WordPress tech question, how to squish trolls?

How do I block an IP?

After all these years, and leaving up pretty much every comment except for spam and the craziest of crazy, I’ve finally decided to block one person. At first smacking down their profanity laced, drug fueled tirades was amusing and I got some fun out of it. Then it just got repetitive. Now I get another incoherant screed every day or so. I started marking them as spam, but he just keeps making up new e-mails.

And yes, Plow, this one’s for you baby. And for the record, I’ve won life. You’ve lost. Feel free to post your crap on your own sad page. Whenever you write about me and post a link back here I get as many as seven whole hits a day!  Though that usually doesn’t show up in the top 20 referrers list so I don’t often see it. 

There aren’t enough hours in the day to respond to you with the same information every time you post.

So since this is the last time I’ll ever address you:

1. I don’t delete your posts because I’m a coward that is too afraid to debate with you. I tried that several times in the past. You are a self proclaimed drug addict with severe emotional/anger issues that keep you from functioning fully in society. If I wanted your style of debate (screaming the F word and obscure random insults every few seconds) then I’d go down to Pioneer Park and argue with some homeless people.

2. Thank you for your service in the Navy. You are correct. I never served in the military. Never claimed to. I was declared medically unsuitable. I was bummed, but then got on with my life, and it only really comes up with people like you for some reason. (well, you do need something to feel superior to me about, so there you go)

As for supporting the troops. My house is the “permenant residence” for a couple of guys that are deployed right now. I’ve worked with the military off and on for a big chunk of my life. In my contractor career I’ve supported troops on 15 bases in 10 states. I’m making enough money off of writing to quit my day job, but I love what I do and who I work with.  My coworkers in my office include a retired Navy Commander, a retired Army Colonel, a retired AF colonel, and two retired AF Master Sergeants. (though one is now in the Reserve) My best friend is an EOD tech in Afghanistan right now. My former business partners were SF and my gunsmith was a Marine.

Strangely enough, I get along with military people really well  (except all of them aren’t drug addled nitwits, like you).

In my writing career that you like to disparage, I’m fairly popular with military readers. I was the #1 book of the Ronald Reagan carrier battle group. I have a standing invite to ride an assault boat with Navy SEALs the next time I make it out there way. I had some of the top selling books in the PX system. I’ve got a ton of pictures on this blog of guys sporting the MH patch while riding in turrets or hanging out the side of Blackhawks.

Basically, I get along well with military people and have worked with them a lot. When I was a CCW instructor I taught $20,000 worth of free classes for anybody Active, Reserve, or Guard. Show up with a card, free class. It was the best way I could say thanks. 

So yeah, I support the troops. I love them. I just don’t like you. And since the only thing in your life you have to be proud of is your service, that’s what you fall back on to try to make me less. And as you do so, your crazy ramblings about the right insult the other posters here, many of whom are also prior service, and in some cases, still active duty. Of the many things about you that annoy me, that is toward the top.

3. I have no desire to drive to Oregon to “punch you in the face and get arrested becasue I have big man syndrome” and the rest of that elaborate fantasy involving how the judge and sheriff were going to hang me because I’m not a vet and you are.  Those of us that aren’t on Zoloft don’t have elaborate violent revenge fantasies about random people on the internet. The last time I was in Oregon was to do a book signing. Trust me, I didn’t think of you the entire time.

4. I don’t think you understand what kind of writer I am.  You keep insulting what I do for a living, as if my literary skills being mocked by a hermit blacksmith are going to hurt my feelings. I’m pretty successful. I’ve been on the NYT twice on the most competitive list. And before you go, but only #23! I had one of the top 3 fantasy writers in the world come up to me at WorldCon and compliment me for how remarkably high that was, and how he’d only had one of his multiple series get higher than that. My last main series book spent 12 consecutive weeks as a national bestseller.

I have 6 books out in 3 years with 18 additional under contract. I’ve sold the rights to a TV show to one of the biggest production companies in the business. I’m being translated into six languages. I was one of the 5 worldwide finalists for the prestigious Campbell award for best new writer. I have a lot of fans. I have a bunch of really successful writers that really enjoy my work. In the last two weeks I’ve been complimented by #1 and #2 in my genre. For how long I’ve been doing this, I’m doing pretty darn good.

