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I was going to post this to a particular story, but thought this might generate more attention and discussion as a general submission.
Seriously, what is going on with all these troll mods? Just because you disagree with someone, thus earning a "disagree" mod, does not mean that person is a "troll." To steal a definition from Urban Dictionary:
An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.
Just because you disagree with someone, does not mean they are trying to do the above. Be faster on the "disagree" and slower on the "troll." Under such abuse, it is hard to have a good discussion and, in itself, is trollish behavior by "generally disrupt[ing] normal on-topic discussion." Other than people disciplining themselves, a concerted effort to police such abuses, or making moderation logs public on the bottom of a comment where the score is shown now, I'm unsure of what to do about. As it stands, it is getting increasingly ridiculous to read what discussion is here on any topic remotely controversial, and is expanding outside of even those. It is starting to drive me away from the site, and I'm somewhat confident it is doing the same for others. I'd be interested to see what others think about the depth of the problem, if they even believe it even exists at all, and what solutions you all have for it.
[Ed note. This story is published exactly as received. First off, it bears repeating that complaining about moderations in the comments often leads (rightly) to an off-topic moderation. That is a contributing factor to my decision to run this story. Secondly, moderation is something that I on occasion have found I've fat-fingered and given a different moderation than expected. Thirdly, in the grand scheme of things, a comment's moderation is — relatively speaking — small potatoes. It is NOT a measure of your IQ or value as a human being. or standing in the community. Just accept that stuff happens and that as likely as not, someone will be along to moderate it the other way. Which is a good opportunity to say: PLEASE USE YOUR MOD POINTS! Lastly, if you think a comment was moderated in error, then send the CID (Comment ID) link e.g. "(#876543)" in an email to admin (at) soylentnews (dot) org. Keep in mind however that we are all volunteers here and there most likely will be a delay between when you send out an email and when we can get around to it. --martyb]
[Updated: 20190823_111312 UTC See comment from JR who far more precisely and eloquently expressed the idea I was attempting to. I concur with his assessment. If I want people to upmod a comment of mine that I believe was unfairly downmodded, then I need to be willing to upmod other's mis-modded comments. For perspective, so far this month, anywhere from ~150-~350 mod points were used in any given day. It bears repeating: use your mod points!]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Friday August 23 2019, @07:43AM (5 children)
I prefer that the 'authors' of mods remain anonymous to the general user base, because I think on the whole it is better than making those authors public. While it would increase accountability, I can also see that it could increasingly lead to 'tit for tat' modding when someone gets their nose out of joint.
It could also lead to some being fearful to downmod a comment, fearful of the reaction. For example: "Hey user_xyz! I saw that you downmodded me. You sonofabitch - if you had any balls you'd have simply replied to my comment and rebutted it with a good argument, but you're too stupid and gutless to put your own opinion forward. Incel!". I browse at -1 because I want to make my own mind up about everyone's contributions, but I would prefer not to have to wade through a sea of comments like my example just to get to the interesting content.
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Friday August 23 2019, @08:51AM (4 children)
Which is precisely why we do not show who modded whom.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday August 23 2019, @09:11PM (3 children)
And so now we play the "Find the Spam mods" game. Looks like two, maybe only one and a bunch of requested troll mods, but definitely the aristarchus has been Spam modded again. And I wasn't even off topic, as I sometimes tend to be!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 23 2019, @11:56PM (2 children)
Nope, you haven't. I just checked. No mod bombs either. Seventeen downmods today but no more than four from any one person and if they're sock puppets they've been playing one hell of a long game.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday August 24 2019, @12:10AM (1 child)
Seventeen downmods, and sixteen of them are mine? I guess I was
asking for them. Mission accomplished! Point made!
Thanks for checking, Buzzard!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 24 2019, @04:02AM
No, seventeen just for you. The next closest contender only has six for today, so that's a respectable accomplishment.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.