The New York Times published a story today that reveals a disturbing trend:
The Internet may be losing the war against trolls. At the very least, it isn't winning. And unless social networks, media sites and governments come up with some innovative way of defeating online troublemakers, the digital world will never be free of the trolls' collective sway.
That's the dismal judgment of the handful of scholars who study the broad category of online incivility known as trolling, a problem whose scope is not clear, but whose victims keep mounting.
"As long as the Internet keeps operating according to a click-based economy, trolls will maybe not win, but they will always be present," said Whitney Phillips, a lecturer at Humboldt State University and the author of "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things," a forthcoming book about her years of studying bad behavior online. "The faster that the whole media system goes, the more trolls have a foothold to stand on. They are perfectly calibrated to exploit the way media is disseminated these days."
One wonders just how many anonymous trolls this story will stir up here.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SlimmPickens on Friday August 15 2014, @04:47AM
I don't know about an increase in abuse. I certainly don't see the kind of flamewars I remember from long ago, at not where I hang out. I kind of feel like the internet is making large numbers of people more thoughtful, diligent and articulate. I get that the number of flamey newcomers is much larger than the group I'm talking about, but I'm hopeful they'll mostly settle down once they've had their proverbial bum smacked a few times.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday August 15 2014, @05:21AM
The flame wars of old were usually on a higher plane than some of the AC trolls you find on that green site, not to mention a few here. Most of them were using email, and that required them to maintain a certain level of positive engagement in order to prevent getting filtered.
Its different with web interfaces where its not possible to get one's bum smacked as an AC. Built in deniability.
People who sign up, even under pseudonym, are at least making a conscious effort to participate on some level in a mutual discussion.
From TFA
So you put up with a few trolls, or you just ignore them, and they go away. It would be interesting to know how many ACs ultimately decide to sign up for accounts on some of these sites and become contributing members.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday August 15 2014, @05:38AM
Troll wars are a fine balance. The balance rests between what is believable and not believable. In this [soylentnews.org] example, there were no Niggers or Chinks, somebody just subtly learned the lingo and led social retards (apparently everybody on the LKML mailing list) on the wrong path. From a personal point of view, the troll excelled. Though to the layman that troll's trolls were dry and/or unremarkable, theirs was a fundamental lesson of the art of speech -- Know your audience.
The smart people can discern what is bullshit and what is real. But the dumb, like the ones who believe in "rape culture" or "bikini bridge" or parse-and-store any dumb viral thing that can be spoofed stupidly, are perhaps the trolls in that they are useful idiots by unwittingly helping invent a new market of trolling, perpetuating it?
(Score: 3) by aristarchus on Friday August 15 2014, @07:59AM
Well played, Eth! You have just beggared belief and buggered your own credibility in a single sentence! This is the problem with trolls, they cannot learn. Best to expose them to sunlight, and just get over it. TrollHunter is a great movie, by the way! And stop by and visit the Fremont Troll, if you are ever in its neighborhood.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wantkitteh on Friday August 15 2014, @09:15AM
My experience shows that Eth is right - and I used to be chief troll-baiter on alt.hacker back around the turn of the millenium. We discovered that there were effectively two strains of troll. The stupid ones were easy to deal with, anyone with three brain cells to make an XOR gate with could do. The smart ones could generate massive threads of utter bullsh*t by engaging the smarter members of the newsgroup with a targetted level of inflammatory yet cogent and relevant reply. By ignoring any logic or genuine discussion and slowly ramping up the bloody-mindedness, even the most level-headed person in the newsgroup could be taken in.
So my job, by private decision with the other regs, was to look for threads where this was occuring, and hijack the argument with the troll using a secondary handle. My deployment of that handle warned all the regs off from posting in this thread any more. I would then break the thread into about 10-15 confusing inter-linked sub arguments (that barely made any sense, usually), each with it's own specific point, deliberately giving the troll opening after opening to keep the whole thing rolling along. I got so good at this, I kept multiple trolls busy for weeks at a time just arguing with me in threads everyone else had kill-filled. Of course, the troll is in hogs-heaven thinking how he's picked up the perfect victim while everyone in the know is laughing at the gullible troll who hasn't realised they've been socially engineered by the experts.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday August 15 2014, @09:59AM
A kind of special Internet Badge, even more exclusive than achieving +5 Troll
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday August 15 2014, @10:27AM
Got one on line! Troll-baiting is just trolling!! Ha! Did you actually think we would fall for that one? Can't possibly be true, can it? Tell us more about your anti-troll techniques. Please?
