sooo...I've decided generally not to participate in any of these lil councils/senates/federations/alliances et al. for many reasons; they don't really do anything for me to enhance my game, but if other people find them fun, so be it.
that being said...the GalCiv forums have mostly been known to be friendly, inviting, and above the trolling (generally, we've definitely have had our share too...I can think of one particularly lovely individual that just loved nitpicking Frogboy).
Now I am not defending the actions of an individual that posted, again, that he's leaving these forums; we all make conscious decisions about our words and actions, but there are people in these council/senate threads that I am...disappointed in...that should know better.
A Troll is someone that thrives on the attention of others; whether its to get a rise out of them by inflaming them OR a person that loves to whine as loudly as possible when things don't get the way they think they should.
In either case, its not the Troll but those that respond that be responsible for the future actions of that person. Only way to deal with a troll is to ignore them, not stoop to their level.
Now, I am not trying to paint this individual solely as a troll...they were young and immature, and threads like "They Dissed Us, Let's Diss Them!" don't follow the 'culture' that we have established here on the GalCiv forums but the angst of teenagers today who are used to the taunting and mean-spirited attacks common in MMORPGs and the such, really isn't so surprising.
I think that its important, and especially certain veteran players in particular, that we kindly, but firmly, let new or younger or even veteran players that decide to troll/spam/"get uppity", that kind of behavior is immature and inappropriate. Also, we need to remember ourselves not to be immature either. A joke is one thing, but over two week's worth of joking on the same person/empire over a multitude of threads gets old to read over and over again.
anyhow, thats it
Thanks guys
-Silver-