I have mentioned John Scalzi before in relation to the management of trolls.
He has posted an overview of his use of Twitter. He makes 12 points. Numbers 6, 10 and 12 give you a pretty good idea of his approach.
6. Most people who respond to me on Twitter are lovely people. But some people aren’t. If I decide you aren’t, then here’s what I will likely do: I’ll mute you, which means that whatever you’ve tweeted at me will disappear from my tweet timeline and no subsequent tweet from you will show up in it, ever. To me, it will be as if you don’t exist on Twitter at all! Why would I do this? Because life’s too short to deal with irritating people on Twitter.
10. Things that may get you muted include, but are not limited, to:
- Being racist, sexist, homophobic or other varieties of bigot;
- Being insulting and boring about it;
- Being insulting and clever, but not knowing when to quit;
- Being the sort of person who is under the impression that a medium confined to 140 characters per post is the perfect medium for a substantive debate on a complex issue;
- Having your understanding of social/political issues clearly confined to cue cards provided to you by others;
- Being creepy;
- Being an author or other creator whose purpose for being on Twitter is to spam people about your work;
- Being someone who believes that the only reason I exist on Twitter is to retweet something you think I should;
- Appointing yourself the Arbiter of Things I Should and Should Not Say On Twitter;
- Trying to pick a fight with me;
- Extreme stupidity;
- Just generally being an asshole.
12. Basically, I am on Twitter for my own amusement, not to engage in argument, substantive or otherwise, particularly with people I don’t know, and especially with people who I determine to be jerks. If you understand that when you communicate with me, we’ll get along fine. If you don’t, then you’ll be muted. Either way the problem will be solved.