(Score: 1) by wantkitteh on Friday August 15 2014, @11:32AM
See above.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday August 16 2014, @09:00AM
Fold . . . . Fold . . . . Fold. "Mischief managed!"
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday August 15 2014, @08:51AM
I have very little experience with coding, but the patch he submitted isn't fooling anyone. It was mildly amusing as a non kernel developer, but I bet some people get miffed. (For those too lazy he patched two lines of kernel code taking out the fixme comment at the end of lines.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Friday August 15 2014, @10:45AM
Frankly a truly great troll? Is fucking worth their weight in gold because they are entertaining as hell, but instead all we get now is whiny little manginas like my little cyberstalker. Let me compare stalky with a truly fucking EPIC troll, the late great twitter from slash to show you how different the skill levels are.
Stalky? makes dozens of accounts so he can wait 3 days, after nobody will see it because he has been banned from so many places he doesn't have balls to do anything in daylight, so he can downmod my OLD posts, wow what skill, I'm sure users really care you spent hours making accounts so you can downmod posts they have already seen and forgotten about....yawn.
Compare this to twitter which would post 4 page essays on 'proof" he found by dissecting multiple posts of mine over months which showed i wasn't actually a southern shop owner but was in reality a high level operative at a secret op base in Redmond that is paid for by gates to discredit all things FOSS...now THAT is a truly fucking EPIC troll, so fucking good that there was several instances where posters would go over his evidence and tear into it piece by piece like it was the fucking Zapruder film..THAT is a first class troll, to not only troll that many but have them not even realize they are being trolled? Fucking classic!
What these guys call trolls? they aren't trolls, they are butthurt impotent manchildren that think they are being "edgy" because they can scream words like nigger over and over AND OVER. that is NOT trolling, that is just douchebaggery. To "troll" one has to bait the marks, be plausible, and reel in the fish, your example seems like a classic troll and his trolling works. When all these mainstream sites say "we are being trolled" you go and see what they are talking about? Its like somebody putting links to Lemon Party or this one douche that likes to link to GIFs of porn stars being assbanged when somebody brings up women's rights...that isn't trolling, they aren't doing anything to bait or reel anybody in, they are just a douchebag screaming "faggot!" in the hopes that somebody will pay even 2 minutes worth of attention to their worthless asses...yawn. Just ban 'em or get rid of worthless ACs on your site and call it a fucking day already. if you get a REAL troll like Twitter? treasure them for they WILL entertain you with their crazy.... kinda like you EF ;-)
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by zafiro17 on Friday August 15 2014, @09:37PM
Hairyfeet is totally right. Well-done trolling can be entertaining as fuck, and even sometimes educational. You get a slightly provocative news article and come in early with a provocative viewpoint chosen carefully to get people talking, and you're in for a good time.
Way more interesting than the mediocrity that passes for trolling these days. Stupid Millennial generation can't even troll right. Go talk to a neckbeard, son, and see how to do it. ;)
PS: and no, this post is not, itself, trolling. It's just offensive and sort of blunt.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday August 16 2014, @02:43AM
I'm not so sure a lot of these trolls actually know they're trolling, tho. Sometimes they're just the type who can't bear to lose an argument, or can't stand it when someone disagrees with their $religion, so they insert all sorts of spurious arguments which objectively are just noise, but some poor sucker still feels obligated to correct, rinse and repeat since the correction didn't do anything for the pseudotroll's understanding, other than providing a new tack for argument.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday August 16 2014, @02:36AM
Remember "Usenet Freedom Fighters" who took flame wars to the point of harassing their targets in meatspace..??
I haven't seen anything close to that level on a modern forum.
The reason I don't filter ACs is that there are plenty who do have something useful to say, which more than balances out the ones who don't (and whom I ignore).
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday August 15 2014, @05:33AM
See, you used the more polite 'proverbial bum' instead of 'stupid ass'. It's working already!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by pert.boioioing on Friday August 15 2014, @05:36AM
I used to think so too until I started reading the comments at various news sites. Of course, with sites that use commentary systems like "disqus" or "livefyre" or a home-grown that allow pseudonyms you get the political trolls and the people who just want to throw gas on the fire but there's also some reasonable, well-written stuff. But then there are sites like USA-Today that use facebook for their comment system, ostensibly to reduce trolling by trying to put a real name to the comment, and I'm not sure but it seems to actually make it worse.
