4 ms·

Imagine a employer or potential investor Googles your name and found such content. Don't you think that they might have second thoughts, and that it could harm

by mickt 18y ago

Imagine a employer or potential investor Googles your name and found such content. Don't you think that they might have second thoughts, and that it could harm your chances? I can imagine some people's thought processes: Because supposed some of it might be true, right? People wouldn't write that stuff if it was false, would they? A lot of this is because of good search and indexing techniques by Google and their ilk (and people wanting advertising revenue and opening up their sites to the spiders), because even a few years this stuff that wouldn't have been found at all, and would be a hurricane in a taecup. But, today I think it is a problem as this kind of crap has the possibility to seriously harm people's reputation.

smanek 18y ago
Of course I understand that spreading a negative opinion about someone has negative consequences for the target. And I agree that a decent person shouldn't write that sort of thing. But, there is a world of difference between what I morally shouldn't do, and what I legally can't do. I think the Ku Klux Klan is horrible for spouting its bigoted hate speach about minorities - but I don't think we should make it illegal for them to do so. I (and the law) are in agreement that straight up libel, slander, obscenity, and calls to violence are not protected by free speech, but pretty much everything else is. By definition, an opinion can't be false (it's my opinion) - and you really don't want a court legislating which opinions someone should be allowed to express. You can be sued for outright lying (slander/libel), but you can not (and should not) be sued for stating an opinion. No matter how ill conceived or malicious that opinion is.
- mickt 18y ago
  Decent people make all sorts of mistakes, and many of the commenters mentioned in the article sound like decent people who got caught up in this whole flaming thing like a wild & crazy mob. On the other hand do they deserve to loose their reputations over this? From a technical point of view if AutoAdmit had blocked search spiders from indexing their forums (or at least the scandalous ones) none of this would have happened in the first place.
  - wvenable 18y ago
    As the owner of a semi-popular anonymous forum (with some moderation) I have no sympathy for these idiots. They are decent people caught being in a wild and crazy mob? How is that not contradictory. Flaming is ok, but calling for these women to be raped and so on is just disturbing and weird and anyone doing it is a bit far from a decent person in any context.
    - mickt 18y ago
      >They are decent people caught being in a wild and crazy mob? How is that not contradictory. Decent people get caught up in (bad) events all the time. There's the Stanford prison experiment, where students were separated into guards & prisoners with horrifying results. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment This probably isn't a good comparison, but it's an example of decent people doing bad things and following a crowd or mob mentality. There's probably some sociology term for it, where "normal" people act in un-normal vile ways. In this case, many of the commentors appear to be male and got caught up in cussing out women (or were acting like bullies). Someone started it, and it snowballed into vile and derogatory language. I'm not condoning their actions, but things like can and do happen all the time, and without intervention escalate.
      - jacoblyles 18y ago
        I think the prison experiment is a great analogy for the internet. People's behavior is shaped by their surroundings, real or virtual.
      - kragen 18y ago
        One of the effective things you can do to prevent further wild and crazy mobs from erupting is to make examples of the people who participated in previous ones.
      - mickt 18y ago
        Penny Arcade sums it up: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/ http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

by mickt 18y ago

smanek 18y ago

Of course I understand that spreading a negative opinion about someone has negative consequences for the target. And I agree that a decent person shouldn't write that sort of thing. But, there is a world of difference between what I morally shouldn't do, and what I legally can't do. I think the Ku Klux Klan is horrible for spouting its bigoted hate speach about minorities - but I don't think we should make it illegal for them to do so. I (and the law) are in agreement that straight up libel, slander, obscenity, and calls to violence are not protected by free speech, but pretty much everything else is. By definition, an opinion can't be false (it's my opinion) - and you really don't want a court legislating which opinions someone should be allowed to express. You can be sued for outright lying (slander/libel), but you can not (and should not) be sued for stating an opinion. No matter how ill conceived or malicious that opinion is.

mickt 18y ago
Decent people make all sorts of mistakes, and many of the commenters mentioned in the article sound like decent people who got caught up in this whole flaming thing like a wild & crazy mob. On the other hand do they deserve to loose their reputations over this? From a technical point of view if AutoAdmit had blocked search spiders from indexing their forums (or at least the scandalous ones) none of this would have happened in the first place.
- wvenable 18y ago
  As the owner of a semi-popular anonymous forum (with some moderation) I have no sympathy for these idiots. They are decent people caught being in a wild and crazy mob? How is that not contradictory. Flaming is ok, but calling for these women to be raped and so on is just disturbing and weird and anyone doing it is a bit far from a decent person in any context.
  - mickt 18y ago
    >They are decent people caught being in a wild and crazy mob? How is that not contradictory. Decent people get caught up in (bad) events all the time. There's the Stanford prison experiment, where students were separated into guards & prisoners with horrifying results. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment This probably isn't a good comparison, but it's an example of decent people doing bad things and following a crowd or mob mentality. There's probably some sociology term for it, where "normal" people act in un-normal vile ways. In this case, many of the commentors appear to be male and got caught up in cussing out women (or were acting like bullies). Someone started it, and it snowballed into vile and derogatory language. I'm not condoning their actions, but things like can and do happen all the time, and without intervention escalate.
    - jacoblyles 18y ago
      I think the prison experiment is a great analogy for the internet. People's behavior is shaped by their surroundings, real or virtual.
    - kragen 18y ago
      One of the effective things you can do to prevent further wild and crazy mobs from erupting is to make examples of the people who participated in previous ones.
    - mickt 18y ago
      Penny Arcade sums it up: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/ http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/