada boom, blocked, banned, GOODBYE!

We definitely choose who we are around and who we engage with. We also choose our emotion which is created from action. Do we act in a negative manner or a way that makes us more upset and let's this person get what they want? Or do we use this experience in a positive light to act in a positive way?

RT'ed this video btw!

Troll's complaint IS cliche (and with typos… well… let's not go there). I'm sure there's people who'd be sad to say that you don't suck, but I'm sure all us viewers & friends don't think you suck.

I live my truth, and I'm mostly Troll free. There is hardly any originality left anyways– we all learn from the mentors we have. Anthony Robbins is just repeating what he's heard before, so's T. Harv, etc… If people didn't teach content in their own voice, then many people would not be exposed to it, nor understand it. You have your original stuff, and even the ideas that are repetitious of previous ideas are still extremely helpful to people– especially those that follow you, thus give more credibility to the concept as they hear it from you. So… keep on changing people's lives… and… Frog The Trolls. (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=30763…)

I saw this originally on my page by Marguerite C. Blog On!

[...] a few more great views on this, visit my pal ElizabethPW and Seth Godin Share This [...]

Yes, so many of us are tapping into the same wisdom of the universe, but we are interpreting it through our own filters & lives … and different people will resonate w/ different filters.

And it does help when the trolls make typos.

Agreed, we choose our response. And my response was to create a video to share w/ my tribe, so you all can learn from my experience. Really, my business/teaching/coaching/blogging gives purpose to everything that I do in my life, including all the crappy stuff … which completely recharacterizes everything that happens “to” me. As I have said on twitter, “at least this will make a good blog post.”

I've had some serious internet meltdowns over the years after being attacked in forums… I know how upsetting it can be. You don't suck!

Elizabeth, Interesting timing. Only the day before, Seth Godin wrote this about Trolls. http://bit.ly/eVJLf
I commend you for your honesty and for showing your vulnerability (first reaction) and strength (seizing the opportunity to share your process with others). It also reminded me of a powerful thing Michael Beckwith said: “Mediocrity always attacks Excellence.”

One thing that struck me was when you said you immediately turned to your….community. I think it's great to turn to friends for support. Friends aren't always available the moment we need consolation. Connection with Source/God/Higher Power/ Higher Self always is. And that's the core of living our truth, don't you think? Also, what we focus our attention on is what we get more of — wanted or unwanted. So best to move on to something wanted as quickly as possible. In this case, I bet your troll helped you get even stronger in your desire and appreciation for a supportive, receptive tribe that really loves what you have to offer. Yay, Elizabeth!

I really think this issue is the hardest to get over… The fear of getting hammered. I've feared sending out an email newsletter for fear some wouldn't like it.. But you are right, it's validation that what you are doing is making an impact. Thanks for sharing your experience. Gives us all hope!

I was actually surprised that this guy bothered you so much. It just reminded me that we're all human and feel vulnerable no matter how bold. Just made me respect you even more. Sort of a coincidence – Last night, I was searching for some some help with a WordPress issue I was having and came across this kid with Cerebral Palsy responding to trolls on his YouTube tutorial site. It's hard to believe anyone is cruel enough to bash him, but it just goes to show you trolls are usually pretty pathetic people – http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tomrogers12…

Well stated, Elizabeth,

And, you do ROCK. Thanks for the authenticity. It's been a real treat watching you evolve over the past few years. Keep up the great work.

Write on!~

Lisa~

I saw that post by Seth (and my friend Scott Stratten wrote about it
today – http://un-marketing.com/blog ) amazing how so many of us tap
into the same message!!

My connection with my soul gets all mucked up when I get infected this
way. And, with Twitter/iPhone I am almost always connected with my
tribe!

And if I'm afraid of sending the Ezine or posting the blog/video/
tweet, then I *know* I need to do it!!

Amd that really shows how important it is for me to share that I still
get upset, scared, etc. It's not like something magical happens when
you start to play big/full out …. actually, the stakes are bigger.
It's even more levels of risk. It's just doing the scary stuff anyway,
and building in a support structure for when we get attacked,
overwhelmed, or freaked out.

