Help: Dealing with Trolls - The New Order

Duskfall · **Help: Dealing with Trolls** 03-11-2012

Okay that title most likely got your attention, or you're just that bored. This is something that worries me though, so please bear with me.
Being part of the My Little Pony fandom, a lot of people don't really look at us in a particularly good light, especially on the internet. Now while that wouldn't really be a problem for both parties, as we would try to avoid each other, what bothers me the most are the people who actively seek bronies for the sole purpose of pissing them off.

In particular, a gaming forum (a relatively new one) for bronies specifically seems to have trolls incoming. What I'm asking is, well, how do you deal with trolls? The admins and mods, as well as other members can already identify this guy as a troll even though he hasn't posted anything yet.
One of the first red flags we got about him was his username "TheAdventurousAnus". While on any other forum this might be interpreted as someone just being stupid, bronies generally don't screw around like that. There are three possibilities at this point: he is a troll, he is being piss stupid, or he's just part of the arse end of the fandom. Detailed on his profile, his only hobby is "Stalking your mom." Again, not really an indicator of a troll, but it definitely raises the red flag.
The mods and admins did some further research on the person. The admin identified him as a troll who constantly bothers him on YouTube and one of the mods found a pastebin created by our suspect troll that explicitly says that he trolls bronies for fun. This pretty much closed the deal and now we KNOW that he is a troll out to piss us off.

Now, I'm pretty sure if you've looked deep enough into our fandom, we have a motto: Love and Tolerate. It mostly works when its only insults coming our way. However, what worries me is that this troll might have friends and that they might wreck havoc on our forum. Loving and Tolerating isn't going to work there.
We really would like to ban this guy before he causes trouble. The problem is, we can't do just that. The host of the forums says that the person has to actually cause trouble before we can ban him.
Like I have said before, this guy hasn't done anything yet and that's what bothers me the most. He could be waiting for friends to help screw up our forum.

Currently, the admins and mods have two solutions.
1) Wait for this person to actually cause trouble before moving in for the kill, but also risk having more people to deal with because of the possibility of this guy having friends
2) Ban him right now, but risk getting in trouble with the forum host.

Is there anything else we can do?

Naked Crook · 03-11-2012

Wait, wait, wait, wait...

YOUR HOST says you cannot ban them? Who is your host? When you say host, I am thinking the domain service provider. For example, my host is Byethost...it is a company that I give money to to keep my site going.

Who is your host?

If you are using incorrect terminology, who is the one telling you that you cannot ban members?

cubanpete24 · 03-11-2012

General rule of thumb for online forums, regardless of what the forum is for, is that if someone gets on the Admin's bad side, he gets banned.

if he makes another account...you IP ban him.

If your forum won't allow IP bans, just know this, it takes more effort to make an account...then it does to mark a checkbox, and ban someone.

Duskfall · 03-11-2012

the service provider says we cant ban him, sorry for the incorrect terminology

cubanpete24 · 03-11-2012

Then just wait for him to do something stupid

We've had this before, someone who's been banned...and makes another account, posing as somebody else.

We don't ban him, even though we know he's someone who's been banned. We humor them, and give them a chance.

Duskfall · 03-11-2012

It's disappointing that there's nothing else we can do, but I suppose when you put it that way it makes the situation seem less dreadful. Thank you!

Naked Crook · 03-11-2012

Your service provider has no right to tell you who you can ban or who you cannot ban? Who is your provider?

Duskfall · 03-11-2012

I actually don't know, I'm not an admin or mod. I'll ask him though.

Naked Crook · 03-11-2012

What is your website called?

If you are an admin, the power to ban is not limited by anyone. Admins have full control over their website, and nobody, not even their webhost provider, can tell them who they can or cannot ban.

Duskfall · 03-11-2012

http://nintenbrony.forumotion.com/