I said it a long time ago, but...

I think that the reason it is so easy to fall into the trap of responding to flames and trolls is that it is so hard to develop a mindset, an understanding, that doing nothing is doing something.

If you can get your mind around the idea that the worst thing that can happen to anyone posting on a forum is NO RESPONSE (there is even a thread currently -- one of dozens such threads -- lamenting being the death of a thread -- creating threads to which nobody responds)....anyway, if you can get your mind around how much it bothers you when nobody responds to your posts, then you might begin to be able to resist the temptation to respond to a troll. NOT responding is getting revenge. Nothing bothers a troll more.