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If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

anildash.com

1–10 of 54 posts

Re: If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

#3
It's easy to shut off assholes if you are an even bigger asshole yourself. I shall not point fingers but the the demise of online forums and the meteoric rise of Facebook is a proof. There were certain values that websites in 00-ies had and that were eroded by the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and yes, even Reddit.

I am still operating an old-style online forum that shrank from tens of thousands of users to a dozen occasional visitors, and I attribute its decline to its core values: anonymity, absence of monetization, minimal moderation.

Re: If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

#4

It's easy to shut off assholes if you are an even bigger asshole yourself. I shall not point fingers but the the demise of online forums and the meteoric rise of Facebook is a proof. There were certain values that websites in 00-ies had and that were eroded by the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and yes, even Reddit. I am still operating an old-style online forum that shrank from tens of thousands of users to a dozen occ…

Since you run it, why not change the core values?

Re: If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

#6
I look around at every. single. internet community on the planet and I struggle to find a single one that isn't full of assholes. Including the very space I am on right now.

And yet - when I step outside and go talk to people and hang out with my friends they suddenly recede into the shadows. Sure, here and there somebody will be an asshole but for the most part everyone is nice, helpful, and (especially in my friends group), welcoming.

This includes people I disagree with politically. I think we should able to turn the internet off for everyone for arbitrary amounts of time. Don't really know how to reconcile this for those who need it like the disabled, medical, etc...

My point is, I fundamentally disagree with this article.

Re: If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

#7

It's easy to shut off assholes if you are an even bigger asshole yourself. I shall not point fingers but the the demise of online forums and the meteoric rise of Facebook is a proof. There were certain values that websites in 00-ies had and that were eroded by the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and yes, even Reddit. I am still operating an old-style online forum that shrank from tens of thousands of users to a dozen occ…

Since you run it, why not change the core values?

The core values would be the entire benefit to the form of communication. The massive decline in classic forums has been a net negative for the Internet. The 2000s forum culture was a lot different from the current state of things, and better in many ways. You didn't have the level of de facto censorship that you see now with the massive centralized communication platforms.

Re: If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

#8
post #6

I look around at every. single. internet community on the planet and I struggle to find a single one that isn't full of assholes. Including the very space I am on right now. And yet - when I step outside and go talk to people and hang out with my friends they suddenly recede into the shadows. Sure, here and there somebody will be an asshole but for the most part everyone is nice, helpful, and (especially in my friend…

It’s the distillation - you don’t know me at all, and even if you do it’s only though some vague recollections of previous posts.

Friends are people who do and say things - and if they say something assholic once in awhile, it’s just something they said/did - but one asshole comment makes the poster an asshole forever, and people start treating them as such, which encourages it.

Non-online communications have way more venues to interact with others.

Re: If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

#9
Eh, gratuitously sweary and inflammatory. Sort of a hypocritical take -- I say this as someone prone to f-bombs myself, but this is a situation where modeling appropriate behavior would be an appropriate thing to do.

You will find assholes everywhere. We all have that potential. Good rules etc can craft a reasonably civil environment anyway.

It takes work to foster civility. This is always true. It's just not always obvious.

Re: If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (2011)

#10
post #6

I look around at every. single. internet community on the planet and I struggle to find a single one that isn't full of assholes. Including the very space I am on right now. And yet - when I step outside and go talk to people and hang out with my friends they suddenly recede into the shadows. Sure, here and there somebody will be an asshole but for the most part everyone is nice, helpful, and (especially in my friend…

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