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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: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday August 24 2019, @07:54AM (13 children)
Ah but we do. As a casual reader I prefer to browse at +1, but when we are wearing out editor hats most of us read every comment. We do look for abuses from time to time. Not all the time, we are here to edit the stories and the community does a reasonable job of policing the site after all, but we do keep an eye on the site for things going awry. And we have various additional information displays that can quickly show some of the more obvious abuse attempts. BUT, that does not mean that we immediately jump in and change things. This is your site and people are free to use it as they wish providing that they are not stopping others from doing the same.
There are many others who probably feel the same. But we are an open community not an echo chamber. We attract all sorts of people, the huge majority of whom contribute positively to this site. Unfortunately, the ones that don't tend to be the noisiest.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Saturday August 24 2019, @07:55PM (12 children)
1) It was too late, me too tired. What I meant was: it's not possible to browse at -1 _ONLY_, excluding 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. OR, somehow only see those who have been downmodded, even if they're at a 4.
2) Your point is well made and well taken; it's your (collectively) site to do with as you wish. I just tried to offer the idea that you could have a different culture here if you want to.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by martyb on Monday August 26 2019, @02:45AM (11 children)
which would be intended to be applied a comment which criticizes a *commenter*, rather than the comment, itself. Maybe this is covered to some degree by an offtopic moderation, but I think that an Ad Hominem mod would... guide... people to stay on topic about the matter at hand.
In other words:
Thoughts?
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 26 2019, @03:11AM (6 children)
> Thoughts?
Firstly I'm honored that you've asked. It's awesome, I love it; it's possibly brilliant. What's the worst that can happen? TMB misses out on the biggest fish ever whilst coding a bit? And if it creates some unanticipated problem, remove it.
Like anything it could also be abused, but maybe someday there could be moderation, moderators...
Thanks!!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 26 2019, @03:30PM (5 children)
Actually, that's such a quick addition it wouldn't even take my first cup of morning coffee to complete. And I like the shit out of the idea even though it would come back to bite me in the ass karma-wise.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 26 2019, @08:13PM (4 children)
(pssst- I know a guy who can fix that karma thing. No bread crumb trails.)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:33AM (3 children)
I don't. It'd take me most of a day to relearn the mischievous skills I had twenty and change years ago. Nowadays I'm all about wanting to leave a trail, so I can look at it later when I've forgotten how the hell I did it last time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:20AM (2 children)
I hate to admit but I'm doing that more and more, and thinking I'm becoming my father in the process. That thing was so obvious and fairly easy the first time through, right? Beginner's luck? But now I have to figure out where I wrote notes about how I did that thing... If only there was some kind of storage system that humans could store, organize, and retrieve data from...
Not sure how you feel about phpmyadmin- I think we talked about it once. I use it, but I never leave it open to the 'net (I know I know- php grumble grumble... I have to run it... no problems in 12 years.)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday August 27 2019, @10:21AM (1 child)
I go with a mysql prompt. It keeps a history of what all I've done for the last goodly while that I can search with ^R just like I can in bash. Mind you, that does leave me typing `describe $tablename` fairly often.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday August 27 2019, @01:17PM
Yes, I'm remembering we had this exchange many moons ago. Part of me wishes I used mysql or SQL in general to remember all the commands. Too many areas of "expertise" for me. Networking, routers, component-level analog and digital electronics, PCB layouts, hands-on soldering, etc., C and assembler, on and on, and all while I'm trying to play doctor, or at least medical advocate and care coordinator for my very ill father.
One of the cool things that I use a lot in phpmyadmin is that it will tell you all of the gigantic pile of mysql variables, settable parameters, what's wasting RAM, what needs increasing, etc. It's not AI, but the hints are great, and you can set new parameters on the fly. It does not edit my.cnf for you (that I know of...), so you go carefully and edit my.cnf as you go.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 30 2019, @01:59AM (3 children)
One problem: it is going to get used on people who provide a coherent argument laced with insults, as is my wont with the deserving on this site. An ad-hom is when someone uses insults *in lieu of* an argument, not alongside one. Our resident carrion-botherng manchild doesn't get the distinction, and he and his fellow-travelers would gleefully abuse this one to high heaven and back.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 30 2019, @12:37PM (2 children)
You say that but making a legitimate argument as well as insulting whoever you're replying to is not a given with your comments. "You're a sociopath" does not qualify as reasoned debate.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday August 31 2019, @01:36AM (1 child)
Did you have a point somewhere...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 31 2019, @05:03AM
Apparently not. Carry on.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.