Thread:Fobarimperius/@comment-9340689-20151116022436/@comment-961279-20151119073644

A couple of years ago, I got sucked into a troll's game. I was really distressed over what he was saying, to the point where I was afraid he was going to be able to find me in real life, even though he was on the opposite side of the world, based on some of the IP addresses he used. A couple of the things he had said were a bit violent and disturbing, and he even began bothering me at a different website that I participated in. I tried talking with him to get him to change his behavior, but it went nowhere.

When I talked with one of the Wikia staff members about this, they finally had to tell me that I had fallen for it and they weren't going to discuss it any more. It woke me up.

Now when I see a vandal in action, a lot of times I'm kind of amused by it. "Oh, look. Here's yet another vandal who thinks they're unstoppable and are trying to make people afraid of them." No matter what they say or do, it doesn't bother me any more, despite any vulgar language, or even with the one that liked to add pictures that were pretty graphic. And for the ones that are trying to make people upset, a lot of times they start showing their frustration that I'm not upset by what they're doing. Sometimes the more they taunt and insult you, the closer they are to where they're going to give up.

I've been on wikis for about seven years now and an admin for at least five. I'm still here. Most of the vandals I've come across aren't. They've given up when it becomes harder and harder for them to keep vandalizing.

This particular person may keep at it for a few more years, but if they do, we look at it this way: all they've proved is that they're not really a person worth knowing. In thirty years, no one will even care that they spent part of their life committing vandalism and they'll be forgotten. They won't have done anything that sets them apart from the seven billion other people on this planet.