Oh, and on that note, yeah, I’m financially secure and not nearly as fat as you seem to think I am. 🙂 I’ve been happily married for 13 years and have a wonderful family. I’ve got lots of friends and get to do fun things whenever I want.  I’m active in my church, though you came out of the closet about hating Mormons too.

You live alone in the woods, smoke dope to get by, and I should listen to your opinions… why?

5. I could respond to why I don’t care about your political opinions, because those seem to be the posts you always respond to, but for the life of me, despite the thousands and thousands of words you’ve typed here, I have absolutely no idea what your fundamental beliefs are. Your writing is so incoherant and confusing that I honestly don’t understand your point most of the time. I often don’t even realize it is you posting until you say something about FDR or Smedley Butler.

And on that note, I know more about that time period than you do too. Sorry. 

Even as far as people I totally disagree with, most of the posters that come on here just to argue with me are at least intelligent enough to put their argument into a format that I can understand. You are not brilliant. You are not misunderstood. It isn’t that my people can’t engage you in a debate. You are simply an idiot.

6. And yep, been poor. Really poor. I had a really hard upbringing. That usually only gets brought up with people like to interupt your gigantic sob stories about how impossible life is, and I can say, yep, been there, deal with it and move the hell on already. I don’t normally say much about it, but it wasn’t a picnic. And unlike typical liberal scum, I don’ t like to insult my parents. I think I know why that is so hard for you to wrap your brain around. The concept of somebody pulling themselves up and improving their lives without the government doing it for them is inconceivable.  

So good bye, Plow. I’m done. Find some other blogger to fixate on, you hippie sack of shit. I’m done with you.

Act of Valor
I'm on a roll with this whole writer thing

42 thoughts on “WordPress tech question, how to squish trolls?”

  1. You should have cut him loose earlier. That would have saved all the explanations that are beyond his grasp. That way you would have a little more time to chill and paint minis ( it is Sunday ).

  2. You go Larry, I might disagree with some things you’ve posted but you’ve actually changed my mind on a few.
    No one is promised a good life everybody has a right to work but not the privilege of a job.

    Life is what you make it. I’ve made mistakes but I try and work hard to be good at what I do.

    I see so many people waste there time whining about how hard it is. To be successful at anything there are sacrifices and hard choices to make. People don’t want to make them they think their entitled.

    I salute you Larry and know that we can disagree and still have respect.
    Keep up the good work and regardless of our differences I enjoy your work and look forward to eventually meeting you at a con and reading more about MHI.

      1. This will not block a troll who uses a proxy, mind you.

        The one tactic that I have found that works best is to edit the troll’s posts for amusement.

        Mark the post as “edited for clarity”, and alter it so that it contains either correct or amusing content. Nutters and mission posters go away when their spew gets altered.

  3. Way off topic, I apologize in advance. I bought a book yesterday about a zombie apocalypse. I thought “Cool, monstery, gunny goodness!” But 50 pages in, the liberal bias has been stomach turning. From the comment about the zombie plague finally bringing universal health care to the US to the evil profit seeking capitalist drug executives to the political games playing, now gathering cow dung for fuel, former presidential chief of staff from Texas , I don’t know if I will be able to finish the book. I imagine it will be Baen Books or nothing at all for me from now on.

    1. If its the book I think it is, with a blogger named George, the second book in the series makes up for the first book.

      1. No, he’s clearly reading World War Z. The Karl Rove expy shoveling cow dung is a dead giveaway. Wait till you get to the part where Cuba is the most prosperous country in the world and has no problem with the zombies because they have more doctors then anyone else. Because, you know, zombies are countered by doctors not lots of people with guns.

        World War Z is great, honestly. Just grit your teeth and gloss over the liberal bullshit. Max Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks, and he just can’t resist skewering his political adversaries. That book is what really kickstarted the zombie revival in the literary world, and for that I’ll forgive it a number of sins.

        I’d argue that without World War Z’s success we never would have seen MHI have the success it did.

      2. Yeah, the manure shovelling is WWZ for sure. The book itself, aside from its political bent, it great. But Max Brooks has zero cred when it comes to firearms. I didn’t find his book that much more liberal than most of the other stuff I read. With the exception of a few authors, Larry in particular, most seem to either feel it necessary to look as liberal as possible or they seem to feel that in their writing they are free to go as far to the left as they can.

