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A broad brush[1] is acceptable if you're unable to use the Internet without being harassed by "contrarians". I am someone who is not often harassed online, but
by Hytosys 12y ago
A broad brush[1] is acceptable if you're unable to use the Internet without being harassed by "contrarians".
I am someone who is not often harassed online, but I am involved with people who frequently experience harassment. I've been using Twitter block lists[2] and have noticed a great absence of hateful responses. This is not a long-term solution, but it lowers the number of times a day that my heart sinks. I accept any incidental losses.
The article suggests a finer brush using something like crowdsourcing. Perhaps harassment targets could pay to submit their profiles for monitoring, and the resultant block list could be made public for subscription by anyone on Block Together[2].
It would be nice to see networks take a stand against repeat harassers, but clearly people are tired of waiting around for that.
[1] https://github.com/freebsdgirl/ggautoblocker https://github.com/freebsdgirl/ggautoblocker
[2] https://blocktogether.org/ https://blocktogether.org/
EDIT: Without responses, I'm coming to some disappointing conclusions.
- return0 12y agoWhere does 'written harassment' ends and where does groupthink begin? Should such harassment be an actual problem, there would already be such filtered alternatives to twitter and facebook. Right now i see it as an attempt to silence unfavorable opinions.
- Hytosys 12y agoCould you expand on your first thought? I'm not sure I understand your intended connection between harassment and groupthink. In the hypothetical situation that harassment is prevalent, I'm curious as to what your alternatives to Twitter/Facebook would look like. What would the requirements of joining such a community be?
- return0 12y agoIf you start censoring people, soon you will find yourself only allowing the opinions of the majority. An alternative to twitter would be filtered, just as you suggest. It could even exclude "offending" opinions. There are plenty of easily offended (but very vocal) people who think all public channels should be like that. However we don't see any startup that is advocating censored speak catching up (I don't even know if there are any, but the social startup space is so overcrowded that there must be some).
- Hytosys 12y agoI respect your point about censorship when applied to the realm of civil disagreement. This conversation unfortunately breaks down because of our dissonance in regards to the civility and rationale of Gamergate.
- NotableAlamode 12y agoYou demonstrate this groupthink to an extreme degree in the complete absence of nuance of your description of a well-known anti-corruption movement. So maybe you should reflect on the conditions that have duped you into taking such a simplistic position.
- Hytosys 12y agoHow do you claim Gamergate is simply "well-known" as "anti-corruption"? Its Wikipedia page[1] and related discussion and sources disagree with your sentiment, attributing this line of thinking to "some of the [Gamergate] people". If you want to distance yourself from the documented invasion into the lives and the distinct harassment of women in the industry, my humble suggestion is to pick a new angle from which to fight. How about Doritogate? I fear we have gotten quite off-topic. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy
- NotableAlamode 12y agoWe are quite on topic as I'm giving a performative demonstration of just how a small minority uses censorship as a form of harassment in the service of their own struggle for power. We saw this from the likes of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot ... to Anti-Gamer-Gate. In this context claims of harassment are a smokescreen that are being used to cover up the exposed corruption. They appeal to the damsel-in-distress narrative that so many men so easily fall for. It's quite an effective strategy, and some guys like John Flynt (aka Brianna Wu) make quite a good living of it seemingly. Maybe you should also try it when your software isn't good: wear girls clothes, send yourself some threatening emails and whine about harassment on TV ... worth quite a stack of paper I hear. BTW Wikipedia is not a credible source.
- tsotha 12y agoAnybody using lists like ggautoblocker is far past the point where groupthink began. They're not blocking "hateful" responses - they're blocking anyone who disagrees with them. This is just part of an ongoing slide into the sort of factionalism that ends (eventually) in bloodshed.
- Hytosys 12y agoI'll ask this with the obvious risk of making a correlation: would you have the same opinion of kkkautoblocker — a tool that blocked anyone who associated with the leaders of a hate group?
- tsotha 12y agoYes, I would, though we both know that's a spurious comparison. For one thing, since you don't control the block list, and you don't know the people who control the list personally, you have no idea who they're blocking. Could be people who have nothing to do with the KKK. For another... if people you don't know are being malicious to you maybe you should step back and think about your public face. People who draw a lot of trolls do so for a reason.
- NotableAlamode 12y agoWhy do you draw a false analogy between a racist group and a distributed online movement that has been extremely successful at exposing corruption in games journalism?
- Hytosys 12y agoRegardless of my stance on the issue, I tried my best to posit hypothetically and still failed to avoid this loaded question.
- ryanlol 12y agoDepends entirely on the contents of those peoples tweets. What if one of those leaders of a hate group was also a linux kernel developer and regularly made interesting technical tweets?
- gaius 12y agoI am baffled that the FreeBSD movement would put their name on something like this. Horrifying.
- Hytosys 12y agoI think it is clear to most that freebsdgirl is a free agent, and not representative of the operating system to which she has contributed.
- gaius 12y agoSo this isn't endorsed by the FreeBSD Foundation? Just to be clear.
- gaius 12y agoOut of curiosity, what did she write in FreeBSD? Out of even more curiosity, why does this straightforward question deserve a downvote?
- Macha 12y agoAs far as I can tell, her main area of work was originally on the installer. It was obviously sufficiently large that they gave her commit access and a @freebsd.org email in 2009-ish. There are slides from a talk she did on it here: https://www.bsdcan.org/2009/schedule/events/126.en.html https://www.bsdcan.org/2009/schedule/events/126.en.html I think it's fair to say that whatever disagreements people might have with her, her technical credentials do check out.