Call an anonymous or pseudonymous troll out for making an unbelievably stupid comment and they'll eventually go away when they get bored, but it seems if you do the same to someone using their real name rather than shut up and be thought a coward they'll double down on the idiocy since they're already invested on a personal level. Then people start "liking" objectively stupid comments (i.e. so utterly factually incorrect it defies reality and boggles the imagination) and when enough people join the fracas factions start forming and it can get pretty disgusting and disturbing. Good flamewar drama for sure if you're into that sorta thing but at the price of losing a bit of hope for humanity.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Friday August 15 2014, @10:55AM
I think that is because FB acts like an echo chamber, hooking up like to like so you end up having to "make a stand" to keep from losing face with your like minded followers. on those sites that require FB I don't know how many times I've had people ask to be friended because they seem to think i "tell it like it is" on this or that subject. Now I personally always say the same, "I didn't write it for you, I wrote it because that is how I feel on the subject" and promptly ignore their friend request but i can see how one would get a "posse" of dittoheads built up REALLY quickly.
Now any guy will tell you that a dumbass is a lot less likely to back down in front of an audience of buddies, no matter how badly they are gonna get stomped, and that is EXACTLY what I think FB encourages by the way friending works as they get this big pile of dittoheads built up who will then say things like "you gonna take that shit?" and help keep dumbass in the fray whether they normally would have or not.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Friday August 15 2014, @01:00PM
"I think that is because FB acts like an echo chamber, hooking up like to like so you end up having to "make a stand" to keep from losing face with your like minded followers."
Sounds like so much work which is why I haven't bothered with FB for the past oh, 5 years or so.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Saturday August 16 2014, @05:19AM
Hey don't knock the FB just because some people are stupid on it. Thanks to FB there is a lovely lady lying in my bed, I found out an old bandmate was about to die through FB and when I wrote a long essay on the good times we had together this wonderful woman came on talking about how my friend had been like a sister to her...a month later we were together and now I can't picture my life without her.
If it weren't for FB I wouldn't have gotten to say goodbye to an old friend nor meet the love of my life, so don't judge a tool by a few monkeys that misuse it.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday August 16 2014, @02:46AM
"Call an anonymous or pseudonymous troll out for making an unbelievably stupid comment and they'll eventually go away when they get bored, but it seems if you do the same to someone using their real name rather than shut up and be thought a coward they'll double down on the idiocy since they're already invested on a personal level."
That's a good observation, and I think you're right.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @06:21AM
> I certainly don't see the kind of flamewars I remember from long ago, at not where I hang out.
Perhaps flaming is correlated with immaturity and you've just aged out of the group and the hangouts of youth.
Take a look at the comments section on places like youtube or the website of any local newspaper. They are cesspools.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday August 15 2014, @08:26AM
Absolutely, I'd go so far as to say emotional maturity. I do think the groups I'm in matured. That's why I'm hopeful that much of the cesspools can be improved. I still think that most people are reasonable and they'll grow out of it, just as the flamewars eventually stopped.
Has anyone seen Youtube Comment Reconstructions? This one about Mandela is pretty funny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm-6RR4sLXw [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by naubol on Friday August 15 2014, @12:47PM
I agree with your premise that the internet is making people more thoughtful, diligent, and articulate. I just wish it was more likely to make them use the oxford comma, as well :p.
I remember a 'study' that suggested that netspeak was actually improving literacy. Students who regularly spoke in netspeak were able to write higher quality compositions and to express themselves more concisely. The researcher conjectured that it was the increase in the frequency of self-expression via the internet that led to this result.
There are endless newspaper clips talking about TV rotting the brain. It isn't a stretch to imagine that this was also said of the telephone, the telegraph, etc. I remember arguments against teaching the average person to read in the renaissance because it would distract them from what they should be doing.
Here is a researcher who has written a book entitled, "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things". Frankly, I think that alone makes me suspicious of her reasoning skills. Those "researchers" who cross over into pop culture book writing tend to be methodologically weak, in my experience.
