We occasionally get "questions" that ask absurd, bad-faith questions with some legal hook.
For example (I hate to feed a troll by giving the question attention, but I figure doing so once to provide a future reference for how to handle these is worth it):
What happens if i discharge a firearm into occupied vehicle/boat/structure/craft?
I was thinking of doing this, let me know if it's a "good" or "bad" idea?
There's no conceivable way this is a real question about the law. At the very least, the question of whether it's a "good" or "bad" idea should be obvious to anyone. I believe it's obviously trolling, and merits removal. We've gotten other questions of this sort in the past; this is just the latest example.
There are a few options:
- Vote to close as trolling
- Pros: Closes the question, warns other users it's a troll, can vote to delete once closed.
- Cons: Gives the troll attention by directly exposing the moderation action accusing them of trolling, takes a long time to reach deletion.
- Flag as Rude/abusive
- Pros: Six such flags will delete the post, escalates for possible instant deletion by moderators.
- Cons: May result in declined flags if moderators disagree with this approach or whether it's a troll (though moderators could, at their option, dispute the flags instead).
- Flag with custom text indicating that it's a likely troll
- Pros: Makes clear why the post is being flagged, escalates for possible instant deletion by moderators.
- Cons: Requires waiting for a mod to handle the flag, no option for multiple flags to delete.
An answer from one of the moderators on how they would prefer such posts be handled would be especially appreciated.