[buro9]

As a counterpoint, I run web forums and at times have encountered trolls. When they've been banned (at the behest of the vast majority of the community) some of them have made me their target.

Aside from death threats (which I dismiss as joking), I've been signed up to hundreds of porn and adult mailing lists and sites, I've had reports of my photo and vague details being used on lots of "m4m" casual sex adverts, and I've had the "here's a streetview of where you live, we know where you live" type intimidation.

I'm really glad that the efforts of a few trolls doesn't really show on Google because my name is fairly common and there are some people who share the name who have achieved some fame or popularity. The result of the top-ranking stuff means the work of the trolls is nowhere to be seen.

If I had a unique name I've no doubt that it would have been trashed thanks to other people.

My point is simply: You may think you are in control of your online identity, but you are not.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Sorry you've been harassed like that. I agree that I would have a hard time dealing with that kind of situation.

I think having a strong web presence myself means that the work of any would-be trolls would struggle to make it onto the front page -- though I do ask that would-be trolls reading this not try to prove me wrong, thank you. :)

[newman314]

That's fine if you have insanely high PageRank. If some jackass with considerably higher PR decides to troll you, there's pretty much nothing you can do about it.