Hey, it's upsetting to be trolled, but it looks like the bloke has problems of his or her own and is using your blog as a projection platform for his/ her woes. I think people are rarely vitriolic without carrying baggage of their own (which you allude to when talking about the stuff on your troll's online properties-these things are not create overnight). Your response was certainly the right one, though.

AND, it was because of your writing and tweeting about your troll post that brough ME to your site, and got ME to subscribe and follow what you do. So every cloud (even the troll coloured ones, ESPECIALLY the troll coloured ones) has a silver lining. I think it's cool.

Hi Elizabeth, that troll has now officially crowned you a Tall Poppy! He has acknowledged your success (bet he's kicking himself now.)
Thanks for the advice regarding how to handle this. I'm still a Baby Poppy, so haven't encountered it – yet. But I have heard of it and wondered how I'd react or handle the situation. After watching your video, I now think that I could cope. Now that's one less unconscious fear for me to worry about.
So thank-you so much for that. I love your positive approach.
Hope the rest of your week is Troll-Free.

Great insight as always. It's one thing when a troll or “bully” attacks a fabulous woman with a huge support network like you. I can't help but think of all the lonely, vulnerable students online, or the boy Monica alluded to. Geesh! Trolls suck!

Dear Liz,
OK THANK YOU for this video, to be perfectly honest with you, you remarks on trolls in this video are more true than you know, I am using the very same system (ignoring them rather than pounding back) for a long time and the funny thing is I have learnded that from listening to your “live your truth” videos – of which I follow not always right away (sometimes a few days later) but faithfull. I have had and still have my trolls on a daily base – I do political blogging and lobbying and every time I post a blog i get two sorts of emails and comments, some are open for discussion and want to talk and alot of them are troll mails full of hatred. What I have learned through out my carrieer is – the more hatefull the troll mail is the more true is what I say and the same counts for you.

And when this guy is so hard pounding and insulting you than, though I know it hurts in the very first moment, this should only proof to you that you are SPEAKING THE TRUTH, you are 100% right and this guy is nothing but jelious and cant handle the it.

As far as I am concerned I have taken so much out of your videos and learned so much and I hope you do not let a undereducated jelious moron like this guy discourage you.

You are my hero.

God Bless you and thanks

Oh, those nasty (very unhappy) trolls.

Rise above…and let your community defend you.

Spot on advice, Elizabeth!

We've got your back

Mollie

[...] tomorrow because by tomorrow, I’ll be back to wearing my business hat. I’ll be back to saying don’t feed the trolls and telling myself to keep a tight budget on my emotional [...]

As I was watching the video a really spooky thing happened.

I was drinking a glass of water and as I went to take another mouthful the light must have some how reflected off the bottom of the glass. I lifted the glass slowly because I was engrossed in what you were saying and it looked for all the world that a guy was coming out of the bushes behind you.

I nearly filled my underwear with surprise. For a split second I thought the troll had come to get you.

I just thought I'd share that with you for no particular reason other than to say I'm relieved you haven't just been axed up in your own backyard.

Good post although you do babbel a lot

…and wow; look at how much value YOU've created for others from, well… lemons. Way to go! Thanks.

@DaveCharbonneau
Guy who does stuff
http://www.SelfEnterpriser.com

referred to your site via @CarlaYoung (then promptly RT'd to 30,000 +/-)

There will always be those who disagree and those who are disrespectful. I got some abusive responses years ago when I attempted to warn folks about the disastrous consequences of a G.W. Bush Presidency. (this was BEFORE he was elected, btw).

I wonder if I would get the same reaction today? It wouldn't surprise me if some of those folks still don't get it, so I can't honestly rule it out.

So even though such episodes can be quite upsetting, I agree with your advice as the best possible response.

The way you pronounce “cliché” is so clisshayed.

The way you pronounce “cliché” is so clisshayed.

In our case of our Open Source project, the 'trolls' are low-ranked contributors who chose to hit out at our top ranked contributors. What i noticed about them is that their words are patronising, subjective (going personal with claims of been tyrannized by the majority that voted for the top ranked ones) which reminds me of those 'holier than thou' cults i used to come across. And they have a tendency to explain away their own limitations with a stroke and yet hit out at our larger than usual deeds as pathetic. You cannot help taking this trolls as kids who are out to hate you instead of working with the established goodwill. And they do not really leave. They are always lurking. Where do they get their energy from?

