For those who have forgotten, or never knew, here's how to handle trolls:

1) Don't violate the Terms of Service.

If you don't violate the TOS, you can't get reported by anyone for violating the TOS. Not a good idea to violate the TOS: even a worse one to do it when you know someone is checking regularly to see if you have.

Moderators can't ignore a TOS violation just because of the person who reports it.

2) Don't feed the trolls.

Just report their threads and move on. Ignore them. Don't respond, don't quote them. That's what trolls want you to do. Why do you want to do anything a troll wants you to do?

Also, how does a troll know they've "won"? TV.com doesn't announce suspensions and bans. Trolls learn it from users who publicly post what happened. If you've really got to spread the news, use PMs.

Trolling and encouraging trolling are TOS violations.

3) Watch the quoting.

You're responsible for everything you put in your posts, including other people's posts. Quoting a troll will get you and them moderated. Again, that's what they want you to do.

If you respond to someone, in the next post after theirs, most people will figure out what you're responding to and you don't need to quote at all. If you quote eight previous posters, in the previous eight posts, take our word for it: almost no one is going to read what you're quoting. They already read the original quotes, they know what you're responding to. Ask yourself: how many of these pyramid quote responses do you read all the way through? If a paragraph has been reposted six times, do you read it all six times? If you don't read them, guess what: almost nobody else does either.

-----

Trolls keep coming back when they find people who will play along with them. Don't be those people. Thanks!