Don’t OIL The Troll-Bots!

You may have read my previous Article, Don’t Feed the Trolls, posted at the bottom of the page, but I never in a million years thought I would find the need to write an article titled, Don’t Oil the Troll-Bots.

My first introduction to a Troll-Bot was on Reddit.com this week while being a commentator for a Dreams/Nightmare AMA, Ask Me Anything, in Real-Time. It was dream and nightmare interpretations for Halloween about how our Recurrent Nightmares can be a Gift-in-Disguise. It focuses on how we can find those gifts if we look beyond the fear from the nightmare or night-terror.

A nightmare scares you while you are sleeping, but a Night-terror wakes you up in a cold sweat.  

What may be scaring you awake in the middle of the night could be an important message that your Inner-selves, Spirit-guides, Guardian Angels, and Deceased Loved Ones do not want you to forget. This message may be a call-to-action to make a change in your life for peace-of-mind and a better, healthier lifestyle. The Nightmare may be pointing at a shift that needs to happen in your workplace as one dreamer was shared. She had Dream Tornadoes before something bad happened at work. Or your Nightmare could be shining a light in a dark area in your personal relationship that needs work.

Dreamers were invited to share their worst nightmares in the thread on the Reddit page. The link is shared at the bottom of the article.  

The Nightmares shared by Dreamers were incredibly insightful, filled with knowledge and all had a Gift in Disguise. The Reddit Forum was progressing nicely.

Suddenly two commenters started insulting each other viciously, swearing and… dropping the F-Bomb. Yes! Dropping the F-Bomb on each other on a public forum!

A Troll had slipped into our Nightmares.

I was mortified and began to perspire as I tried to delete the comments before any of the Dreams in the forum thought they would be attacked, too. This could make some of their worst nightmares come true. They were bearing their deepest darkest dream secrets. The thought of having someone attack them made me break out in a cold sweat.

I guess you could say I was having a Waking Nightmare. 

Deleting the waring commenters was impossible because I was not an administrator on the Reddit.Dream page. So I immediately sent an email to page administrator RadOwl- Jason DeBord.

Here is a small part of my big concern. I have modified the F-bombs.

“That’s a bot that checks spelling.” Jason wrote back in the email.  “Not my creation — it “trolls” subreddits. Someone created a bot to reply to it, so the ‘arguing’ you see is one piece of software fighting with another. I need to ban that bot!” Somewhat relieved, I returned to Reddit. Dreams and posted this for any Dreamers unfamiliar with Troll-Bots so they would not be afraid to post their nightmares.

“So, those of you new to Reddit, the comments on the bottom of the page that looks like two Dreamers dropping F-Bombs on each other and swearing like drunken sailors are actually Spelling-Troll-Bots. Yeah, I actually just learned about them myself. So ignore them! They are battling with each other, not interested in you, and we are working to get them removed. As Human Dreamers you are fine. This is a Battle of the Bad-Bots, Spelling Bots to be exact, smashing each other over their heads with words. It sounds like a funny Nightmare doesn’t it?”

What immediately came to mind was the image of two Tin-Men from the Wizard of Oz smashing each other over the head with their oil cans while the Scare Crow, the Lion, Dorothy, and Toto looked on in shock.

So what is a body to do if you get a Troll-Bot? You have to boot the Bot.

Here are some suggestions for using FaceBook as an example.

• Go to one of your Facebook Page posts on which there’s been some Troll-Bot activity and look for the Like total at the top and click on it. A popup window will come up that is actually intended to give you an opportunity to invite new fans to LIKE your Page.
• As you go down the list, you’ll see the Page activity from bots that are annoying you. To the right, you’ll see a gear icon with Drop-down arrow. One of the drop-downs will say Ban From Page.
• Click it! Now you are Done! You gave the Bot the Boot.

That Troll-Bot will never be able to automatically spam, annoy, or be vulgar on your page, or site again. In conclusion, it is most unfortunate that these actions must be taken on our social media sites. But, hey Toto, I guess we’re not in Kansas anymore. Don’t Oil your Troll Bots. Give them a big Boot.

Research Links:

BBC What is the Best Way to Stop Internet Trolls  http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160318-what-is-the-best-way-to-stop-internet-trolls

Overview For Commonmisspellingbot – Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/user/CommonMisspellingBot

Wikipedia-trolls  https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24063/internet-bot

Reddit Dream/Nightmare Link-https://www.reddit.com/r/Dreams/comments/9pvuss/hi_im_kathleen_okeefe_kanavos_dream_expertauthor/

How To Ban Trolls And Bots From Your Facebook Page – The .., https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/article/how-ban-trolls-and-bots-your-facebook

Don’t Feed the Trolls- http://kathleenokeefekanavos.com/dont-feed-the-trolls/