This graphic is floating around the Web in one form or the other. This version I found

at The Austrian Economists.

Trolls breed in dark anonymity online, breathing foul odors through cyberspace and causing enough mayhem to stress out even the Winchester brothers.

Everything good must have a bad side. For the Internet, it is trolls, hecklers who want to provoke, attack, and cause general chaos before moving on to the next victim. These nasty virtual creatures spread vitriolic prose, hoping it will catch like a virus at a site and are only too happy to engage with someone who dares disagree with them. They enjoy adding fuel to the cyber fire caused by their bad behavior. They thrive on it. Unfortunately, they leave a lot of hurt feelings in their wake. (See Wikipedia for more details on trolls.)

What you should know about trolls:

Trolls post anonymously. Typically, trolls will only use a first name, a fake name or a pseudonym like cuzgurlzrul152 when they spread their hate. Few are brave enough to put their real name, Web site and e-mail into a form so others can find them. However, anger THEM enough and they won’t hesitate to find YOU on other Web sites.

Obsessive passion creates trolls. Some people become extremely passionate about a topic in forums, chats and comments. Sometimes, this passions turns otherwise nice people into trolls. The perceived anonymity of the Internet allows this transition to happen without any apparent backlash on the troll.

Kindness means nothing. You could leave an innocuous comment like, "Thanks! terrific article." and a troll will tear you apart. This is common on sites like Digg and YouTube. Note some of the hate comes from people with blank profiles.

Reason does not exist. Never, ever try to reason with a troll. You can be nice, with sound arguments to your case, and the trolls will pile on more hateful drivel. Don’t bother with reason if they want to argue with you. You know those guys on talk radio who call in and talk so fast no one can get a word in edgewise? They have that hysterical edge and are determined to talk you down until you finally give up and let them have the point. Trolls are no different; they just work on a different medium.

Spammers can be trolls. People are passionate about certain issues, like politics and religion. One particular client I work with supports an issue that is contentious in some areas. Groups that are against any reforms in this area constantly leave the same, condescending, hate-ladden comments on blogs to discredit the opposition. Obviously, the groups are copying and pasting some "approved" text from someone and using that to spam comment sections. Delete these immediately.

Trolls sometimes stalk you. Sometimes trolls become so obsessed with your view point, they will follow you to other blogs and Web sites, or they will post nasty comments about you everywhere BUT your own site. You cannot control what others allow on their sites, but you CAN control what comments you allow at your own site.

Don’t give trolls power. When a troll strolls into your Web territory, act fast. Delete their comments. Block them, if they continue. Legal action is sometimes necessary – but libel is difficult to prove, as attorney Joe Martineau discusses in this podcast.

If you haven’t already, create a policy for comments and chats at your blog or Web site. Make it public and be sure to address troll-like behavior immediately. It varies what posts are considered troll-like behavior and what aren’t. If trolls become a problem, get a program that allows you to trace ISP addresses so you know when the same troll visits your site.

Some site administrators happily allow troll comments to beef up site hits, while others delete immediately. You have to decide which procedure is best for your audience.

Tomorrow, author J.R. Turner guest blogs about her experience with trolls – one that lead to legal action.