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Would forcing users to verify their identities and post with their full names have any effect on the toxicity? What if filters were used to prevent the most egr

Would forcing users to verify their identities and post with their full names have any effect on the toxicity? What if filters were used to prevent the most egregious words of hatred? My questions are driving towards this: is it at all possible to have something like twitter that isn't as toxic, given the right features?

hie2neiL 9y ago
Requiring people to identify themselves with verification before they are allowed to communicate seems orwellian to me. Speaking of which, your papers please.
WorldMaker 9y ago
What you've described is Facebook, and it has its own toxicity. Auto-moderation is a useful start, but strong community moderation is built on empathy and soft skills, which for the moment is still best handled by people.
jstarfish 9y ago
If Nextdoor is any indication, posting your name and verified home address next to your comments still won't stop toxicity.
gaius 9y ago
Charging $1 per Tweet would sort it easily
JoshMnem 9y ago
Real names policies don't result in friendlier communities. In places where I've seen people use both pseudonyms and real names, they are sometimes much worse behaved where they are using real names. Facebook groups are full of people using real names who are behaving very badly. Companies can't tell users, "we're forcing you to use your real names so we can conspire with other companies to track you wherever you go against your knowledge", so they say it's to encourage better behavior.
astine 9y ago
"Would forcing users to verify their identities and post with their full names have any effect on the toxicity?" Probably not. Often time people are just as terrible in person and social media just gives them more reach. "What if filters were used to prevent the most egregious words of hatred?" It's too easy to come up with new (((slurs))) to get around such censorship but still spread the same message. "Is it at all possible to have something like twitter that isn't as toxic, given the right features?" Social media often makes people more toxic by exposing them more directly to the opinions of others and they find that intolerable. A lot of the time, the nuances of certain kinds speech are different in different communities and those nuances are lost on social media and people become more toxic as a result. I suspect that carefully considered features could reduce toxicity of discussion, but I don't think that it is just a matter of features. Ultimately it's a people problem and people cannot just be automated around.

hie2neiL 9y ago

Requiring people to identify themselves with verification before they are allowed to communicate seems orwellian to me. Speaking of which, your papers please.

WorldMaker 9y ago

What you've described is Facebook, and it has its own toxicity. Auto-moderation is a useful start, but strong community moderation is built on empathy and soft skills, which for the moment is still best handled by people.

jstarfish 9y ago

If Nextdoor is any indication, posting your name and verified home address next to your comments still won't stop toxicity.

gaius 9y ago

Charging $1 per Tweet would sort it easily

JoshMnem 9y ago

Real names policies don't result in friendlier communities. In places where I've seen people use both pseudonyms and real names, they are sometimes much worse behaved where they are using real names. Facebook groups are full of people using real names who are behaving very badly. Companies can't tell users, "we're forcing you to use your real names so we can conspire with other companies to track you wherever you go against your knowledge", so they say it's to encourage better behavior.

astine 9y ago

"Would forcing users to verify their identities and post with their full names have any effect on the toxicity?" Probably not. Often time people are just as terrible in person and social media just gives them more reach. "What if filters were used to prevent the most egregious words of hatred?" It's too easy to come up with new (((slurs))) to get around such censorship but still spread the same message. "Is it at all possible to have something like twitter that isn't as toxic, given the right features?" Social media often makes people more toxic by exposing them more directly to the opinions of others and they find that intolerable. A lot of the time, the nuances of certain kinds speech are different in different communities and those nuances are lost on social media and people become more toxic as a result. I suspect that carefully considered features could reduce toxicity of discussion, but I don't think that it is just a matter of features. Ultimately it's a people problem and people cannot just be automated around.