        I went to see Max Brooks at a lecture about a year or so ago. He’s very funny and the lecture was more like a standup routine that had a lot of zombie material than what I was expecting. It was clear though that he is a firm supporter of gun control and thought that in a SHTF scenario that a gun is a liability rather than an asset. He and I do agree though on the fact that fast zombies suck. My original plan was to go and have him sign my copy of WWZ and then ask him if anyone had ever told him that he looks like Dustin Hoffman, but the line was long and I was hungry so I went to dinner instead.

        I don’t think anyone can argue that a good deal of the popularity of zombies right now in both books as well as film isn’t due in some part to WWZ.

        I would love for a certain favorite author of mine to take a stab at a zombie apocalypse novel. Hint, hint.

      3. Yeah, I know the one you’re thinking of. I got a little peeved at the “permit required to carry” certain types of ammunition and a big arguement about how, in a zombie-heavy environment, the first-person main character was dead-set against relaxing firearms regulations.

  4. I took a look at Llama John’s link, it does show how to block an IP on wordpress. If you’re talking about email, i dont think there is a way to block it by IP on Yahoo!, at least not for end users. I’m pretty sure Yahoo!’s administrators could do it, but i doubt they will take the time because one user is getting spammed by one guy. The other thing to consider there, is if he’s using Yahoo! or Gmail or any other free account like that, the orginating IP of the Message will be Yahoo! or GMail’s servers. You could always set up your own email server, but again, see my previous comment. I’m gonna be honest Larry, unless his ISP uses Static IP’s, its very, very easy for him to get around an IP block. I wont go into details here, incase he doesnt know how and reads this, but trust me, its not difficut. I can think of 2 ways off the top of my head that would take him all of 2 minutes max. Feel free to contact me and I can explain what what ii’m talking about.

    1. Well, then I’ll just click spam everytime he sends something. Takes me all of 1 second. 🙂

      Or, if he sneaks in, and is coherent and calm enough that I don’t recognize him, PROBLEM STILL SOLVED! 😀

      1. You can also contact the ISP he may be using through his IP and report abuse or something. I think they might be interested in helping only THE best Genre writer of all time, IMHO.

  5. There’s a cretin machine out there somewhere, cranking these people out by the double hand full. It’s fueled by ignorance and greased by tolerance. I have neither sympathy nor empathy for them. The only answer is do as you have done.

    Stupidity is a powerful armor. If rhetorical silver bullets don’t work you must cut the head off the beast and stuff it’s mouth with Garlic.

    1. I think that machine is called the Public Schools, operated by The International Brotherhood of Misteachers. It also constitutes the primary funding arm of one of our political parties, providing approx. 40% of delegates to their quadrennial convention.

  6. Only one after all this time.
    You are the pillar of patience and 1st amendment supporter (even though it’s your blog and you can do as you please).
    We still love your writing, troop support, and yard moose.

    Not sure about loving you, what with shaving the goatee and all.

  7. Love ya Larry, but please stop feeding this troll. This post is the biggest troll feast I’ve ever seen. Trolls live to provoke a reaction, and he’s certainly gotten a huge one. There’s no way he’ll back off after getting this much gratification from you. Hell, you’re asking for outside help to deal with him. Score!

    It isn’t your responsibility to help this guy see his own idiocy, and you know he isn’t listening anyway. It’s also disturbing to see you go to such lengths to justify yourself in his eyes, when a simple “go to hell” is three words more than adequate.

    Please delete this entire thread and appoint a couple of volunteer deputies who’s sole responsibility is to delete replies and email from super trolls. .

    Then ignore him for the rest of your life. Let’s face it, you’ve given this guy more publicity from your writing attention than any of your fans, who merely beg for a suitably gory fictional death.

    You’ve given this jerk more words than Obama.

    Just please delete this before it ends up taped to his refrigerator door giving him hope to get more attention in the future.

    1. I’ll have to politely disagree. What Larry has done is to give us troll-haters a feast of troll-skewering par excellence.

  8. Larry, I’m a former Navy Corpsman who served in Viet Nam with the Marine Corps. I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this disturbed individual’s diatribe. I’m also a bit put off by his claiming military service as justification for his rant. I hope that you’re no longer pestered by this unhappy person.

