When people get angry in your community, it’s for one of two reasons. They either want to have greater status in your community or they are worried about losing their current status (it’s usually the latter).
Never remove the symptom (the fight) without resolving the cause (individual’s feelings). If you want to diffuse aggression you have to remove the fear that what’s happening will lose their status. You can praise or empower members that feel threatened.
If this fails, you an do the threatening. You can remind members that continuing the aggression will result in a loss of status within your community.
Sure some trolls fight for fun and others are naturally aggressive people. But, by far, the majority of the fights in your community can be resolved with simple affirmations that no status has been lost and more can be gained by getting along.
