
Random trolls are always people driven by instant gratification. As such, if they get no quick acknowledgement that they are being bothersome, they will leave.
I have yet to run into an instance where a troll decides to stay because we aren't paying attention to him, because that's their only goal: to get their disruption acknowledged. If you acknowledge them, they will continue to be disruptive, creating a terrible never-ending circle of 'I'm disruptive because I'm acknowledged because I'm disrupitve!'.
Even trolls with a 'personal grudge', so to call it, will stop their actions when their actions get no feedback.
The first method described in the OP to deal with them is a form of 'damage control'. While I cannot say how useful or useless it is in practice, I think its akin to taking a hammer and hitting the walls of your house because some vandals were about to. It might drive them off or it might not. But in both cases now you have a damaged wall.
The second method is a tactical retreat. That can work if trolling is particularly obnoxious for some reason, but by retreating you are basically allowing their disruption to affect you. They 'won', in a sense.
The third method is the best, but doesn't deal with them on the moment which is, I think, the real issue people have with trolls: how to deal with them on the precise moment the trolling is happening.
At the end, I find the first two methods ineffective: they are allowing the troll to succesfully disrupt your roleplay. I think it's best to just ignore them completely. I have yet to personally see random trolls to stay for more than a minute after blocking them.
I have yet to run into an instance where a troll decides to stay because we aren't paying attention to him, because that's their only goal: to get their disruption acknowledged. If you acknowledge them, they will continue to be disruptive, creating a terrible never-ending circle of 'I'm disruptive because I'm acknowledged because I'm disrupitve!'.
Even trolls with a 'personal grudge', so to call it, will stop their actions when their actions get no feedback.
The first method described in the OP to deal with them is a form of 'damage control'. While I cannot say how useful or useless it is in practice, I think its akin to taking a hammer and hitting the walls of your house because some vandals were about to. It might drive them off or it might not. But in both cases now you have a damaged wall.
The second method is a tactical retreat. That can work if trolling is particularly obnoxious for some reason, but by retreating you are basically allowing their disruption to affect you. They 'won', in a sense.
The third method is the best, but doesn't deal with them on the moment which is, I think, the real issue people have with trolls: how to deal with them on the precise moment the trolling is happening.
At the end, I find the first two methods ineffective: they are allowing the troll to succesfully disrupt your roleplay. I think it's best to just ignore them completely. I have yet to personally see random trolls to stay for more than a minute after blocking them.