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NCommander is publishing a Meta story today: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=22/11/20/0342250 It will be published on the front page with all of the restrictions that apply to such stories and discussions.
In it NCommander explains how he sees the future of the site developing with regards to software, hardware and administration. Some of those views are different now from the views that many of us held in 2014. The requirement for some of our servers is no longer justified, and there are better technologies available for achieving what we are trying to do thus also reducing our running costs. The administration of the site is placing an increasing burden on the relatively few administrators that remain in the support team. Society has also changed. Some discussion has been replaced by intimidation and threats. It is much more polarised than it was in 2014. In many ways this is the same as for numerous other web sites. However, the abuse and toxic atmosphere created by a small number of Anonymous Cowards is unacceptable and must be reversed if the site is to survive. The responsibility for some of the problems that we are experiencing, and the resulting actions that we have had to take, is placed entirely at their feet.
A few months ago the majority of the community opted - albeit very reluctantly - to remove AC posts from the front pages of the site. This action has successfully removed the vast majority of the abuse from our discussions. We are seeing a slow increase in the number of comments week-on-week and the signal-to-noise ratio is now much higher. It is only right that we also reconsider the implications of that change.
This journal entry is to enable anyone who wishes to remain anonymous to express their views. I promise that I will read it and will ensure that genuine views are considered when the community decides which path it wishes to follow. I cannot make any assurances that other members of the site's administration will read it - although I expect that at least some will. If you have an account then I strongly encourage you to leave your views under NCommander's Meta story and not here.
I further my promise that I will try to represent your views as honestly and fairly as I can.
If you abuse this journal then you are simply giving more support to the alternative options that might be considered than you are to the status quo. I encourage you to expresses sensible, logical and considered views but should you decide that abuse is what you prefer then this journal entry can simply be removed. You are being given an opportunity - do not throw it away.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2022, @09:24PM (1 child)
I have never directly interacted with NCommander, and this is the first time since I came here in 2019 that I've seen him take an active role. I remember a story or two he posted, but little more. NCommander is coming across as very toxic to me. An example is a post he made in a previous story [archive.org] that was lost due to downtime:
This comment makes NCommander come across like a complete asshole. If he had simply said that users who post destructive comments like the one he replied to should be banned, and that he would consider enacting a policy, I would view it as harsh and reasonable. As NCommander suggested, the user didn't actually break the site's rules, but is posting unhelpful and disruptive comments. However, the part about admins being able to see who posts AC comments comes across like someone who is using his authority to target people. It's the same sort of behavior that people accused TMB of engaging in, and it is toxic.
The meta article NCommander posted doesn't appear to be soliciting feedback. It appears to me that you listen, try to talk to respectful users, and indicate when you understand and even agree with their concerns. I disagree with you somewhat frequently, but I appreciate that you're respectful and seem to deeply care about the concerns of users here. NCommander's article doesn't appear to solicit any feedback, just saying that he's dictating what he wants for this site. If I understand the management of this site, he has the right to do so. However, the attitude alienates a lot of people in the process, because it doesn't appear like there's an effort to listen to users' concerns. When AC comments on front page articles were initially restricted, there was a clear problem in that APK was spamming every article with tens of comments. NCommander hasn't really articulated the need for the changes he's discussing, instead decreeing that they are just going to happen.
You're doing a lot of work to engage people in good faith about these issues. Again, while we have disagreed on a lot, you also have a lot of patience to put up with criticism and frustrated users. You're here trying to discuss the issue, and I see exactly zero of that from NCommander. It's clear that he's technically very adept, but being technically adept doesn't necessarily make for a good leader.
Perhaps I've judged NCommander too harshly due to the lack of past interactions with him, but his actions appear quite toxic to me.
As for addressing the site's problems, part of the issue is that there are a lot of low-quality journals to begin with. Let's quote some text from a Runaway journal [soylentnews.org]:
There is exactly zero chance that this will lead to productive discussion. Garbage in, garbage out. Banning ACs in all journals isn't going to solve a problem, particularly when that power is already provided to the authors of journals, and when the journals are of such poor quality to begin with.
If you look back at old school Slashdot, it had a ton of shitposting. There were far more outright destructive comments there than you see here, and it wasn't uncommon in stories to have tens of comments at -1. The crapflooding wasn't beneficial, but there were more than enough quality comments to make it only a minor issue. The high quality comments far outweighed the spam.
For this site, removing the noise only does so much when the signal is weak. Instead of eliminating the noise, perhaps the focus should be on boosting the signal. Many of Slashdot's stories focused on open source, programming, computer hardware, and issues that relate to IT. There were articles about science and about things relevant to nerds, but the site had a clear focus. A lot of users felt like they could offer meaningful comments, so there were robust discussions. A clear focus around similar topics, in addition to the science articles, might well help. Curating the journals that appear on the front page might help, so that less enmity develops between users. Runaway's journal that I cited does nothing to help the site, but the discussions could lead to bitterness that would carry over to other discussions.
I think a clear appeal for specific help, things like editing computing articles or contributing such articles, might get more of a response. I suspect that people don't volunteer because it could be a significant time commitment, it seems like there's a huge amount of work that needs to be done, and the job appears thankless. But if I were to start somewhere, I'd focus on boosting the signal instead of eliminating the noise. Grow a community with a focus on topics like open source, programming, IT, hardware, gaming, and other common interests. Right now, even if I weren't posting AC, the percentage of comments that I could really provide a constructive comment about is somewhat small.
I recognize the first part of this post was criticizing NCommander, but I've also tried to suggest an alternative path forward. Everyone seems focused on eliminating the noise from discussions. Why not focus on increasing the signal to drown out the noise? As for my views on NCommander, let's just say I appreciate when leaders are humble, genuinely listen to people's concerns, and then try their best to make the right decisions going forward. Again, I've disagreed with you on many things, but I do see all of these traits in you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2022, @09:42PM
Runaway is the bad poster, but equivalent opposing posts, aren't raising hackles at all, right? I mean... correct?
It's academic; the civil folks have left. No, academic isn't the right word for it. Yeah...
Rubs the wrong way.