HTML Schnotml

They tell you it's straightforward. A monkey could do it. "Follow these simple instructions and you're done."

Yeah, right. To  my utter annoyance, the apparently simple act of installing a website program and getting the dratted thing to work has become the stuff of nightmares. I'm not particularly thick or anything, I just don't "get" code. Those WYSIWYG efforts that go with some of the sitebuilder programs such as Joomla simply don't do what you want, and you're pretty much stuck with the layout they give you if you don't know CSS.

Well I went on those online generator sites in the hope of taking a shortcut, but it seems that they don't work unless used in conjunction with other programs. Even then, you need a paid account on a site that promises to give you all that stuff for free. When you go for support, you are told you're ungrateful because it's all free. What's free? I wouldn't be looking for support if I was grateful, and it's hard to be grateful for something that doesn't work.

I had a go at efiction. It's a great and groovy program when you can get it to work. When you can't, it's the little things that drive you nuts. I get annoyed with the assertion that it's easy to change the site skins, but I don't like the ones they have, and making the ones I want appears to require a PHD in computer programming or something. Apart from which, the functionality I wanted isn't there - trying to upload a story from my PC to the site is a passport to disaster. Yet on Fanfic 4 All it works perfectly. Why does it work for them and not for me? I've had a whinge on the efiction forums, but haven't had a response yet.

Well there's a PHP fanfiction program that I'm muddling through with on another site (this is all being done on free website hosts where they have PHP and MySQL), and it seems to be okay except that it looks butt ugly. When it looks the way I want it to, I'll post links to it on my e-spaces and announce it with fanfare.

I'll let you know how it goes, but ATM it's making me tear my hair out.

Just sayin'.

Monster's Ball

Well, my new LJ community is taking off, and writers of note have already signed up for it. This should lead to more entries for the monthly writing contest, which is why I set it up. There is a cloud on the AOE horizon, though. Certain individuals seem to think I'm some sort of e-catamite or something. I'm not. Anyone who behaves badly, whether it's to me or not, is banned on principle. 

This is because, after a hard day's trolling and cyberbullying, monsters like to toddle off to respectable websites and pose as decent people. The website owners often appear to connive at this, which helps to isolate the victims. When pressed, the website owners say it's not their problem, and they won't deal with it until it is. Oh, and it's not conniving -- it's simply not their problem. It's even more complicated when the mods are matey with the trolls. To be fair, the ones I know don't encourage it, but they do allow their troll associates to create a veneer of respectability, win friends and influence people.

I'm not like that. If a victim can prove that they are being cyberbullied anywhere, I will ban the abuser so that, if they want to pretend to be respectable, they can't do it on my e-spaces. Therefore, the victim has at least one troll-free place to post where they won't see their trolls being welcomed. I never get matey with trolls.

Flaming isn't something I'd consider trolling, provided it's a one-off hit and run thing, and the flamer gives a reason for it, such as lousy writing or something. If a flamer repeatedly targets someone, that's trolling and that gets them banned from my e-spaces.

I don't do that thing of letting it slide and letting them stroll back into my e-spaces acting like they did nothing wrong. Once banned, always banned. The only exceptions I've ever made to that rule were for PWNage purposes, which have been achieved. I can prove that troll apologies have a best before date, and that they do this as standard. Who wants to associate with someone like that? Not me.

I shouldn't have to put it in the rules that a writer must have personal integrity to get posting privileges on my e-spaces -- that's a prerequisite for getting time of day off me. If that's too high a standard, people need better standards. Just sayin'.

Contests and Challenges

The fun of writing scenarios for your favourite movie or other characters to deal with is one thing, but better than that is the opportunity to have it rated by your peers. The thought of winning a prize - even a virtual one - is very appealing considering the validation and kudos that go with it.

Many of the fanfiction contests I know of are fandom-specific, and some are restrictive even in the fandom, restricted to a small group, or even one of the fandom characters. The Golden Quill Awards stands out from these because it offers the opportunity to be a winner to a multitude of writers for a multitude of fandoms. Anything is acceptable, from kids' cartoons to serious cop shows and everything in between.

Stories are entered by genre and voted for in an anonymous poll. Stories rated up to R are welcome, and the prize is not just a pretty icon: winners also get a profile on the Archives of Excellence if they haven't got one already. Find out more about it here. Voting begins on 1st March.

Great Google!

I'm very impressed with Google at the moment.

As a fanfiction writer, sometimes I produce stories of 20,000 words or more, which is a bit much for a single post on my other blog. 

Worry not, they have Google Documents, which allows me to upload my stories onto a web page, then add a link to the relevant post. I could even post each chapter in a separate document for the longer stories if I wanted to - which is looking increasingly attractive as an option.

The range of templates they have is massive, and I'm very keen on the ones that offer justified text options, as I don't like ragged edges. 

