The Blackboard

Every now and then, blogs attracted visitors who are less than well behaved. These visitors may sometimes say useful things sometimes, but they also have a tendency to start fights. In fact, reading their comments, one often suspects they actually want to start fights rather than advance any conversation.

These visitors are known as “Trolls”. They are difficulty to deal with.

To make it a little easier to deal with the occasional troll my blog attracts, I have written and inconvenient to use Wordpress plugin. The benefits of the plugin are, after you upload and activate the plugin:

1. For the first “N” minutes, the comments from individual trolls will display to the troll only. After that, they will display. This permits the trolls to participate in conversations to some extent, but also gives you time to edit or delete the more egregious aspects of the comment.
2. You can add multiple trolls.

The inconvenient features of this plugin will be obvious: You need to manually edit your theme and some of the plugin code.

Steps to use plugin

1. Click to download the plugin Troll Control Plugin (zipped).
2. Unzip the plugin. Near the top of the plugin find a block of code that looks like this:

   // edit parameters in parameters in the next four lines block to match any INDIVIDUAL troll.
$the_troll_names=array('Troll','Troll Sock Puppet');
$the_troll_email=array('troll_email@gmail.com');
$the_troll_IP=array('99.99.99','77.77.88.13' );
$the_troll_opt['the_troll_minutes'] =300;
 

$the_troll_opt['IPs']=$the_troll_IP; // don't edit.
$the_troll_opt['the_troll_name']=$the_troll_names; // don't edit.
$the_troll_opt['the_troll_email']=$the_troll_email; // don't edit.
array_push($the_trolls_parameters,$the_troll_opt); // don't edit. this adds your troll with all his descriptors to the list of trolls
// END BLOCK.

3. Edit the first four lines to identify your troll. If your troll visits using the name “Mike” change array(‘Troll’,'Troll Sock Puppet’) to array(‘Mike’). Edit the emails, and IP addresses accordingly. You can have more than 1 identifier in any field.
4. Decide how many minutes you want to delay the troll. I set 300 minutes as the default. This way, I can go to bed at night and reduce the risk of troll eruptions. Don’t delay more than 3 days. To save CPU the plugin skips comments more than 3 days old. (If someone needs to be delayed more than 3 days, you should just ban them.)
5. If you have a second troll, copy the whole block, re-paste, the edit.
6. Save the edited file.
7. Back up your version of WP. (All instructions for uploading plugins say this as a precaution.)
8. Upload into your plugins directory and activate. It will seem nothing happens.
9. Visit the design to edit your Wordpress theme. Open your comments.php file. Find the “foreach” statement (or whatever php command your theme editor used. Add two lines of code to set a value a variable I named $block. It should look sort of like this:
   
   foreach ($comments as $comment) :

   if(function_exists('Check_The_Troll') ){$block=Check_The_Troll();}
else{$block=0;}


   Now, find the bit of code that actually displays your comment author, email, comment numbers and the comment. Wrap an “if” statement around that, sort of like this:

   if($block!=1){
PUT All CODE TO DISPLAY COMMENTS IN HERE
}

   If done correctly, the troll control rules will now be enforced. If you don’t know any php, and can’t tell where php code starts and html code begins, get a friend to do this for you.

When this is running during the “troll time out” period, the blog owner will see the troll comments, along with some information added to let you know it is a troll comment. The troll will see the comment and will think others are seeing it. No one else will see the comment.

If you don’t answer the troll, this functionality enforces the “Don’t feed the troll” rule. If this plugin is not enough to deter your particular troll, you will need to escalate to banning the troll.

After I’ve fully tested this inconvenient plugin, I’m going to create a user interface to help bloggers add and subtract troll data more easily. However, users will always have to edit their theme a little. I’ve also modified the “get_recent_comments” plugin and “subscribe_to_comments” plugin to further isolate the troll. I’ll explain those modifications when this is perfected.

Do me a favor!

This plugin is currently running at my blog. I tested it at my testblog, but there are always limits to self-tests. You could help me test the plugin by entering a comment and claiming your name is “Troll” or “Troll Sock Puppet”. Then email a friend and ask them if they can see your comment.

Report back!

Update
1:07 pm. It looks like a number of Troll Sock Puppets have appeared. Thank you. I noticed the comments were properly “disappeared” in comments, but appeared under “recent comments” in the sidebar. I modified the recent comments plugin and now I don’t see them there either.

1:23 Comparison of comments seen by admin and by non-troll visitor. (Click for larger.)

Figure 1: Comments as seen by logged in administrator.

Figure 2: Comments as seen by non-trolls.