The article is light on numbers, but some questions I would ask are: What is the ratio of the distinct number of trolls vs total internet users? How has this ratio changed? Are the trolls posting more? Are they being engaged as much? Are the places they are posting changing? Do we have any qualitative insight into their motivation, ie is it anger, whimsy, or political? The online space used to be reserved for the mostly educated and over time poorer and less educated individuals are acquiring access. This system isn't closed, so this influx should be factored in a holistic manner to appreciate the nature of the issue.
It also occurs to me that you don't learn self-defense without sparring and that trolls may be a semi-safe way of teaching people to have self-defense against antagonistic ideas. Or to put it in a zen-like way, their existence may end up rendering a better reality.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @05:12AM
Cue Ethanol-Fueled comment in 3, 2, 1...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday August 15 2014, @05:44AM
*Sigh* Niggers.
Am I funny yet?
Why doesn't anybody like me?
Whahahaha I am Ethanol-fueled! [cumm.co.uk] I used to be a star!
*found hung dead on a door-jamb*
Nah just kidding, my dick was found hung like a horse in yo momma's ass!
BOOYA!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @11:29AM
That wasn't even trolling, it was just mildly humorous satire. I want my money back! And fuck yo' couch!!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by rliegh on Friday August 15 2014, @05:32AM
When I first found /., trolling was a more signifigant activity. It involved cunning, planning and knowing ones' audience. The antics of Adequacy probably personify that trend the best. Nowdays? What people call "Trolling" ends up simply being "posts I don't like" or crude shock photos. Nothing at all like what we used to have years back.
I just tell 'em the truth and they think it's trolling!
(Score: 1) by pert.boioioing on Friday August 15 2014, @05:43AM
Yeah, Adequacy! That's a blast from the past. I still think about the "Lunix" dad. [adequacy.org] and get a good chuckle.
(Score: 1) by LoztInSpace on Saturday August 16 2014, @02:24AM
Thanks for the link. Made my day!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @11:49AM
Don't worry, we're still out there, hidden among the noise.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Friday August 15 2014, @01:03PM
"What people call "Trolling" ends up simply being "posts I don't like" or crude shock photos."
Is that trolling, or terrorism? See, that's the problem with poorly defined classifications. If it's not terrorism yet it soon will be, as soon as someone finds it politically advantageous. Apparently in Argentina going bankrupt and laying off 400 people is now "terrorism", surely saying something rude about someone's mother is too!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 15 2014, @01:35PM
We need a companion to Godwin's Law for the 21st century. I propose Osama's Law, wherein someone eventually calls someone a terrorist or compares their words and actions to terrorism.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by metamonkey on Friday August 15 2014, @03:40PM
Back in my day, trolling meant something!
Damn right. Trolling is a art.
Okay 3, 2, 1, let's jam.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday August 15 2014, @04:02PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bob9113 on Friday August 15 2014, @05:42AM
"As long as the Internet keeps operating according to a click-based economy, trolls will maybe not win, but they will always be present," said Whitney Phillips, a lecturer at Humboldt State University
"Whitney Phillips", eh? Sounds a lot like a honkey name to me, and we all know how honkeys are, am I right? Why don't you run back to your ranch house in your Toyota Corolla, honkey? Listening to your Neil Diamond CD. You know what I mean.
Did I remember to click "Post Anonymously"?
(Score: 2, Funny) by rliegh on Friday August 15 2014, @06:29AM
Yes, fortunately. Unfortunately, your computer is broadcasting an IP address.
I just tell 'em the truth and they think it's trolling!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday August 15 2014, @09:35AM
I don't know about your computer, but mine just sends it to the places I connect to. And anyway, the IP address it sends gets no further than to my NAT router. So clearly the IP of my computer is completely safe from being discovered. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Lagg on Friday August 15 2014, @06:41AM
I think that at least partly the collective communities on the internet brought this on themselves by following the "ignore them and they'll go away" rule. Problems tend to get worse if you ignore them, trolls are a problem. By ignoring them people have merely given them a taller soapbox and silence so that their voice is louder. There is also the problem of just how many things are considered trolling now that may be skewing people's perception of just how big of a problem it is. Everything from anger to a dissenting opinion can be labeled that way and often is. Then we have the rather broad generalization that all trolls feed on reactions of any sort.