I intend to have a great deal of fun exploring the range they have, the better to display my stories to their best advantage. Nice one, Google!

Peripatetic Posting

Well my challenge entry for the LOTR Community January Challenge finally went up today, so I've posted it on various websites, as usual, for bumpage.

It's great fun to have a story in these challenges, particularly when friendly readers pat you on the back for it. They Might Be Giants is doing so well, other blog-reading sites have already picked it up. In some ways, it's a bit scary because I like to be in control of what's going on with my stuff. However, since it gives me the bumpage I crave, I can't complain.

It occured to me that posting stuff praising other people instead of simply pushing my own stuff adds as much to my bumpage as anything else, so I've started a new module on my Squidoo lens, Fanfiction Stories, News and Views, to promote great fanfic. Since my usual interest is Tolkien-based stories, I've added a link to the winner of Oct-Nov's Wicked Things Challenge on A Long Expected Contest, Oglat The Great.

I'll be adding more as time goes by, but my goodness, what a great crop of stories these sites attract.

Speaking of which, I'm waiting for the last entry to the Archives of Excellence January Writing Challenge, Before the Beginning, and when that's in, I'll post the polls so people can vote for the winner. It's always good to contact the winner to let them know they've won. Imagining their glee as they learn that they're a winner always makes me smile.

Which means more updating as I add the links and whatnots to the Archives. A woman's work is never done. Well, mine ain't!

King of the Hill

http://www.lotrfanshop.com/lotrshop/sideshowexcl.asp, with alteration by me.

Back when my troll problem was actually affecting me, I joined Halt Abuse. They offer emotional support and commonsense advice to people suffering from cyberbullying. Well something came up recently that reminded me of an incident that happened about two years ago.

This girl, Shannara, used to come to chat on my forum, and on one occasion she came to complain that she was being slandered and blamed for something she didn't do. Basically, her account had been hacked by trolls who guessed her password, and they went and posted obscenities on another forum in her name. I believed her at the time, and since my natural bias is to side with the underdog, I championed her cause. I permitted her to post on my forum, and told her to quit trying to convince the mod of the trolled forum to believe she was innocent.  

Well we chatted amiably enough for a while, then one day she sent me a private message in which she complained that she was being harassed on another forum, and taunted by the trolls who had accessed her old account. This is roughly what happened:

"They keep changing their pennames to confuse me when I go to fight with them," she declared.

"Why do you fight with them?" I asked. "That's what they want. It's like when we were kids and someone would grab your hat or bag and hold it just out of reach. I learned to walk away and not try to get it back off them. Sooner or later, they'd get bored and drop it, then I'd go and pick it up. When I stopped giving them the frantic reaction they craved, they quit teasing me because I gave them no entertainment."

"But they're saying stuff about me!" she complained. "And people are believing them."

"What sort of people believe people who hack other people's accounts, then brag about it?" I asked. "What does it mean if liars and idiots believe bad things about you? If you argue back, more idiots and liars will believe bad things about you. It'll fizzle out if you stop reacting to their baiting."

"It's easy for you to say," she argued, "you're not in this situation."

"I've been bullied all my life," I replied. "I'm always in that situation, but I've learned how to deal with it. The number one thing to remember is to refuse to give them the satisfaction of getting an reaction. If you just carry on like nothing's wrong, they'll give up, it'll fizzle out and be forgotten. Why do you worry about idiots not believing or respecting you? An idiot's opinion is worthless, so don't worry about what they think."

She conceded I was right, then went away. I heard little from her after that, but it came to my attention that she was associating with a group of trolls who went on to harass me for about two years. She never joined in with their abuse of myself, but she did egg on and take part in "spam raids" on other forums. She's a young mother in her twenties.

Photo by kjarrett on Flickr

As I've said before, trolls are of all ages and all walks of life. This girl is a troll. Well, she was. I think she's quit it now. The point is, I don't think trolls have a right to complain about harassment, particularly when they're in the middle of arguing on the forums they claim they're being harassed on and recruiting others to join them in their struggle to become Head Shrew, or whatever they're aiming for.

They're so flippin' manipulative they can draw other people into their arguments with others by squealing for sympathy, but my advice is to call it what it is and tell them off if they try to recruit you to help them drive another troll off the message board or forum where the alleged abuse is taking place. It ain't harassment if it's equal and going both ways. It is when it's one person being stalked or mobbed, and trying to ignore it.

Never allow yourself to be drawn into taking sides in someone else's arguments, or their problem will become your problem, and the whole thing will get out of control.

How To Cope With Trolls

I know more about internet trolls than a lot of people who have written about them because I've been trolled and stalked myself. Now I'm exploiting them for personal gain.

This is what I've learned.

Who are these people?

