You know, when you label a person a troll, you've accepted his challenge to engage in combat, and then we have a nasty exchange of multiple combative posts. If you ignore a troll, we don't have combat.
I see two examples of Mudcatters accepting troll bait today (a brawl in a Concertina thread????). We don't prohibit trolls here at Mudcat - we prohibit combat. If you engage a troll in combat, then we're forced to do something about it. And usually we eliminate the combat, not the one who allegedly provoked it. This may not seem fair to some people, but that't the way we do it. The lesson is:

Don't respond to trolls!

(You're asking for trouble if you label people "trolls" or announce "troll alerts.")

Thank you.
-Joe Offer-