If you suspect someone is a troll, please do call them out as such in the Kills Trolls Dead Thread, where Kangaroo Court is always in session. We did decide to deactivate the middle finger reaction out of concern that it could be interpreted in a manner that is inconsistent with board policies, but we've pretty consistently treated gifs w/ personal insults as personal insults for infraction purposes. I don't think I was personally in here handing out infractions/warnings, but there were definitely posters in this thread that took very light hearted jabs (and didn't get warned) and other posters who took a more aggressive route (and got warnings). Live and learn is the best advice I can give.
Other than that, I can only offer you this: