It must be Troll Season again, not so much on UKP (although we do get them) but I've noticed a few of late. You also get them in real life turning up at Moots, Study Groups, trying to get into your Coven/Circle/Hearth.

A very good essay on how to deal with them can be found here.. Although written primarily for coven based witches, the general principles still hold true and can be applied regardless of your path or the structure of the group in question.

In an ideal world, you'd never meet a troll. In reality, there are all too many out there.

Wassail

Karen

'TROLLHAMMEREN!!!'

*coughs* sorry, I appear to be suffering the after effects of listening to Finntroll.

On the whole trolls are a pain in the derriere, but it can be very satisfying to deliver a well aimed flame and see the smoke rise from scorched hide.

I've not met that many in real life; there must be something about the moot I go to that tends to repel them

Drach, I was resisting the temptation to say that exact same word! Was listening to it on the way into work this morning.

Oh! I wish I'd seen this page before we had all that hassle with a troll while trying to set up the Newcastle Uni Pagan society. She hated the fact that the three of us that founded it were the ones to run it (although we made it clear that we were democratic and weren't there to tell them what to do). She went round slagging off our personal habits and the organisation of the group. She didn't like people who didn't 'dress' Pagan and the funniest thing I ever heard was her arguing with a Druid about how she didn't agree with the Bard, Ovate and Druid system. Even though we'd made it clear that we were only there for a year as we had to go on sandwich years abroad and that they would be electing themselves a new leader. She went round slagging us off (especially me). I know this because another one of the founders overheard her in this nightclub toilets and told her straight. We had to warn her several times about her behaviour and yes, she did call me an authoritarian. She was terrible and the situation was made worse by the amount of fluffys that were turning up to the moots.

I didn't know the real life people were called 'trolls' too!

I didn't know the real life people were called trolls either

Good article that Karen, thanks for posting about it

Very good article.

I've met a few people like this, in everyday life. No matter how one tries to help, placate, include or impower them they are not happy: because they don't want to be helped and they don't want to be empowered. They want attention, and they want a drama. It's easier to let someone else do things for them, because then if things go wrong, they don't have to take responsibility.

Wish I'd read this a few months ago! I've recently had the misfortune of going through a troll-ejection from my coven. Our particular troll caused a lot of trouble before they were finally booted out. No matter what the HP & HPS did, this person still caused bother, and the worst part was, they didn't think they were!