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I don't know about research but we certainly have a lot of evidence - people rarely have to explain to other users not to be rude jerks in comments, mainly beca

by pvg 4y ago

I don't know about research but we certainly have a lot of evidence - people rarely have to explain to other users not to be rude jerks in comments, mainly because people know to flag them and the people who write them learn not to write them. This isn't really about optimism or pessimism but a critical component of the basic social immune system of the forum. You can see this expressed in an infinite stream of guideline-thumping mod comments: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=author%3Adang%20flag%20them%20instead&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

maxbond 4y ago
To clarify, I didn't mean to say you were a pessimist, or even that I'm an optimist, just that I prefer optimism in this scenario. I actually do regularly see rude comments, for what it's worth. We may have different thresholds for what we consider rude. I glanced through the comments in that search, they seemed to be responding to a much higher level of toxicity than what we're discussing, and they're escalating the situation. I don't think nitpickers are trolling or flamebaiting. And to be clear, I'm not suggesting we don't flag comments, I agree that's a critical function to the community. I think the crux of it is this; if explaining to people the problem we have with their behavior and asking that they change it never worked - why would we be having this conversation? Surely when you asked me disengage in this type of response, you thought there was a reasonable possibility of convincing me?
- pvg 4y ago
  The main thing I want to convince you of is to flag this type of comment - a thing everyone should do! The engaging (or not) is more practical thing - avoiding the risk of a giant thread of meta sitting at the top of a submission to the detriment of actually interesting discussion. Since everyone loves meta and bickering, this happens quite a bit. If the comment is safely at the bottom of the thread, engage away. I sure can't seem to help it. It just does a lot less good than flagging (which is not just for trolls and flamewarriors).

by pvg 4y ago

maxbond 4y ago

To clarify, I didn't mean to say you were a pessimist, or even that I'm an optimist, just that I prefer optimism in this scenario. I actually do regularly see rude comments, for what it's worth. We may have different thresholds for what we consider rude. I glanced through the comments in that search, they seemed to be responding to a much higher level of toxicity than what we're discussing, and they're escalating the situation. I don't think nitpickers are trolling or flamebaiting. And to be clear, I'm not suggesting we don't flag comments, I agree that's a critical function to the community. I think the crux of it is this; if explaining to people the problem we have with their behavior and asking that they change it never worked - why would we be having this conversation? Surely when you asked me disengage in this type of response, you thought there was a reasonable possibility of convincing me?

pvg 4y ago
The main thing I want to convince you of is to flag this type of comment - a thing everyone should do! The engaging (or not) is more practical thing - avoiding the risk of a giant thread of meta sitting at the top of a submission to the detriment of actually interesting discussion. Since everyone loves meta and bickering, this happens quite a bit. If the comment is safely at the bottom of the thread, engage away. I sure can't seem to help it. It just does a lot less good than flagging (which is not just for trolls and flamewarriors).