Anyone else running into trolls here? (the non-fantasy kind)

Advance apologies to the moderators if this isn't the right place. I couldn't find an off-topic section but I feel this is relevant to Roll20 and the community in general. While I won't point out any specific accounts, I'd like to ask the community in general if my group and I have the worst luck in the history of pen and paper, or if this is a trend. I've found us a solid GM, after going through nearly 6 other GM's and 4-5 spare players. I'm in 2 really good groups so far for different games but when I ask questions about other people's games to see if it's something I'd like to join, I get hostile messages from people with some serious attitude issues. On top of that, I've actually been cyber-stalked from here, by an individual using the same account name, to Reddit. He spammed my threads with messages that no one should play with our group (I think I know who it is, again not saying but it was a previous GM for our group for all of 4 minutes). Now, invariably there will be someone here posting and saying that it's our fault, etc. But until you've sat in our Teamspeak server and listened to these other players and GM's, I don't expect anyone to fully believe some of the crazy stories I could tell you, just from the past 3 weeks! Many join our games just to troll us and don't even have any intention of playing, in fact they insist on talking for over half an hour on how bad the system is. So, to the point: is anyone else noticing a trend of increased hostility and psychosis on this site? My friends were pretty shocked by what we've been dealing with and it's putting a very negative perspective on online-roleplay for a lot of us. I'm hoping it's the summer-time teeny-boppers who are off of school and once Fall gets here things will get back to normal?

I've heard about these things, but I have not quite witnessed them myself. The only issue I ever run into is no-shows. I don't mind if someone signs up then things happen and they can't do it. But when they don't tell me (ever), it gets really disheartening. If people are stalking you, talk to the Devs. They might have measures in place if there are acts of misconduct happening.

Thank you Jake, I've spoken to the moderators on both sites and the posts have been deleted but that's about all they could do. The Reddit moderators informed me the account looked like it was made specifically to post that comment, as it was made just before with no other posts. Fortunately most people didn't listen to the nonsense. It just seems like so many people have a chip on their shoulders or no ability to put any depth into their games, etc. I've been a member for a while and haven't really run into all that many problems until this summer. I just want to play some games man! Lol.

Other than "no-shows?" Not really. Some people's gaming habits and styles just don't match. But you can just agree to disagree and part ways. To have someone following you around and harassing you; that's just wrong. All over a game or even a session?

Yeah, a session that never happened because he spent almost 40 minutes detailing how we couldn't have served in the military for our backstory because we were too low level and that Luke Skywalker started at level 1...at midnight. Needless to say we just left without an ill word but he took it personally. But some other people have just been straight up ridiculous. People wanting to use Force Powers without force training, people going back on their agreements out of character on how they are going to play, yelling at each other in chat, etc. Thankfully I have a few friends with which to play and we found a GM, but it was a long road to get here haha. We still don't have a full party and I really don't want one at this point.

We're hoping to add more pre-game screening elements to Looking for Group in the future. That said, we actively encourage doing your own smart screening (anybody asking for parents' names is somebody not taking any crap :) and erring on the side of excellence (anyone putting out that much effort... it they're a troll, at least it's going to be magically elaborate!).

I appreciate the tips Nolan, I like the second post and that level of interest is hard to find. I guess we were just in a hurry to get in some gaming for a system only a handful of people are using, that's on me as the groups representative. And yes, if you can add some tools that would be great. I would say a rating system of some sort for individual users, but that could too easily be abused by the same people we're encountering. Regardless, I recognize this as a drawback of the human condition and don't hold Roll20 or any of the staff responsible. I was just more concerned if it's a prevalent thing.

TBH I am surprised by this, I have yet to encounter such issues at all. The only problem I have ever encountered was perhaps maybe one Player who was quite rule-lawyer-ee and another who was... perverse in everything he tried to do. Though I am the DM so I have power to just remove such players. If its your DM, I can see how you might be irritated by such behaviours.

In my experience Trolls only troll because they love the attention, no matter how negative. They soon get bored when they fail to get a reaction or their 'wit' isn't there for everyone to see anymore. To combat trolls you need to ignore trolls, highlight each incident to the site mods and leave it at that. The comments can be deleted, accounts can be banned, ip addresses can be banned. If a troll is so determined that they create new accounts and continue with the abuse ignore them and report them... again, deleted, banned etc. They'll soon get bored when all of their 'efforts' go to waste. Even persistent trolls have a limit on how much time they'll spend on a person, just remember that the time limit will be reset with any response you give them, thereby feeding their habit.