Can we report / do anything about a persistent troll?

Question

First of all, please note the precedent: Dealing with persistent trolls: “see the newsgroups guy” - Jeff himself has posted about a similarly troublesome account. This is also tangentially related to What's the SO policy about having multiple user accounts?

Check this guy out: Erwin Smout (no rhyme intended)

Over 9 pages of user accounts registered. It looks like some have already been deleted, but type his name into the user search on SO right now and you'll see a full page of results, so there are at least 35 current accounts.

Let me be clear about this, I am very apprehensive about complaining about a specific user and would never start this type of discussion if I didn't think it was an extreme case. People argue on SO (and probably the other trilogy sites), it's natural, and sometimes they get heated and/or spill over onto Meta - I'm not upset or offended by conflict, but this user's outbursts are completely random and unprovoked and usually off on a tangent, and I honestly think that the only logical conclusion here is that he/she/it is a serial troll.

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Some of his answers (and note that these are all coming from different accounts):

• How can I write this query in Django? (datetime)
  _{Here he blasts the OP for "not knowing how to get anything done in Django" and picking the wrong tool, apparently.}

• Why isn’t “String or Binary data would be truncated” a more descriptive error?
  _{This one is a random rant about error messages which has almost nothing to do with the question.}

• Should I use a huge composite primary key or just a unique id?
  _{Another tirade, this time about surrogate keys, complete with cursing and anti-religion overtones.}

• The Integrity of linked data entities on update
  _{Here he goes way off-topic, answering a question that the OP didn't ask.}

• What is the standard or best way to deal with database branching with Mercurial or Git branches?
  _{Not so inflammatory this time but basically a non-answer, "you can't do it".}

• How to Delete all data from a table which contain self referencing foreign key
  _{A less-useful (and wrong) duplicate of another answer, posted later. I wonder who gave him the 1 upvote.}

• Are there Database Systems more suited to Social Networks?
  _{"The idiot who wrote this doesn't understand jack shit about the power of relational algebra." (Scary that this answer actually got 4 upvotes).}

• How do I store (and sort) vague date ranges?
  _{Basically a massive long-winded explanation of how what the OP wanted to do was impossible. Posted 6 days after Quassnoi gave a perfectly serviceable answer that received 6 upvotes and an accept.}

• Duplicate domain constraints in table
  _{In here he basically says, several times, that everybody else is an idiot.}

• What is the difference between graph-based databases and object-oriented databases?
  _{A rather pointless and unsubstantiated knock against OODBs.}

• Do relational databases provide a feasible backend for a process historian?
  _{Cursing and complaining about all the "mediocre" programmers.}

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So to summarize, we have someone who:

• Answers with a combination of circumlocution, flowery prose, and four-letter words, typically only to explain that the question author is an idiot or that it's impossible to do what he's asking;

• Creates new accounts every day, sometimes multiple times per day, so it's not even worth the rep cost to downvote;

• Repeatedly posts comments as answers and even acknowledges that he's doing it and that it's frowned upon, but apparently doesn't seem to care.

• Actually has one account that's accrued over 500 rep (mostly from one-off upvotes), so he clearly knows how to register properly and even provide useful answers once in a while, but seems to create these rather obvious sockpuppet accounts to troll.

• Is submitting these troll answers to questions that are not even remotely controversial!

I suppose it's possible that whoever this is is creating all these accounts simply can't figure out how to use the login system properly, but seems more likely to me that he's creating throwaway accounts in order to escape culpability (downvotes) from his troll posts.

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Thoughts? Does my theory make sense? Is it reasonable to want to do something about this, or am I making mountains out of molehills? Assuming it's a reasonable complaint, can something be done about it, and is it appropriate to bring up the subject here on Meta?

Answer 1

This really probably should have been an email to [email protected]. I know it's way too much information to succinctly put in a flag for moderator attention, so I understand why you bypassed that option. We sort of frown on singling people out in a negative way here on meta, though.

That being said, I do appreciate you bringing this to our attention and pulling all of this information together. I'll be merging these accounts soon. We (the moderators) will decide what action to take once we can see the entire body of work in one place.

Answer 2

Down voting and flagging for a moderator's attention is the best way in my opinion to deal with someone like this.

Thoughts? Does my theory make sense? Is it reasonable to want to do something about this, or am I making mountains out of molehills? Assuming it's a reasonable complaint, can something be done about it, and is it appropriate to bring up the subject here on Meta?

Per the FAQ

What kind of questions can I ask here?

If your question is about:

* Stack Overflow
* Server Fault
* Super User

... it is welcome here. No question is too trivial or too "newbie".

Please look around to see if your question has already been asked (and maybe even answered!) before you ask. If you end up asking a question that has been asked before, that is OK and deliberately allowed. Other users will hopefully edit in links to related or similar questions to help future visitors find their way.

Answer 3

For a case as extreme as this one, I think posting to MSO is the right thing. A mod will see it here. A flag on one of his posts would have been fine, as would an email to the dev team, linked from the bottom of each of the trilogy sites' home pages. Your research will save the mods some time, though.

This case is fairly egregious, though I can't really see the motivation behind it (vs. simply posting from one account). Might be someone being annoying for its own sake. Regardless, you're not even close to crossing any ethical/other lines with your post.