Journal Scrameustache's Journal: How moderation works. 12
I'm pondering the possible motivations of the trolls.
I see them daily (around slashdot, fark, IMDB, any open forum really), so I pay attention to the patterns. Some of them remind me of a former collegue of mine who amazed me with his sheer stupidity (he once argued with me that the queen of England was not wealthy, his main point being that when she dies someone else will inherit all the money... I'm always amazed that people can be that daft). He was also short, and quite repulsive. Basically, he was the office troll, as he both looked and acted the part.
It's irrational, ugly behaviour. He simply was arguing for the sake of arguing, and since he was being made a fool by the very basis of his argument, he was getting angrier, and therefore more passionatly irrational. I simply waited him out. A man that obtuse couldn't last long at any workplace, and I only had to tolerate him for a few weeks before he was fired. But on the internet, there are no bosses to ween out the idiots, and no shortage of supply on trolls of all kinds.
Of course, such a vast pool of idiots cannot be homogenous. Trolls simply bait, and pick on those who bite. Flamebaiting trolls, for instance, are attempting to get insulted. I'm not sure exactly why they want to be insulted, maybe they are masochists, maybe they get a thrill out of pissing people off while safely away, who cares. The point is that they add to the noise, and the noise should be reduced.
Now, let's consider a message. How would we moderate it? Let's assume the following reply:
You cocksucking faggot. I want to rape your mom and make you suck my cock.
This should be moderated as
- troll
- flamebait
- offtopic
- and redundant.
If it is above 0, it is also Overrated.
This, of course, poses a problem. Because such a post can only be modded down to -1, and we have more moderation choices than can be applied to this one post, guilty of all of them.
What I'm wondering is if it's possible to have a quick, easy to use system that would take all of that into account.
Perhaps a more democratic system where it would be possible to label a post without expending points, on top of the current points-based moderation layer.
Flags that could be set once per user, that did not directly influence a post's score, but that kept a record of the number, or percentage, of the different labels.
The "Average" IQ is 100 (Score:1)
Something I find useful to keep in mind is that people define behavioral norms by the social circles they keep. If your circle of associates are all collage grads who are successful in technical field, then its likely you will have a different understanding of "normal" than somebody who lives in a trailer park or in a run down section of town.
Remember that by definition the average IQ is 100 and that means that 50% of the people out there (but not necessarily the ones you actually meet) have lower IQs.
F
Re:The "Average" IQ is 100 (Score:1)
That's the fatal flaw in your thinking. I've been on the Internet continuously since 1988. If all trolls were such dumbasses, how could I have managed that?
Re:The "Average" IQ is 100 (Score:2)
Terry Pratchett, in "Lords and Ladies (a Discworld novel)", mentions that the most intelligent thing someone smarter than everyone around can do is never let them find that out.
I've been doing a bit of that, if only to avoid getting my old nickname back (the encyclopedia). I hate when my buddies start saying that I know everything... I know a little about a lot, it's not the same. : )
Very interesting (Score:1)
Rebuttal:
-I'm not ugly in real life, though I am definitely very ugly on
-Thinking that ugly people are ugly inside is what you'd call a stereotype. The opposite would be to think that beautiful people grew up with everyone telling them how wonderful they were, so they are ugly because of their pride. Stereotypes are sometimes useful heuristics, but you MUST fi
There are clever trolls. (Score:2)
A troll. Of the classification "karma whore". The reaction desired is to have people who dislike the Iraq war give you points for saying something they agree with.
The correct moderation would have been "Offtopic". The topic was prosthetics technology, not U.S. foreign policy.
You fooled a few inattentive mods, you might even fool yourself, but you do not fool me.
Thinking that ugly people are ugly inside is what you'd call a
Re:There are clever trolls. (Score:1)
On the other hand, only someone who is pathologically dishonest would call a difference of opinion dishonesty.
Truthfully, you cannot know what my motivations are. My motivation for posting that was to express my complete objection to the Iraq war, which is immoral and illegal. I post intelligent and insightful things not to get karma primarily, but just to post them. Now, what I do with that ka
Re:There are clever trolls. (Score:1)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131720&cid=109 99872 [slashdot.org]
in which another user "the angry liberal" accuses you of exactly what you accuse me of.
Face it: anybody can accuse anyone of anything. If you argue that "the angry liberal" is wrong about his accusation about you, then you can't very well complain when I say that you are wrong in your own accusation.
At least I can laugh at you (Score:2)
I know you want to abuse, from behind the safety of an anonymous account.
I have 5 accounts [slashdot.org] myself, all with excellent karma. Each one has a different personality too...
One my fun ones is an unfailingly polite born-again Christian.
5 accounts, you abuse facists with this one... who do you abuse with the other 4? Socialists, liberals, newbies, women?
You stupidly mislabel me as facist and launched into a ser
Re:At least I can laugh at you (Score:1)
I know you want to abuse, from behind the safety of an anonymous account.
That's what you're doing.
Evidence:
5 accounts, you abuse facists with this one... who do you abuse with the other 4? Socialists, liberals, newbies, women?
Unsupported assertion. I never gave the total number of accounts that I have. Accusing me of abusing women is itself abusive.
You stupidly mislabel me as facist
Stupidly is an abusive word. You are abusive too!
I've been laughing at you.
That's another wa
Some people like to make life a little tougher tha (Score:2)
It doesn't matter what you do,
The more you try to qualify,
The more it all will pass you by.
Re:Some people like to make life a little tougher (Score:1)
0/1! Hahaha, so true. (Score:2)