Membership has continued to grow, and with that, I hope the diversity of opinions also grows. To that end, sometimes, accounts are suspended. The more obvious violations of spam and aggressive behavior are deactivated quickly. Some aren’t so clear.
A common problem is that someone is passionate about their opinion but is not as well informed as think they are. If the passion continues, but the response to input from other members is not acknowledged, there is no point in further attempts to engage them.
Just as common, but more complicated, is someone who brings up a lot of issues and presents information, but again, not in a way that engages the topics. There is no rule that all posts must stay on the topic of the thread, but one definition of trolling is to respond to comments by bringing in unrelated information. In politics, this is a debate tactic, if you can’t respond to your opponents’ question, bring up something they did that you can attack. For this forum, it’s disruptive, and not conducive to dialog.
The switching of topics is not a simple rule, like no name-calling. The suspension won’t happen immediately, only after the pattern continues. If it appears the new topics are introduced haphazardly, and any comment on the new topic is met with an insult or generalizations of people or more new tangents, then it’s trolling.