Internet bullying/trolls & you!

I've been thinking alot about this lately. When it comes to the topic about female gamers feeling left out, people getting bullied/harrassed over the mic for no reason regardless of gender etc. and how to counter it.
I wouldn't consider myself a troll, but i have been in IRC channels with people from /b/ and joined raids. Allthough i didn't personally attack others, a couple of people in the raid did, so you can say that i got a little bit of experience when it comes to people like this. I learned alot.

What are my experiences with trolls?

1. Trolls comes in all ages, mostly 13-25, but i've seen people at 30+ acting like kids as well.
2. Some of them are straight up idiots, but most of them are actually pretty smart individuals with destructive ideas.
3. Most trolls troll people in exchange for lulz. Simply to have something to laugh at because they are bored.
4. They troll eachother just as much as they troll you.
5. Some trolls got a reason to troll. It might be a vague reason, but still a reason. Maybe because they got left out or someone sayd something that was personal to them and they want revenge in one way or the other.

So.. What do you do?

I think we all just got to give a shit about the little things in life that shouldn't concern us. If you find yourself in a position where it feels like you're getting trolled/humiliated just chill down and simply ignore the shitheads and only talk to them if they actually got something to say. If the conversation is going nowhere, just ignore them.
If they are manipulative and talk to your online friends as well. Talk to your friends about how you feel and why you choose to not talk with them and leave it at that. Also state that you got nothing against them, and that the person trolling you makes you feel bad inside.

If you did something wrong in the first place or sayd some things that you shouldn't have said, don't hesitate to take it back and ask for forgiveness. To do this first might be the first step to a solution.

A few words about bullies, female gamers and guys: If girls tend to stick together.. Expect guys to do the same, and the same goes for trolls.

Bullying should not be tolerated at all, but the fact is that there is nothing to do to counter it with governmental help at the moment. The best thing to a troll/bully is attention. If we give them that kind of recognition they will keep on doing shit because it's fun to them when people get pissed.
Banning people from forums/servers might work in some situations, but not every time. In alot of cases it just makes the matter worse. Internet trolls change their IP's within a minute or two. If they know what they are doing it only takes 5-10 seconds.
If it escelates and you are fighting against the worst kind of trolls you are looking forward to the worst case scenario wich is: crashing of servers, forums being taken over, DoS/phishing and trolls splitting up the community of the clan you own/are in.

The best way to counter-attack a bully is to simply be nice when they try to do shit, joke around with them and find out what their true intentions are. Alot of trolls is pissed about something because they wasn't treated right by an admin, had a bad day or are just bored.
I don't mean that you should mock others in order to come along with them, but be an overall decent person that got humor/irony that doesn't take yourself higher than others. If you can try to calm the situation down a little bit, the chances of a solution is pretty high.
You might even learn that you actually got something in common with them, and they might learn that they got something in common with you. When a internet troll and a regular person comes along it's easier for the regular person to reason with the troll if they got basic conversational/manipulative skills. This formula works for me when dealing with people on a forum i'm on.

If that doesn't work, then kicking/banning etc. should be the next step if you got that kind of power in the server/forum/whatever. NEVER abuse your power against a troll. Cuz, if you do that it might attract other trolls to fight with them. If you treat troll nr.1 right without abusing your power the average troll wont give a shit and they'll look at troll nr.1 as a whiny skitkid.
If you got problem with a troll talk to the head admin, mute them or change server. It's that simple. No really, it is.

Rule number 1: Don't let them get under your skin.
Rule Number 2: If they do, calm down and let it go.

nice post, adding a few things myself.
As the internet evolves and more personal information becomes widely available, thoes who troll could find themselves as a known trouble maker, this can affect job opertunities and more. Google has its eyes and ears everywhere, google sombody and you may find there usernames for things. If you were an employer lookign at potential employees, youd want to know more about them, see if they would be a good fit. so you search what you can on them. everythign in linked somewhere and there ways to find out. if your known as a troll, they can fidn this and see. "hey we dont want this guy working for us, hes a trouble maker"

To sum this up for my mesage to trolls or would be trolls.
The internet is no longer as faceless as it used to be, think about this before you decide to be jerks just because you can. Your futures may depend on it.