Trolls are pretty pathetic, and I generally pay little attention to them, but I noticed one on YouTube (not even directed at me personally) with the handle “OllyJollyOrange” who apparently posts numerous messages on videos he thinks are “evil,” and tries to impose his screwy religious views on everyone viewing a particular video. I flagged him and emailed YouTube the message that he should be banned. I think you should market a “Don't Feed The Trolls” poster.

I don't have any advanced degrees in psychology.

I was initially completely baffled by trolls because I can't imagine having the impulse to post hater comments or the impulse to troll their audience.

'Ignore the haters . . . completely' IS the right approach. Some problems do actually have blindingly simple solutions and this is one of those rare problems that does. Trolls actually hate being ignored since the entire reason they are trolling is that no one is paying any attention to them (usually because they are extremely annoying people).

BUT . . .

Over the years, I have noticed that haters usually hate on, and trolls usually troll the audiences of . . . people they actually like or are jealous of in some way. They hate on (or they troll the audiences of) 1. people who are beautiful, or 2. people who are talented, or 3. both.

SO . . .

We should . . . kinda . . . take trolling and hating as a compliment . . .

and then go back to ignoring it completely.

Very informative, and some good advice! I will admit, I respond to some trolls (16 years on Net) but I have to do it calmly.

I was very badly harrased by two troll on a web MMRPG called Iron Grip: Marauders the two trolls are called Erih Mann and Redoctober, fucking Erih Mann first stole all my bases in the game and insulted me in the process, then Erih Mann joind forces with another troll asshole called Redoctober together they ridiculed, harrased me, and scold my very good ideas to make the game better in it's forum, they keep going off-topic and shit, insulted me and shit, it got SO badly I got login-blocked for a week and they didn't get punished, I am SO MAD when the login-blocked for a week ends I'm going to demand the stupid fucking moronic moderator LAYLA to delete my Iron Grip: Marauders profile so I don't have to bother with the fucking piece of shit game (it never did worked at all any way, the beta version was fun and all but now it's a fucking piece of shit and I never want to play it no more)!

But before that I was being harassed at http://social.bioware.com by a arrogant troll profile called BOGSNOT1, he truely beilieved that the reason for the “weapon locker freezing/crashing glitch was cause by the windows 7's windows UEF (or was it UGS) the piont is that it was not that but the interaction between the Mass Effect 2 game and it's down loadable content or DLC's, it got SO badly that I got banned and I was able to get myself unbanned but BOGSNOT1 got me banned AGAIN, and the moderators I blame and truly hate from now on are Chris Prestly and Pacifism or something!

I fucking AGREE, I fucking HATE TROLLS!

I also like her videos, it's very calming to hear she hate having a harder then usual life too (JUST LIKE ME!)!

I truly HATE Troll's complaint, Troll's complaint ARE full of cliche (and constantly with the typos… and they say the most horrible… I REALLY don't want to go
there, been having trouble sleeping from all this). I'm sure there's people who'd be sad to say that  I don't suck too (BUT I HIGHLY DOUBT IT),
but I'm sure all of us viewers & friends don't think I suck too (but I have my doubts about that too)!

Some people are “JUST FUCKING TOO ADDICTED” to it!

I've also had some serious internet meltdowns over the past year too, being constantly
attacked in video game related forums… I know how truly “very upsetting”, “very unsettling”, AND “VERY DISTURBING” it can be too. You don't suck (they fucking suck) and you have the RIGHT to be mad at them too (for me I constantly desire revenge against them all “all the time”)!

it's the “they never shut up” part that really gets me burning with very blind rage!

But “THAT'S” my problem in the first place, “I CAN'T do it calmly” and that's because I'm governmental y registered as Autistic sense high school (and that was nearly 12 years ago I think)!

My case of autism make me “EXTREMELY SENSITIVE” to tastes, sounds, smells, touches, and “especially” interactions to others (and I'm unaware of offending people too)!

For as long as I remember I was made fun of (all the time) by people who never understood me or never wanted too in the first place! Sense elementary school/pre-school to high school I was forced to take “special-ed. classes (AND I HATED IT SO MUCH) and I was harassed to the point I “from now on”  suffer from very blind fits of rage and strong cases paranoia (and I hold grudges to those I HATE the most)!

