trollpolice.com

The following is just a small snippet of a fantastic guide I found here: http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/troll.htm

Take the time to read the full guide for webmasters in dealing with trolls.

The term “troll” can mean a number of different things, but in essence, a troll is a person who aims to have ‘pleasure’ at your expense. There are five main types of trolls. The first four are people who pretend to be someone that they are not - they create personae that you think are real, but they know is fictitious.

Playtime Trolls: an individual plays a simple, short game. Such trolls are relatively easy to spot because their attack or provocation is fairly blatant, and the persona is fairly two-dimensional.

Tactical Trolls: This is where the troller takes the game more seriously, creates a credible persona to gain confidence of others, and provokes strife in a subtle and invidious way.

Strategic Trolls: A very serious form of game, involving the production of an overall strategy that can take months or years to develop. It can also involve a number of people acting together in order to invade a list.

Domination Trolls: This is where the trollers’ strategy extends to the creation and running of apparently bona-fide mailing lists.

Psycho Trolls: These trolls have an unconscious psychological need to feel good by making others feel bad. Such people may use their real names on the internet, and they may not even realise that they are “trolling”.