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I think the key to understanding the scope for abuse is to understand the opportunity. There will always be abusive behaviour and tools are required to tackle i

I think the key to understanding the scope for abuse is to understand the opportunity. There will always be abusive behaviour and tools are required to tackle it _but_ the majority of abusive behaviour on the internet comes from a desire for attention, and one-to-one abuse is much less common. Abusive people are typically looking for a platform to broadcast. I think that the methods outlined on the website will help but I think the concept is inherently anti-abuse. Context: I worked in community management for many years, dealing with some of the worst of abusive online behaviour.

ALittleLight 6y ago
Screenshot the abuse, post to forums, get attention and inspire copycat abusers. I like the idea of the service, and agree with the moderation approach, but I also think trolls are a potential problem.
anticsapp 6y ago
I think you are in the right here. If one is trolling an audience of one, it's not really the same dopamine hit as Tweeting a death threat to a Senator that thousands see. It gets boring quick. Also, troll management as a problem is sort of like the "What if I burn $100,000 on AWS in one month?" problem. It's a good problem to have, it means you have traction, and with patience and focus the trolls can be steamrolled.
- def8cefe 6y ago
  >with patience and focus the trolls can be steamrolled. I agree with your observation that trolls are a problem that comes with scale, but I've never seen an online community solve it. At best you can only slow them down. If anybody has some examples of large online communities that did solve trolling I would be interested to see them.
  - CathedralBorrow 6y ago
    "Solve" is a tall order and I'm not sure it passes that bar, but I've always liked how the Something Awful forums have dealt with trolling and other shitty behaviour: An account costs $10 and bans for trolling are handed out quite aggressively.
  - anticsapp 6y ago
    Early Flickr was really good at troll containment: https://mastersofscale.com/caterina-fake-build-a-more-human-internet/ https://mastersofscale.com/caterina-fake-build-a-more-human-...

ALittleLight 6y ago

Screenshot the abuse, post to forums, get attention and inspire copycat abusers. I like the idea of the service, and agree with the moderation approach, but I also think trolls are a potential problem.

anticsapp 6y ago

I think you are in the right here. If one is trolling an audience of one, it's not really the same dopamine hit as Tweeting a death threat to a Senator that thousands see. It gets boring quick. Also, troll management as a problem is sort of like the "What if I burn $100,000 on AWS in one month?" problem. It's a good problem to have, it means you have traction, and with patience and focus the trolls can be steamrolled.

def8cefe 6y ago
>with patience and focus the trolls can be steamrolled. I agree with your observation that trolls are a problem that comes with scale, but I've never seen an online community solve it. At best you can only slow them down. If anybody has some examples of large online communities that did solve trolling I would be interested to see them.
- CathedralBorrow 6y ago
  "Solve" is a tall order and I'm not sure it passes that bar, but I've always liked how the Something Awful forums have dealt with trolling and other shitty behaviour: An account costs $10 and bans for trolling are handed out quite aggressively.
- anticsapp 6y ago
  Early Flickr was really good at troll containment: https://mastersofscale.com/caterina-fake-build-a-more-human-internet/ https://mastersofscale.com/caterina-fake-build-a-more-human-...