Worst part about it is that this goes beyond simply a message board. It's a real life problem too as evidenced by even recent articles here about bible thumpers harassing strippers for 9 years. In those 9 years they only got bolder and more obnoxious because no one stopped them. Then there are things like the pseudo-feminists as I call them (I've known feminists. They're strong women and generally proud and open about their sexuality. These people are neither), where everything is abuse by the hands of the patriarchy and the penis is evil and everything is sexual harassment and just general professional victim shit like that. It got to this point because we ignored them hoping they'd go away.
"But Lagg!" I hear you say, "what are we supposed to do then?" The answer is: As far as technical solutions go I don't know. Regardless the only way to get these asshats under control is to knock them off their soapbox. That doesn't necessarily entail stooping to their level either. In fact that reminds me. Thunderf00t, professional scientist and gentleman and just generally pretty cool guy made a video about this very topic that likely explains it better than I can. Here you go. [youtube.com]
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by yellowantphil on Friday August 15 2014, @07:55AM
Solomon's advice on dealing with trolls:
You can't win.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @08:41AM
> "what are we supposed to do then?" The answer is: As far as technical solutions go I don't know.
Moderation + meta-moderation is the technical answer.
No solution will be 100%, if for no other reason than only the extreme flamers are clearly defined.
But slashdot's singular contribution to the modern internet was the concept of meta-moderation because, unlike all the other systems of accountability, it scales. It is disheartening that the genius of meta-moderation has not been widely recognized.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Friday August 15 2014, @03:52PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday August 15 2014, @09:49PM
Yeah, goes along with what I said earlier re. dissenting opinion/anger being labeled trolling. That is one reason I didn't mention it as a technical solution, the other being that even if people weren't so quick to fall back to "OMG YOUR TROLLING" the issue of workarounds like just making another account or using a proxy or still exist.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 06 2014, @04:35AM
Before soylent I read slashdot nearly every day and I have 5-digit UID. I have no idea what this "Great smartphone OS war" was. Anything like that over there must not have been much more than a minor skirmish for me not to notice it. As for chasing out insightful people, that's your opinion. I never paid much attention to identities over there, the only ones I noticed were the the people who were consistently smug aholes like cold fjord and even then it took months, even years for them to make enough of an impression to become memorable. But if you have specific individuals in mind you should consider that people have lives and that they come and go for all kinds of reasons. You don't notice the comings and goings of the people you don't care about because by definition you don't think they are worth noticing.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday September 06 2014, @05:22AM
I have no idea what this "Great smartphone OS war" was. Anything like that over there must not have been much more than a minor skirmish for me not to notice it.
It lasted for years and, in some ways, still has some fires burning. The only way you could have missed it is if you had stuck to a /. subdomain that was niche enough to not get dragged into it. Even non-smartphone stories somehow sparked the debate. You'd find the phrase 'walled-garden' in a shit-ton of unrelated articles. I really don't get how you could be as active as you claim and not see it.
As for chasing out insightful people, that's your opinion.
Well, yeah, the whole thing is subjective. But I'll tell you something about being an active commenter on this site for 6 months: On Slashdot it reached a point where I'd groan whenever I got an email telling me somebody replied to a post. I knew it would be an argument and most of the time a really dumb one at that. Today when I get a reply from SN I have a much more hospitable attitude about it. Most of the people I've encountered here, even the more colorful personalities, have brought something more interesting to the discussion. I'm not referring to specific people, I mean the ratio of signal to noise is much better here on SN than it is on Slashdot right now. In fact, this site makes me nostalgic for what Slashdot was like back in the late 90's early 2000's. The hostility just isn't here. I hope it stays that way.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by TK on Friday August 15 2014, @03:21PM
You are actually witnessing one of the best ongoing trolling efforts ever conceived.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @06:42AM
It shits rainbows
(Score: 0) by wantkitteh on Friday August 15 2014, @09:20AM
Someone trade a modpoint with and +1 funny this, I commented above before I saw it :/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by shortscreen on Friday August 15 2014, @08:48AM
Where do I even begin. We have big ISPs and their anti-competitive, rent-seeking behavior to contend with. NSA spying. DMCA, CFAA, SOPA, CISPA, TPP, etc.
But according to the NY Times, the big threat facing the internet is people writing mean things?
If it's a choice between an internet plagued with trolls, or an internet micromanaged and surveilled by corporations and government, I'll choose the trolls, thanks.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday August 15 2014, @04:05PM
(Score: 0, Troll) by Blackmoore on Friday August 15 2014, @05:13PM
If i had any mod points. You'd get them.
