We can acknowledge that mean people and trolls on the internet are inevitable, whilst also denouncing unacceptable behaviour. If we don’t call out stuff, then that’s a great way for the window of what is considered to be acceptable to slide ever further into hostility.
I think it’s important to try to hold the line, where possible. I’m someone who is pretty good at only engaging in online discussions in a manner that’s productive and/or wholesome, but even I sometimes find that online discussions can make it so easy to slip into needless hostility. I think the anonymous format is a big part of it, as is the lack of context we have for most comments, which can cause people to misinterpret the tone of a discussion and engage in a more argumentative manner than they might do otherwise.
I tend to post positive stuff because I made an active choice to resist that pull of toxicity that many of us feel on the internet. I found that doing my best to disengage from the toxic stuff helped me to be more resistant towards accidentally slipping into vitriolic arguments. Calling out trolls for acting inappropriately probably isn’t going to shame them into treating their fellow online humans with respect, but that kind of denunciation is more for the benefit of the spectators than the trolls — especially if we want to prevent a community from producing even more trolls.
TL;DR:
“You will encounter mean people and trolls, learn how to deal with them (block/report)”
Good advice
“stop crying”
Not good advice. We can encourage people to block nasty people, whilst still retaining a sense of compassion for the people who are being shat on by trolls.
Not good advice. We can encourage people to block nasty people, whilst still retaining a sense of compassion for the people who are being shat on by trolls.
Sorry I stopped caring about obviously incompetent people (like Reddit OP) a long time ago.
People that don’t know how to help themselfs and constantly cry about everything being so bad while doing nothing to improve their situation (like doing an obvious web search or maybe migrating to Lemmy if Reddit is so bad) will be exterminated anyway in the long run by the laws of nature.
What would also greatly help too, is for moderators and admins to have some balls and neutralize said trolls instead of sometimes letting situations play itself out.
Furthermore, I believe that if moderation is as skeletal as some communities tend to be, it is time to put the power back into the user. I have seen wonderful features and mechanics in place, the problem is, is that those features are spread about in various platforms/sites. Like Gaia Online, old as fuck avatar site, allows you to lock your own threads. Imagine how useful that would be and yes it can be exploited but then that’s when a mod/admin can come in and decide to deal with a user who’ll make shitty posts only to lock them.
The Fediverse’s weakness is that when you block someone, you can still see that they can reply to you, even if you don’t see them. The notification can still register them as anyone else who responds.
I just think with more tools available for users to fend for themselves that aren’t having to always go to the mods/admin or having to mass-report in the off-chance a troll deletes their account to come back and do it all again. With more tools, it would try to help make communities more positive than seeing how long they can endure.
We can acknowledge that mean people and trolls on the internet are inevitable, whilst also denouncing unacceptable behaviour. If we don’t call out stuff, then that’s a great way for the window of what is considered to be acceptable to slide ever further into hostility.
I think it’s important to try to hold the line, where possible. I’m someone who is pretty good at only engaging in online discussions in a manner that’s productive and/or wholesome, but even I sometimes find that online discussions can make it so easy to slip into needless hostility. I think the anonymous format is a big part of it, as is the lack of context we have for most comments, which can cause people to misinterpret the tone of a discussion and engage in a more argumentative manner than they might do otherwise.
I tend to post positive stuff because I made an active choice to resist that pull of toxicity that many of us feel on the internet. I found that doing my best to disengage from the toxic stuff helped me to be more resistant towards accidentally slipping into vitriolic arguments. Calling out trolls for acting inappropriately probably isn’t going to shame them into treating their fellow online humans with respect, but that kind of denunciation is more for the benefit of the spectators than the trolls — especially if we want to prevent a community from producing even more trolls.
TL;DR:
Good advice
Not good advice. We can encourage people to block nasty people, whilst still retaining a sense of compassion for the people who are being shat on by trolls.
Sorry I stopped caring about obviously incompetent people (like Reddit OP) a long time ago.
People that don’t know how to help themselfs and constantly cry about everything being so bad while doing nothing to improve their situation (like doing an obvious web search or maybe migrating to Lemmy if Reddit is so bad) will be exterminated anyway in the long run by the laws of nature.
What would also greatly help too, is for moderators and admins to have some balls and neutralize said trolls instead of sometimes letting situations play itself out.
Furthermore, I believe that if moderation is as skeletal as some communities tend to be, it is time to put the power back into the user. I have seen wonderful features and mechanics in place, the problem is, is that those features are spread about in various platforms/sites. Like Gaia Online, old as fuck avatar site, allows you to lock your own threads. Imagine how useful that would be and yes it can be exploited but then that’s when a mod/admin can come in and decide to deal with a user who’ll make shitty posts only to lock them.
The Fediverse’s weakness is that when you block someone, you can still see that they can reply to you, even if you don’t see them. The notification can still register them as anyone else who responds.
I just think with more tools available for users to fend for themselves that aren’t having to always go to the mods/admin or having to mass-report in the off-chance a troll deletes their account to come back and do it all again. With more tools, it would try to help make communities more positive than seeing how long they can endure.