5 ms·
Flag the trolls, not the articles.
by Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
Flag the trolls, not the articles.
- tptacek 9y agoNo. That doesn't work.
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y agoSure it does. I think the real issue is that you want to suppress discussion on these topics from people you disagree with, and not all of them qualify as trolls.
- tptacek 9y agoOr, maybe I've spent more time working on this than you have, and rather than covering a secret agenda that you've somehow managed to suss out in a subthread of less than 100 words of my comments, you've instead jumped to a conclusion that you can't possibly back with evidence.
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y agoMaybe! But I have no evidence for that conclusion, either. In fact, I have more evidence for the former conclusion just from reading how you act in this thread!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- anigbrowl 9y agoYes it does, it's just more labor-intensive.
- tptacek 9y agoNo, it doesn't. I've been doing it for something close to a decade now --- and, in fact, now have it pretty close to automated. I programmatically follow the people who write the worst racist and misogynistic and homophobic crap on this site. This is a problem I've studied, and one I think you know I've spent real, measurable, expensive time on here. I don't think you can dismiss what I'm saying so easily. Individual flagging does not work to recover toxic threads. Flags are too slow and too invisible. By the time the worst stuff gets knocked down, its authors --- almost all of whom have no meaningful reputation on this site --- have reached the win condition of having guided the thread into hellish nerd litigation in which even the reasonable people grappling with the issues are made to write comments that serve trollish ends. Flagging is what we have, and I'll continue to do it just like you will. But it does not work. It is inadequate to the task. This problem requires sitewide intervention, and until that happens, it is a rational, reasonable, moral choice to flag this stuff off the site as a harm mitigation mechanism.
- anigbrowl 9y agoWell, I was thinking of different moderation policies rather than user-driven flagging of the kind you describe, so in that sense we agree. My basic disagreement is that 'just ignore it' and 'don't do things that attract their attention' are not viable strategies for target populations, and it's unjust to systematically shift the burden of responsibility from persistent antagonists to their victims. I'm interested in your programmatic approach, but let's talk about that offsite.
- eropple 9y agoI would be interested in hearing about this, too, if you feel like cutting me in. I have a similar thing going as to 'tptacek, but I'm gonna bet that his is more refined.
- tptacek 9y agoI'm happy to start a support group on the crypto slack, and also glad to hear I'm not the only person working seriously on the problem.