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> If anything, the last decade has taught us the immutability of this law. Or equally likely-- there are a tiny fraction of bona fide users who act moderately

> If anything, the last decade has taught us the immutability of this law. Or equally likely-- there are a tiny fraction of bona fide users who act moderately anti-social on the net when granted anonymity, just as they would in real life. It's just that forums with no little to no publishing friction allow those people to do 100x damage compared to what they could get away with in real life. Add to that: * corporate-sponsored trolls doing 1000x damage compared to real life * nation-state trolls doing 10000x damage compared to real life That's how you get that inimitable Reddit charm of watching an entire thread on geopolitics seem to change its hive mind as the mods manually strip out all the astroturf over the course of an hour.

atoav 7y ago
I don’t know, there seem to be various levels of anonymity with different social implications. Let’s roughly differenciate between: 1. Full Anonymity (no way to differenciate between user A and B except by the content) 2. Anonymous Pseudonymity (Users can take usernames, but they don’t mean a lot because they can be changed fast and there is no per user post history) 3. Accountbuilding Pseudonymity (Users usually stick to their accounts, Per user post history or karma is visible and meaningful) 4. Mandatory Real Names (on top of the stuff in point 3 you also have to use your real name - but face no consequences if you make something up) 5. Enforced Real Names (same as point 4, but the service provider has to check your identity) Positive effects of mandatory real name policies could never been proven — as far as I know they haven’t improved civility e.g. on facebook. I believe the secret lies more in the feedback systems and how easy it is to flip or flop your position away from what you historically said. It helps if all community interactions or rules are clear and minimalistic instead of arbitrary and arcane. All of this together weakens or strengthens the impact of the kind of user you mentioned. So in short: the emergent culture on really bad image boards is also part of their systemic design, just like it is with hn, facebook, instagram and any other online plattform. I think the type mentioned in point 3 (accountbuilding) paired with clever measures to keep the aims of the community aligned help a lot.
- jancsika 7y ago
  You're coupling registration process with posting process. What evidence is there that a fully anonymous image board writable by Debian maintainers would follow this so-called "law?"
tomcooks 7y ago
Nice try FBI
whenchamenia 7y ago
They seem to strip out all but one narrative, but thats irregardless of astroturf.

atoav 7y ago

I don’t know, there seem to be various levels of anonymity with different social implications. Let’s roughly differenciate between: 1. Full Anonymity (no way to differenciate between user A and B except by the content) 2. Anonymous Pseudonymity (Users can take usernames, but they don’t mean a lot because they can be changed fast and there is no per user post history) 3. Accountbuilding Pseudonymity (Users usually stick to their accounts, Per user post history or karma is visible and meaningful) 4. Mandatory Real Names (on top of the stuff in point 3 you also have to use your real name - but face no consequences if you make something up) 5. Enforced Real Names (same as point 4, but the service provider has to check your identity) Positive effects of mandatory real name policies could never been proven — as far as I know they haven’t improved civility e.g. on facebook. I believe the secret lies more in the feedback systems and how easy it is to flip or flop your position away from what you historically said. It helps if all community interactions or rules are clear and minimalistic instead of arbitrary and arcane. All of this together weakens or strengthens the impact of the kind of user you mentioned. So in short: the emergent culture on really bad image boards is also part of their systemic design, just like it is with hn, facebook, instagram and any other online plattform. I think the type mentioned in point 3 (accountbuilding) paired with clever measures to keep the aims of the community aligned help a lot.

jancsika 7y ago
You're coupling registration process with posting process. What evidence is there that a fully anonymous image board writable by Debian maintainers would follow this so-called "law?"

tomcooks 7y ago

Nice try FBI

whenchamenia 7y ago

They seem to strip out all but one narrative, but thats irregardless of astroturf.