It probably doesn’t feel like it, but attracting bad actors is a sign of success.
It means you have a community that’s worth spamming, trolling, and hacking. It means you have a community where members care about what their peers in the community think of them and battle with each other to maintain their reputation.
The only real failure is a failure to plan for this.
Every large community has had to deal with the same problems you’re facing now.
Before you reach this size, you should have prepared scalable systems for dealing with spam, trolls, and hacking attempts. You should have learned from the many peers who have come before you and dealt with these issues.
You should have decided where you lie on the freedom of speech vs. protecting members from abuse continuum and be aware of the trade-offs you’re making.
And you should have a team that’s trained to resolve disputes effectively and enforce rules intelligently.
So, yes, congrats, you’re worth trolling…now don’t mess it up.