Probably someone you know. If not, it's someone you met online. They come from all age groups and walks of life and have one thing in common: they love to argue and trash other people; and get a thrill when they either get a reaction or cause them to abandon the site they use. The vast majority are teenage loners. They don't see others as being people in the same way they are. That's what permits them to add mocking captions to gory pictures of a car crash victim, joke about it, then recruit other people to phone the family and pretend to be her ghost, among other things. When the tables are turned, all Hell breaks loose because they don't like that kind of thing coming their way.

How do they operate?

The parasite: they start arguments that go on for days, weeks, months or even years. A smart, manipulative troll who comes across as urbane and sophisticated may be hard to recognise as being one because he's subtle in the way he abuses, but if he keeps an old argument going on and on, he's a troll. This type is obsessive and likes to maintain a connection, and often insists that the target is constantly watching them. Trolling and stalking by this type can go on for years, and they often recruit others to join in the abuse of their target.

The carpet-bomber: trolls like to bombard interactive internet services with ugly or indecent images or statements, or use internet memes such as "Longcat is long" repeated over and over again to overwhelm a forum or message board and make it unreadable – and unusable. The idea is to shut the website, message board or forum down. Trolling by this type doesn't tend to last because they do it for the “lulz,” or laughs at other people's expense. Incidents tend to last for an hour or so, then tail off and stop when they and their cohorts have been banned. They tend to come in groups, and the term of “spamming,” or bombardment, tends to last for a month or two. If it goes on for longer, with clusters of spamming “raids” going on for days at a time, then stopping, it's because they've been recruited by a parasite.

The slimer: They work by repeatedly posting exaggerated complaints or negative statements (“wank”) about their targets on multiple sites to ruin their reputations. This usually attracts other trolls, who are then recruited to join in the abuse. A mob mentality results, and they work to isolate the target by recruiting his or her associates. The idea is to conquer or “PWN” the target by forcing them to leave the website in question. Some trolls have even forced their victims off the internet altogether.

Trolls don't tend to remain in the categories assigned to them. They often adopt each other's tactics and work together to create a community dedicated to making someone's life a misery. Sociable trolls may complicate matters by making friends with non-trolls. When they're friends with your friends (it happened to me), online life can become very complicated.

How to deal with it

If you're being trolled or cyberbullied, the best thing to do is ignore it and shut it out as well as you can, then build an online network of friends whose positivity can bury the trolls' abuse and render it ineffective. My Suite 101 article on cyberabuse, Stop Troll Trouble, has comprehensive advice on what to do to protect yourself and your computer from them.

Taking the following advice should enable you to continue your online experience when targeted by trolls.

Keep quiet: do not complain about them where they can see it or they'll see it as proof that you're giving them the attention they crave. If you simply must complain about them on your blog, set that post to private or friends-only. Do not let your friends or posters on your forum or message board talk about them unless those posts are hidden from public view. Where there are trolls there's no freedom of speech for their targets.

Never read the posts they make and don't even think about reading their blogs. Curiosity is natural, but if they can get you to pay attention to them in any way, they've won. Avoid all contact with them. Never reply to posts they've made or correspond openly with their non-troll friends. Keep away from them, and keep them out!

Get support: be very careful how you do this. Building and maintaining relationships with friendly people is the key, but for Heaven's sake don't let them get involved with your problem. What I'm advocating here is creating an ever-increasing network of friends whose camaraderie drowns the trolls' efforts to spoil your online experience. Attempting to get your friends to troll the trolls will either backfire or make a bad thing much, much worse.

Create a plethora of positive posts. My fanfiction awards program has greatly increased my online profile and added to my popularity. The result is, few people takes the trolls' comments seriously. Commenting favourably on people's blogs and building networks of associates with shared interests will quickly bury negative information about you on the internet.

Other options

Getting them to stop by any other means is an uphill struggle and chances are, you will lose.

Reputation management companies may claim to be able to remove negative content, but when they come across a statement made by “an opinionated person” there's no chance they'll take it on; they usually advise that attempting to do so will make matters worse.

Reporting them to the authorities is only truly effective if there is an element of threat involved, and even that must be credible. Messages beginning with "I will rip out your intestines..." won't be taken seriously because they are an internet meme and not a genuine threat. However, reporting such incidents to the IC3 Internet Crime Complaint Center creates a log that can be used to prosecute a troll or cyberstalker for federal offences if the case goes to a civil court - provided that you win.

Leave the site – or the internet: if the abuse is severe and you've got no reason to remain, you might as well leave. Setting up a new account and avoiding the websites frequented by the trolls may allow you to continue online life, but be careful not to provide any clues that could identify you to the trolls, or connect you to your old account. This is a last resort – the minute you leave, they've won, and experience the thrill of having conquered you. Then they go off and do it again to someone else.

Trolls and cyberstalkers can make online life a misery for their targets, but by being positive, sensible, and building relationships with like-minded people, it's possible to mitigate or even overwhelm their efforts to upset and offend.

Also posted on Wikio and Bloglines.