Share, You clearly are a good-hearted person who bears no ill-will against anyone, but you don't seem to realize that anyone saying anything to Richard encourages him to continue. Of course, you may want him to continue, you likely want him to continue, which you're entitled to want just as much as it is anyone else's desire to want him to go away.
But it should be clear to you that you are not going to change Richard - to be specific, you have exactly a 0% chance of changing Richard's behavior in this group by interacting with him. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Zippo. Not now. Not ever. No one on this planet - in his immediate family, in his extended family, among friends or acquaintances, in this forum, in any environment in which he lives and interacts - no one will ever change Richard one iota. I do not wish Richard any ill will and I hope he finds as much happiness in life as he possibly can, but the following is clear to all in this forum except seemingly you: Richard will behave exactly as he does now until, and including, his final post on FFL whenever that will be. To be clear, Share: Every time you interact with Richard is one more encouragement for him to continue. Every time you refer to him in any way to anyone in FFL, he is encouraged to continue. Every time his name appears in any post on FFL, he is encouraged to continue. Anyone interacting with him directly or mentioning anything about him in any context whatsoever on FFL is an encouragement for him to continue. If you don't care whether he continues on FFL or not, or you're OK with him continuing, or want him to continue, fair enough - you have every right to do so. It is not that Richard can choose to leave FFL or change the character of his posts: Richard cannot not post on FFL**. To put it another way: If in the very unlikely event that Richard decided that he would like to stop posting or change the nature of his posts, he wouldn't be able to do so. Even if no one FFL were never to interact with him or refer to him from this moment on, he will continue to troll the group. **However, there is a very small chance - very, very small chance but yet something above zero - that if after several months or a year or more of no one in FFL or interacting with him or referring to him - he may find some other group to join and then he can continue with his activities, but with another group. Same activities, different group. Given what I've just written, no doubt this message will also encourage Richard. But it's possible - a very low possibility, I believe - that what I've written will cause you to pause and think about your interactions with Richard, and see how you enabling his behavior negatively effects the group, while having zero effect on his behavior. If it does, the benefit of my message will outweigh the negative. So, this is my first and last comment in any way related to Richard.