“Ione Junior high school” was “the WORST experience” in my whole life (in all the schools I took), “Ione Junior High School” was the only school I remember getting the “most detention at” (all because of the other kids harassing me in to trouble) “I got punished but they did not (and that's not fail at all), Ion Junior High is also were I developed my very personal problems/issues with “blond girls/women, Mexicans (or at least one with a very large nose “with wrinkles”), very old female teachers, having me P.E. shoes stolen/crime, “AND” other “SPECIAL-ED problem-ed people”!

In/at “Amador High School” “it was just as bad as “Ione Junior High School”, at Amador I had my launch tickets stolen from me, creative metals/welding class projects destroyed, my creative metals/welding class shows stolen, followed around school, rocks thrown at me, and “ONCE”  I even had my backpack stolen from me (it had 5 pencils, 3 pens, 2 erasers, and 2 PlayStation-1 strategy guides (one was Final Fantasy 7, and the other was Legacy of Kain: SoulReaver), together they cost about $50.00! In/at “Amador High School” I developed issies with fat people (I had a very fat teacher), female welders (I had a very bad female teacher), and crowed s of people,
even at college (in my first year) I was being harassed too!

I also have issues with cops” (I was harassed by a police officer “NOT once BUT twice, on two very different occasions and for no good reason too”!
Very nosy naybers (I was accused of trying to break in to others peoples houses on 2 occasions “witch I did not do”)!
Old ladies again” (once during a flee-market (main street sized garage sale) in my town, I was accused of stealing a toy car (which I did not do), she grabed me by the wrist and dragged me around main street during the free-market looking for a cop, after my innocents was proven, me and my mother learned that we can't trust the people around us anymore (I was but a child then)!
Certain family members: (my older blond sister used me as her personal slave until she graduated from college(what a fucking bitch) and her husband “my brother in-law” even threatened me he'd cut my throat open, bleed me dry, and throw my body into the wilderness (never to be found), sense then “I ALWAYS” lock my door at night “ALWAYS”!

And finally, the very rude, nasty, and or stupid authority figures: I can think of one person who was the “VERY” first person to torment me, he was a man of many crimes, sins, skills, and talents and his name is “Kenneth Lewis” or Ken Lewis for short! He was a man who said he took all kinds of drugs, he was a man who said he dranked all kinds of alcohol, and he was a man who claimed he had the most sex with all kinds of women (AND why do I know all this, because he NEVER shuts up about it, he ALWAYS tells to me about it “and I hated every minute of it”), he was “THE VERY FIRST” person to ever harassed me “EVER” (and after he still kept harassing me, everyone began harassing me ever sense)! He always claimed he worked as a cook at a restaurant, a construction worker, a delivery man, a trucker, and now he works at a golf-course “even after he left my mom for the third or fourth time AFTER hitting me in the face, WITH MY $500 GLASSES ON” (AND I still think he strangled me with that black belt when I was 12), But all I know is that he mentally torture me for nearly 16 years (and that was nearly five years ago)!

So you see, “I'm a very emotional and extremely sensitive person (very
impressionable at the time too back then)”,now I'm 27 years old now and
very badly mentally and emotionally scar-ed for life (I think?), I have
no car of
my own, I have no job to earn money, I have no home of my own so I have
to live with my mother, I'm all out of money now, I'm autistic, I have
anger issues, I have selective memory, I think I'm manic-depressive, I
truly believe there are people out to get me, and on
very/extremely/beyond rare occasions I have nightmares that nearly
kills me (one nightmare I was shot into space without a spacesuit and
nearly suffocated to death, and the
other I was being electrocuted nearly to death), I did have a few
nightmares about ken…. I really don't want to talk about!!!!!!!!

If you think I'm fucked up just tell me please???

but it never works with certain troll, there addicted to it, they'll harass you even if you try ti ignore them, I suggest revenge!

This is such a brilliant post and perfect timing for me and other people in my community. I'm going to bookmark it so I can send it to friends when they have a mean troll getting them down!

Sweet lady,

You've made my day!
I've been attacked by internet trolls (for over 7 years) and I finally figured out that they're just people without hope, or ambition: They're insanely jealous of anyone possessing something they want, but can never have, lacking the wisdom and understanding as to why…..