When is a troll not a troll?

How many times have you read a post on here that seems perfectly plausible, only to see the following posted directly after it?



I dare say that sometimes it's deserved, especially in some areas of Ajarn like the Soapbox, or the Virtual Pub, but one area of growing concern I have is when it occurs in the Newbie Zone.

Ajarn Forum can seem a bit of a boys club at times. Forum Elders certainly seem to think they have the run of the place, and to some extent we accept this as alpha-male scent marking, a natural part of most communities, but there's a very real danger that we sometimes lose sight of the real purpose and mission of this forum, to be an informative resource to teachers and newbies to Thailand.

Imagine you have just taken the time to sign up to this forum. You are looking for some friendly advice on your move to Thailand and are full of trepidation on what might be a huge life changing decision. You carefully construct your post, believing it to be pertinent to your situation, and submit it in the area of the forum which re-assures them that there are no stupid questions.

Your first reply is

Some people might not understand this Internet terminology and be confused as to why this term applies to you, some might and take offence at the slur, some might just take it in their stride and banter back. Unfortunately the former two situations happen far too often, and on their first thread. This means that people immediately leave and never come back.

This is clearly not the kind of thing that we want to see. Fine, we don't like the wool being pulled over our eyes, but I would much rather see a forum filled with informative, if implausable hypothetical situations answered by our users than a forum filled with insults, and smilies such as or where potentially we have a new member of our community.

Let's nurture our new members, not scare them off. Make people feel welcome, tell them if they seem to be on the right trap, but let's just drop this obsession with trolls. It's not 2004 anymore, and people calling out trolls where a genuine newbie question is being asked does far more damage to this forum's reputation, than just taking a real troll post at face value does, so swallow your troll hunting instincts, and let's keep this forum good-humoured, informative and welcoming to new blood.