It is one of the characteristics of trolls that complaining about them just feeds them. (Musket recently took exception of the word "trolling" for his own behaviour, in favour of "a form of onanism". I wonder why he considers that more flattering, but it perfectly fits SRS's observation of metaphorical pornography.)

Thus, we have no choice but to ignore all trolling. The faint-hearted are best advised to ignore all messages from posters who are prone to trolling, or even to avoid all threads of suspicious titles - as Q writes.

In my view, the current specific problem of Mudcat is a different one: there are too few threads on either side of the Line that inspire a large spectrum of Mudcatters. As every kindergarten nanny knows, the trick is to organize attractive games. The Song Challenges were great fun for participants and readers, and created that kind of community spirit. For the BS section, ideal thread titles will be

• of worldwide interest, not only for insiders
• allowing for more than two opinions
• not repeating well-known discussions
• encouraging anyone to contribute own experiences
• encouraging deep thinking
• encouraging experts to contribute their knowledge.

The more such threads we have, the smaller the chance of boredom that tempts to troll or to read infested threads.