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Averting Toxic Chats: Computer Model Predicts When Online Conversations Turn Sour
The internet offers the potential for constructive dialogue and cooperation, but online conversations too often degenerate into personal attacks. In hopes that those attacks can be averted, researchers have created a model to predict which civil conversations might take a turn and derail.
After analyzing hundreds of exchanges between Wikipedia editors, the researchers developed a computer program that scans for warning signs in the language used by participants at the start of a conversation -- such as repeated, direct questioning or use of the word "you" -- to predict which initially civil conversations would go awry.
Early exchanges that included greetings, expressions of gratitude, hedges such as "it seems," and the words "I" and "we" were more likely to remain civil, the study found.
"We, as humans, have an intuition of whether a conversation is about to go awry, but it's often just a suspicion. We can't do it 100 percent of the time. We wonder if we can build systems to replicate or even go beyond this intuition," Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil[*] said.
The computer model, which also considered Google's Perspective, a machine-learning tool for evaluating "toxicity," was correct around 65 percent of the time. Humans guessed correctly 72 percent of the time.
[...] The study analyzed 1,270 conversations that began civilly but degenerated into personal attacks, culled from 50 million conversations across 16 million Wikipedia "talk" pages, where editors discuss articles or other issues. They examined exchanges in pairs, comparing each conversation that ended badly with one that succeeded on the same topic, so the results weren't skewed by sensitive subject matter such as politics.
[*] Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil: assistant professor of information science and co-author of the paper Conversations Gone Awry: Detecting Early Signs of Conversational Failure. (pdf)
The technique sounds useful for non-internet conversations, too... is there an app for that?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday July 25 2018, @04:54PM (12 children)
You mean the snowflakes that get butthurt and yell like children when you mention russia or diss trump? Funny how they did the same when obama was in office. But thats none of my business.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 25 2018, @06:27PM (11 children)
Snowflakes melt under disagreement and demand censorship to protect them. Preferring to argue back precludes snowflake status. Learn words before you use them and you'll avoid looking silly.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @09:29PM (3 children)
Kind of like when aristarchus' very first alt-right submission was accepted, and TMB threw a fit and demanded it be suppressed, since aristarchus was trying to paint all conservatives as alt-right? Good thing nothing like that ever happens!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:11AM (2 children)
That's going to continue every single time I see shitty journalism on its way to our front page unless it's submitted in a meta way for us to mock. You're free to do the same. #editorial is an open IRC channel and not +m.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:10AM (1 child)
In another thread, jmorris just suggested that you are down with Holocaust denial. How plead you, Oh Mightingly Brussander? Going down with the alt-right, all the way to the neo-nazi? Maybe aristarchus hit too close to the bone, eh?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 26 2018, @10:36AM
I don't plead at all. Or beg. Or even ask twice unless you didn't hear me the first time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday July 25 2018, @10:57PM (6 children)
Someone's triggered...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @11:35PM
Must be all the flak he got with his AC VIM rants.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:07AM (4 children)
Trust me, if anyone eventually manages to trigger me, actual triggers will be involved. The best anyone here's managed to date is moderate annoyance.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:43AM (3 children)
Yes your actual trigger will be involved with triggering you. Do you even English?
Ooooh, noooow I get it, you were trying to work in a gun angle cause you're such a tough guy! I get it now, how sad that someone thinks its ok to murder someone else if they make them angry enough. Another notch in the sociopath belt for The Might Buzzard, maybe you should think about Alcoholics Anonymous.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:55AM (2 children)
No, darlin, I'm saying that unlike you trigglypuffs who scream for daddy to make them be nicer to you, when rage happens to me you can put money on violence ensuing. Given that I haven't so much as struck a single person in anger since my 20s, I'd say I'm remarkably laid back.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:13AM (1 child)
For those of you keeping score at home, this is TMB crying for his mommy. Pathetic. If you are easily affected by emotional displays, now is the time to look away, look away. (Series of Unfortunate Might Be Buzzards)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 26 2018, @10:38AM
Harris is awesome as usual in that show but it still sucks.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.