Internet trolls are not a real problem. yes they exist. and if they were entertaining 4chan and Fark wouldnt exist.
(Score: 3, Funny) by number6 on Friday August 15 2014, @09:13AM
There are two fools arguing.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Friday August 15 2014, @09:38AM
That reminds me from something I've read long ago in Usenet (actually in German IIRC):
Don't argue with fools. They drag you down to their level, and then beat you with experience.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @03:04PM
So like are there specific words that cause them to multiply? Does it look like Cellular Division or something?
Is this like a don't feed them after midnight kind of thing?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Friday August 15 2014, @10:54AM
Someone promoting "a forthcoming book" is not news. People who promote their books and the lazy news media which echoes them so they don't have to do any real work is a million times worse than a hard-working troll who makes the Internet more fun. Stop linking to and paying attention to people promoting their books.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 16 2014, @03:32AM
What's your email address?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @11:31AM
always fun to get kick/banned from IRC for NOT violating channel rules.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @03:05PM
Disregard that, I suck cocks.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 15 2014, @01:29PM
I have always thought that the /. moderation system, which SN now employs and is working to improve on, did a decent job of keeping the trolls down. They were there, but modded into oblivion. You could set your filter to hide them and have a reasonably insightful and entertaining discussion with mature professionals.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by mckwant on Friday August 15 2014, @06:50PM
Yeah, but if we're honest, that took YEARS of FIRST!!!s, penis birds, goatse links, Natalie Portman, hot grits, ASCII art, All Your Base.., In Soviet Russia.., and I'm sure I'm (willfully) forgetting tens of others. I got a mid-5 digit UID on the old site, and functionally, I couldn't contribute as a newbie because everybody was forced to browse at +2 or above.
Not arguing, and points for getting there, of course, but let's not forget the journey.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 15 2014, @01:52PM
There really are trolls under the bridge. My suggestion is, grow a pair, and deal with them. I have little sympathy for the little weenies who want to throw themselves into bed, and weep for hours because someone said something unkind. Just grow a pair, FFS.
If someone should ever succeed in creating the kid-proof, fool-proof, Mr. Roger's kind of internet - I'll probably dive into the darkwebs and stay there.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by just_another_sean on Friday August 15 2014, @04:44PM
n/t
(Score: 1) by sea on Friday August 15 2014, @05:19PM
In a popular science book I've read recently (Emergence, by Steven Johnson) the existence and pervasiveness of internet trolls was a consequence of the lack of feedback mechanisms online.
In the real world, trolls don't get very far. While they can annoy people for a little while, it's only a matter of time before those people turn around and punch them in the nose, evacuate en masse to a troll-free place, or generally just run the troll off the premises. There are feedback mechanisms in place that let the troll know, for sure, that they're no longer welcome here and if they try something, they will be chased off again.
but on the internet, there are no such mechanisms in place. You can say what you like to the trolls, but they know that they can just keep doing what they're doing without consequence, and worse, they know that for every person that does reply to them, there are a few thousand more that silently read their messages. The trolls thus are sort of 'preaching to the silent majority'.
The book mentions the distributed moderation systems of sites like slashdot and soylentnews as an example of the feedback mechanism we need. If there are trolls here, it's only a brief matter of time before they are moderated down to a place where they can't be seen. It's the online equivalent of grabbing the irritating person and tossing them out the window. While this comes with other problems (groupthink problems, mainly), the 'select your filter level' feature is there to remedy them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 15 2014, @10:35PM
interesting.
also don't forget the "monitored" plug-in (not home-grown) discussion/comment solutions for websites that require you to create a unique database ID (so called account) with disqus, facebook, yahoo, etc.
at these sites you can then easily insert a state-sanctioned troll and watch the reactions. profiling with (more or less) unique database ID tie-in.
srsly the pr00f is really the absence of "captcha" enabled comment on sites.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Fnord666 on Friday August 15 2014, @07:55PM
It's amazing how, with the right font, this reads as a "dick-based economy".
(Score: 1) by pankkake on Friday August 15 2014, @11:04PM
I read "And unless social networks, media sites and governments come up with some innovative way of defeating online troublemakers, the digital world will never be free of the trolls" as an appeal to censorship. See, nowadays a "troll" is just opinion you don't like to see.