Trolls, they don’t just live under bridges or have wild bright hair anymore.

Online trolls are now a thing.  The ten most used are the insult troll, the persistent debate troll, the grammar and spellcheck troll, the forever offended troll, the show-off, know it all troll, the profanity troll, all caps, the one word only troll, the exaggeration troll, the off topic troll and the greedy spammer troll.

They started out as a way to refer to what’s now called a spam bot—not a real person commenting, but an automatic reply/message that generally just repeats itself and has nothing to do with the conversation.

We’ve all seen them, they tell you to act now and visit this link to take advantage of this free, too good to be true deal.

The link is always dangerous and no one should ever click them.

However, the term online troll has expanded to include people who make comments for no other reason than to stir the pot, and to people who are trying to cause trouble, like those who leave fake bad reviews.

In our new internet-based world, how do you deal with them?

It’s simple, don’t feed the trolls.  Be aware of their existence and ignore them.

Never respond to them, no matter what in any situation.  It doesn’t matter what kind of troll you are dealing with, responding to them just makes the situation worse.  Simply ignore them and go on with your business.

If you’re not sure you’re dealing with a troll, assume that you are and keep scrolling.

Don’t feed the trolls, however, be vigilant and keep informed.