Journal: The first Slashdot troll post investigation

The last few months I have been doing some research into the trolling phenomenon on slashdot.org. In order to do this as thoroughly as possible, I have written both normal and troll posts, 1st posts, etc., both logged in and anonymously, and I have found these rather shocking results:

• More moderator points are being used to mod posts down than up. Furthermore, when modding a post up, every moderator seems to follow previous moderators in their choices, even when it's not a particularly interesting or clever post. There are a LOT more +5 posts than +3 or +4.
• Logged in people are modded down faster than anonymous cowards. Presumably these Nazi Moderators think it's more important to burn a user's existing karma, to silence that individual for the future, than to use the moderation system for what it's meant for : identifying "good" and "bad" posts (Notice how nearly all oppressive governments in the past and present do the same thing : marking individuals as bad and untrustworthy because they have conflicting opinions, instead of engaging in a public discussion about these opinions)
• Once you have a karma of -4 or -5, your posts have a score of -1 by default. When this is the case, no-one bothers to mod you down anymore. This means a logged in user can keep on trolling as much as he (or she) likes, without risking a ban to post on slashdot. When trolling as an anonymous user, every post starts at score 0, and you will be modded down to -1 ON EVERY POST. When you are modded down a certain number of times in 24 hour, you cannot post anymore from your current IP for a day or so. So, for successful trolling, ALWAYS log in.
• A lot of the modded down posts are actually quite clever, funny, etc., and they are only modded down because they are offtopic. Now, on a news site like slashdot, where the number of different topics of discussion can be counted on 1 hand, I must say I quite like the distraction these posts offer. But no, when the topic is yet another minor version change of the Linux kernel, they only expect ooohs and aaahs about this great feat of engineering. Look at the moderation done in this thread to see what I mean.
• Digging deep into the history of slashdot, I found this poll, which clearly indicates the vast majority does NOT want the moderation we have here today. 'nuff said.

Feel free to use this information to your advantage. I thank you for your time.

Update 2001-01-17:
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=30, Troll=1, Redundant=2, Insightful=8, Interesting=21, Informative=7, Overrated=2, Total=71
My posting of this same entry has brought about a somewhat bigger response than expected. After an initial rise to a score of +4, it has been hovering between -1 and 4 for some time, causing my karma to rise to as high as -2 at times, until suddenly the entire thread (40+ direct replies) was modded to -1 : offtopic.
I have never been someone who believes every conspiracy theory about /. editors abusing their powers to mod down anything that doesn't fit into their viewpoint, but this struck me as extremely odd. (My karma dropped down to -13 in 5 minutes or so.)
Don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less about these karma points (I'd say the username is a bit of a giveaway), but trying to mod a thread that has caused so much upheavel into oblivion classifies as censorship in my book.
Remember, although admittedly this post was somewhat trollish in appearance, it clearely voiced the opinion of many on slashdot, and many either approved of it, or at least had very clear reasons why they didn't. All of them got modded down in the same sweep of -1:offtopic

Think about it, editors

Another update 2001-01-17:
The thread seems to have settled now, and the original post is back at +5:interesting:
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=34, Flamebait=1, Troll=2, Redundant=2, Insightful=8, Interesting=27, Informative=8, Overrated=2, Underrated=2, Total=86.

Well, I submitted a story, asking the editors to explain more about how and when they moderate. I don't expect to hear about it though.

Yet another update 2001-01-17 (last one today, I promise):
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=47, Flamebait=1, Troll=3, Redundant=2, Insightful=9, Interesting=32, Informative=9, Funny=2, Overrated=2, Underrated=3, Total=110

No surprise, my story was rejected

After another threadslap the entire thread is back at -1:offtopic, and I'm back at -13 karma. I'll just lay low for a while, as I can't post anymore (and with the ongoing moderation being done : +1:interesting, 1 minute later -1:offtopic, it doesn't seem like that's gonna change soon.)

Sad, very sad. I can't even comment on my own journal

Update 2001-01-18:
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=130, Flamebait=3, Troll=4, Redundant=3, Insightful=24, Interesting=76, Informative=17, Funny=3, Overrated=2, Underrated=20, Total=282, and no sign of slowing down.

I heard kuro5hin.org has a story about this little episode, and to my surprise I found an explanation there by Jamie McCarthy. Why he would say this on K5 instead of on /. (This journal would be a good place) is beyond me, perhaps he likes K5 better than /. anyway.