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I really hope that we can figure out this whole "people being absolutely terrible on the internet" thing. A lot of people say that it's just because this is ho

by rtpg 13y ago

I really hope that we can figure out this whole "people being absolutely terrible on the internet" thing. A lot of people say that it's just because this is how people really are, but I'm not convinced. I know for a fact that I'm a lot ruder on the internet than I'd ever want to be in real life, regardless of consequences. I've found that "real name" policies help (not necessarily forcing a real name, but at least trying to encourage it, while still allowing for pseudo-anonymity). The stuff that's happened in the gaming community is disconcerting too

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
It's not just the internet. What's going to happen on HuffPo when the nasty comments don't go away? Use the State to bludgeon the offensive speakers? Where will that end?
- rtpg 13y ago
  Historically you lose your right to free speech when you start making death threats. If you've read the news recently you'd see a lot of very violent stuff being thrown at people. Internet or not, people are not allowed to say they are going to rape your corpse and harass you over and over. So "using the State to bludgeon the offensive speakers" seems like a reasonable reaction to these people. Some of the stuff (that bomb threat twitter thing) is a bit much, but there's a limit to freedom of speech.
  - betterunix 13y ago
    There are other ways: * Spam filters -- if we can spot viagra ads, we can spot rape threats. A paid moderator can review posts that are flagged by the filter but which are not actually threatening. * Charging people for the privilege to post comments on the site. You are free to make commentary on your blog if you do not want to pay, and a small fee (e.g. $5/yr) creates just enough of a speedbump to keep most trolls off the site. This can also help cover the cost of a paid moderator. * Upvote/downvote systems, though these tend to descend into mob rule / groupthink / downvote-because-I-disagree.
    - rtpg 13y ago
      ok I don't think that the gov't should be moderating huffpo comments. Upvote/downvote stuff might be good at least for trolling stuff (but it too can be abused in the right situations). However, actions are actions. Just because it's easier to do something on the internet doesn't make it more legal. Obviously the seriousness of it all has to be judged , but if you're harrassing someone constantly on the internet (even if it's "just" making a bunch of online accounts and commenting extremely viley everywhere), you do not have my sympathy. If I were putting hateful messages into your (snail) mail box every day and sending your friends photoshopped pictures of you in compromising situations, would I be pardoned? Doing on the internet shouldn't either
- prawn 13y ago
  Don't TechCrunch encourage real names and still get snark in response to start-up announcements? There's more anonymity on HN and people are generally more civil. A karma system can help, IMO.
  - rtpg 13y ago
    I feel like the culture of HN encourages people to be relatively open to their identities (probably because its small enough to where anyone can reasonably use it as their soapbox). "Snark" is one thing (enough people are rude in this industry no matter what the medium), what I'm more concerned about are the things like the death threats, or just outright racism and bigotry out there. The really vile stuff. That needs to get stopped
zeteo 13y ago
It's not the anonymity, it's the lack of consequences. In big cities, people are casually rude in traffic even though they can see each others' faces; but they'll probably never meet again. The clerk at the DMV treats you as shitty as they can get away with. By contrast, an anonymous seller on eBay may go to great lengths to make you happy beyond the terms of service, just because your review will stay with them.
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  Look at sites that use Facebook for comments. People have no problem posting utterly insane and threatening things with their real name, with a picture of them smiling with their kids.
  - showerst 13y ago
    I'd say that happens a lot _less_ on facebook though compared to a site like reddit, because more people are cognizant that they're using their real life identity. People also post pictures of their shiny new credit cards to twitter, it's not because they don't care about fraud, they're just not aware of how twitter works. Some small portion of people really don't care and will gladly threaten to rape you under their real name, but I'm guessing that the majority of the ones you see are people who just aren't very internet saavy.
Karunamon 13y ago
I'm not sure it can be solved.. This problem will always exist as long as the 3 pieces are still there: http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4650/intratnetdumbqv9.jpg http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4650/intratnetdumbqv9.jpg (nfsw language)

by rtpg 13y ago

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago

It's not just the internet. What's going to happen on HuffPo when the nasty comments don't go away? Use the State to bludgeon the offensive speakers? Where will that end?

rtpg 13y ago
Historically you lose your right to free speech when you start making death threats. If you've read the news recently you'd see a lot of very violent stuff being thrown at people. Internet or not, people are not allowed to say they are going to rape your corpse and harass you over and over. So "using the State to bludgeon the offensive speakers" seems like a reasonable reaction to these people. Some of the stuff (that bomb threat twitter thing) is a bit much, but there's a limit to freedom of speech.
- betterunix 13y ago
  There are other ways: * Spam filters -- if we can spot viagra ads, we can spot rape threats. A paid moderator can review posts that are flagged by the filter but which are not actually threatening. * Charging people for the privilege to post comments on the site. You are free to make commentary on your blog if you do not want to pay, and a small fee (e.g. $5/yr) creates just enough of a speedbump to keep most trolls off the site. This can also help cover the cost of a paid moderator. * Upvote/downvote systems, though these tend to descend into mob rule / groupthink / downvote-because-I-disagree.
  - rtpg 13y ago
    ok I don't think that the gov't should be moderating huffpo comments. Upvote/downvote stuff might be good at least for trolling stuff (but it too can be abused in the right situations). However, actions are actions. Just because it's easier to do something on the internet doesn't make it more legal. Obviously the seriousness of it all has to be judged , but if you're harrassing someone constantly on the internet (even if it's "just" making a bunch of online accounts and commenting extremely viley everywhere), you do not have my sympathy. If I were putting hateful messages into your (snail) mail box every day and sending your friends photoshopped pictures of you in compromising situations, would I be pardoned? Doing on the internet shouldn't either
prawn 13y ago
Don't TechCrunch encourage real names and still get snark in response to start-up announcements? There's more anonymity on HN and people are generally more civil. A karma system can help, IMO.
- rtpg 13y ago
  I feel like the culture of HN encourages people to be relatively open to their identities (probably because its small enough to where anyone can reasonably use it as their soapbox). "Snark" is one thing (enough people are rude in this industry no matter what the medium), what I'm more concerned about are the things like the death threats, or just outright racism and bigotry out there. The really vile stuff. That needs to get stopped

zeteo 13y ago

It's not the anonymity, it's the lack of consequences. In big cities, people are casually rude in traffic even though they can see each others' faces; but they'll probably never meet again. The clerk at the DMV treats you as shitty as they can get away with. By contrast, an anonymous seller on eBay may go to great lengths to make you happy beyond the terms of service, just because your review will stay with them.

nsxwolf 13y ago
Look at sites that use Facebook for comments. People have no problem posting utterly insane and threatening things with their real name, with a picture of them smiling with their kids.
- showerst 13y ago
  I'd say that happens a lot _less_ on facebook though compared to a site like reddit, because more people are cognizant that they're using their real life identity. People also post pictures of their shiny new credit cards to twitter, it's not because they don't care about fraud, they're just not aware of how twitter works. Some small portion of people really don't care and will gladly threaten to rape you under their real name, but I'm guessing that the majority of the ones you see are people who just aren't very internet saavy.

Karunamon 13y ago

I'm not sure it can be solved.. This problem will always exist as long as the 3 pieces are still there: http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4650/intratnetdumbqv9.jpg http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4650/intratnetdumbqv9.jpg (nfsw language)