I think many of us (I did it above, so quite guilty) use "troll" and "persistent troublemaker" to mean the same thing. It's sloppy, but it's a habit.

I don't think our problems are with trolls, of the dedicated sort, either.  The forum's main problems are more, as Shane has pointed out, with people who have trouble distinguishing fact from opinion. (Me, guilty of this, at times, too).

Facts are verifiable, and if someone is mistaken, it takes nothing more than a single post to point them to sources which will supply them with the correct information. After that, there's nothing more to be done. You can lead a horse to water, etc...

If you're in a protracted argument (on the internet, as opposed to philosophy class), it's almost guaranteed that you're quarrelling over someone's opinion. It's taken me a while to realize that quarreling over someone else's (or your own) opinion is utterly pointless. Restate their position. State your own. And be done with it.

If only it were that easy, even for people with good intentions...

Hence the TITS campaign! Making forum peace more fun every day!

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PoserPro 2014, PS CS5.5 Ext, Nikon D300. Win 8, i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz, AMD Radeon 8570, 12 GB RAM.