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posted by martyb on Friday August 23 2019, @06:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the tragedy-of-the-commons dept.

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!]


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  • (Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Sunday August 25 2019, @10:02PM (9 children)

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Sunday August 25 2019, @10:02PM (#885389) Journal

    Both, either, all. It's an idea whose time has come.

    I will eventually host such a site one way or the other, but for some reason I can see a 'soylent showdown' type of thing when two users are really back and forth in a thread and agree to a focused discussion about an issue. I think it could be productive and educational, and funny.

    I think, believe, it is imperative to get people with opposing views talking more with each other and preaching less to the choir, I have this wild theory it might work against all of the pointless violence.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 26 2019, @03:33PM (8 children)

    Could be done as a separate nexus but extra code would need to be added so only those involved in the debate could comment. Not a huge deal but not a write it during my morning coffee one day deal either.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:32AM (7 children)

      by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Tuesday August 27 2019, @08:32AM (#885997) Journal

      That's about what I would estimate, I'm not a coder so it would take me forever.

      What would it take to get that to happen? Could I somehow campaign in the community or make a formal proposal?

      If I wanted to buiild just that, something like a forum but where it was designed to let people directly argue, what framework would be best? ruby?

      At any rate, thanks for your time and consideration. I will continue to think the world is upside down to the extent that everyone wants to argue but the internet offers no efficient means to do so.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday August 27 2019, @10:33AM (6 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday August 27 2019, @10:33AM (#886016) Homepage Journal

        To get the coding done? It would just take me having the time (busy as hell offline) and ability (RSI issues) to code, which I likely won't have much of until near the holidays. To get it used on the site? An Ask Soylent story with enough interest that the eds start setting them up.

        If I wanted to buiild just that, something like a forum but where it was designed to let people directly argue, what framework would be best?

        For long form discussion between two people? Manual HTML files probably. Unless you're doing a lot of them you wouldn't be saving all that much time or effort by using a framework.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.