Trust me. This is having an impact. My daughter and I picked out people we want to avoid before we ever signed up. My daughter and I both have blogged in the past. And various rounds with various social media. She was definitely hesitant. In fact, she has yet to create her first post. I don't know if it's a real life issue or if she's still having doubts to be honest though.
My husband said it this way, "A whale behaving like a troll is a troll. There's no other way to see it. And it is disturbing."
I do believe there should be a way to report people who are just down-voting because they are challenged by the material. Is there not an abuse reporting system?
There is another thing to consider here. Some people practice being a troll to stir up attention and create an emotionally charged division ... and also create an emotionally charged bond with people who decide the troll is on the "right" side. And this is their business plan as well. Sad but true.
It is decentralized so it cannot be taken down by the governments and people that would want to shut it down and censor it.
Really to be able to REPORT it to someone you'd have to centralize it. You'd have to give some group of people the authority to do something about it.
It is a problem, but this is super new so we have some never before seen problems to encounter. There have been things similar to these problems, but not quite the same.
It is worth hanging in there though. If you keep it civil even in the face of them being a jerk you'll do quite well.
TY for the info and the encouragement :)