Always look at where the message is posted to if you feel the urge
to respond, or listen when the warning box on your newsreader pops up
to notify you of a crosspost - The trolls are back in town.

If you see crossposts to multiple unrelated groups, or worse to the
fools hangouts like alt.usenet.k00ks (where they actually keep score
on how many replies they can provoke) just hit Ignore Thread and move
on. The chances of an intelligent conversation happening have just
gone down somewhere close to nil. Or below, if that's possible.

(If Godwin's Law is invoked I almost always ****can the thread. You
can't get much lower than that.)

And please learn about Kill Files AKA Twit Filters or Bozo Bins.
Most good newsreaders give you the ability to ignore all posts made by
certain people who never add any value to the conversation, or who
always go out of their way to deliberately stir the pot.

Never announce that you are killfiling someone, that just encourages
them to morph their screen name and break out. If everyone simply
ignores them, the fools will "take their bat and ball and go home."

Trolls crave attention, even negative attention - don't give them
any, pro or con. The only effort you should expend on their account
is calling their ISP to get their account terminated for repeated
Terms Of Service violations. Which is a pain in the butt, but it can
be done if you can get to the right person.

-- Bruce --