  9. Larry is that kind of guy!
    Humble, kind, and understanding to trolls.
    But even trolls got to be put down now and then.
    Like a wounded horse with a broken leg.
    Larry just used a verbal .45 cal, 230 Grain, JHP equivalent.
    That’s all.
    Nuff said.

  10. Larry, that deserves a standing slow clap. You know, from the ’80s movies where one person stands up and starts slow clapping?

    I start one of those for you.

  11. Being a forum moderator I hate trolls. I don’t always read all the posts so I haven’t come across Plow’s rantings but I did enjoy Larry’s post about this numbskull.

    I had to laugh when I realized that Pandora was playing Another One Bites the Dust by Queen while I was reading this.

    I’ll finish this up with a quote from the movie Tombstone, “Well, Bye”

    Steelheart

  12. I didn’t recognize the name, but your numbered bullet points sounded familiar…

    So I ran a quick search, and… yup.

    So he still has a blog, eh?

    1. Wow.

      Judging from his blog, Plow looks like sort of a rabidly left-wing Michael Z. Williamson. On crack.

      And now I’m wondering what “Freehold” would have looked like if somebody like Plow had written it…

      Probably just as well he won’t be coming around anymore.

  13. *applause*

    Didn’t know you’d tried to join the military and been turned down for health reasons. That’s cool…mad props to you for at least making the effort! There’s thousands of douchebags out there who never bothered to make an attempt, yet feel the right to exercise their freedom of speech to bash the military. I have nothing but respect for those who tried, but were unable, and nothing but contempt for those who never tried, yet still abuse their freedoms.

    1. I was a kid that didn’t really know what he wanted to do with his life. I talked to the recruiters, and I had “severe childhood history of breathing problems” and flat feet probably didn’t help. Plus this was in ’94, everything was getting cut, so it didn’t work. Then I moved on and did other things.

      The brave ones are guys like my friend John Shirley, who had a good life, and then enlisted after 9-11 into the Army, went to Afghanistan as a mortarman, and has since went to OCS and is a Lieutenant. Or my friend Mike Kupari, who was in the Michigan National Guard, got out, became a contractor, came back and decided that wasn’t enough, so re-enlisted, and picked the most dangerous job he could, EOD. Those guys, and the hundreds of thousands like them are heroes.

  14. The one tactic that I have found that works best is to edit the troll’s posts for amusement.

    Mark the post as “edited for clarity”, and alter it so that it contains either correct or amusing content. Nutters and mission posters go away when their spew gets altered.

  15. I disagree with #3 Larry.

    At least living the fantasy of beating the crap out of someone who really does deserve it is almost as theraputic as the real thing. I have to say there is nothing more satisfying than a knee to the belly being delivered to someone who really truely does deserve it.

  16. I personally just joined the service in 2010 while in my junior year of high school, went to basic over summer, then did my senior year, and finally completed A.I.T. august of this year. I find your books entertaining and your blogs informative. I have NO claim to political knowledge and know little about era’s other then the knight’s age and that is even limited. But i make no excusses, it was a total lack of interest in school coupled with the excuse of reading great books by many authors. now i aspire to write novels but first i need to get a book published. I’m getting off topic. i was told i was colorblind when i joined and that i could not do any of the jobs i wanted so i joined anyway and let my recruiter pick me a job. I’m happy with the choice and have moved on, and life is working out to, i’ve been told repeatedly that i can get a waver for being colorblind if i pass certain test so i guess what i’m saying is that anyone who believes they cannot, will not choose to get up and try. in other words… believe in yourself and everything will work out in the end… NOTE: this is an 19 year old man who has very simple outlooks on life. like job, family, and food. nothing elaborate like fast cars and lots of money… then again i’m still trying to figure out how to live 🙂

  17. sorry i have a bunch to say… and i know my spelling an grammer are atrochious, i’m currently living with someone i would love to kick the snot out of… excuse the lack of cursing, but i’m told it’s unprofessional… and it happens that it is my brothers wife, who is a complete bitc… oh sorry…skank, who left him with 72 cents in his bank after he was paid for basic…. that’s over four thousand dollars, oh and he had to work extra duty to pay for the stuff he ordered while at basic.
    and she caused his car to be inpounded, with the title fyi, so i have to agree with joecrouse. it is thearaputic….

  18. Sry Forgot to leave a note saying i am changing my name the pops up to avoid unnecisary blood shed…. figure of speech… it is now going to be chaospawn…. may change it later….

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