If FT banned about 5-8 regular forum trolls (and their sock puppet accounts), overnight it would become a much nicer place to use.
I think till now the relatively small number of English speaking staff, along with what appears to be a "don't ban trolls if they're still spending money" policy has given a tiny but energetic group the chance to bully anyone who comes along with a different opinion than their own.
You only have to piss off one of them (easily done), and the rest will thereafter descend on every thread in which you post, trolling you in a pack.
Even though they represent less than 1% of the total forum membership, they manage to turn thread after thread into repetitive ad hominem attacks, repeatedly ignoring every olive branch, and steadfastly refusing to have an honest conversation about anything.
There is never any originality, wit, or good natured undercurrent to any of it either. It is just pure bile from people who lost intellectual or technical arguments about politics, vaping, or whatever, and thereafter want to get revenge by forming part of a boringly incapable tag-team of nobodies, trolling threads into infinity.
There. Just wanted to get that off my chest.