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One Week of Harassment on Twitter

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Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#71

Post by pgeorgi »

Mithaldu wrote: post #60

I personally don't like the woman, but while scrolling down the list, the contrast between these people and the people i know online and in real life is so stark that i can only wonder: Who are these people and where do they come from?

They seem to be everywhere.

The twitter usernames are public, and reading a sample of those biographies looked to me like everything from 13 year old boy to female middle aged graphics designer.

And even though these comments look very much the same, these seem to be actual accounts with normal use, not some troll battalion.

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#72

Post by pgeorgi »

cmdkeen wrote: post #33

It would be entirely possible for Twitter to create various community driven feedback mechanisms, they just don't want to. Plenty of online communities have various moderation systems, including HN that hugely reduce the potential for abuse, trolling and bullying - and most don't require your real identity.

They have community driven feedback mechanisms. When a user is flagged sufficiently often, they're pretty much gone.

Of course this is now abused against (some) X people and by (some) X people (for X being pretty much any cause or philosophy that creates uproar and with-us-or-against-us camps).

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#73

Post by DanBC »

wpietri wrote: post #64
ctur wrote: post #5

Anonymous free speech can sure bring out some ugly things in people. Freedoms, though, often cut both ways, protecting important and significant behaviors but also sometimes allowing sad and pathetic ones. I think it would be delicious punishment if the author of each of those tweets were forced to read them out loud, in front of their mothers, sisters, wives, friends, bosses, coworkers, and children. If someone's wi…

As makers and participants in internet culture, I think it's incumbent on all of us to find ways to minimize the downsides of anonymity and pseudonymity while maximizing the benefits. Because otherwise, the baby's getting thrown out with the bathwater. Note, for example, that Facebook doesn't allow any anonymity, and Quora only allows it with tight controls. I think the long-term trend is to get rid of it, which woul…

People are fine being ignorant bigots under their real names on Facebook.

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/10/whats_up_with_the_rag_head_w...

Facebook introduced a new feature; created an ad with a Sikh man; racists everywhere.

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#74

Post by DanBC »

eropple wrote: post #68
wpietri wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. I'm involved here because I think of HN as my people. But it's an embarrassment to me elsewhere. Sort of like that one cranky old relative who can be perfectly nice but also will spew out some unbelievable shit.

Yup. As I've said before, I've considered leaving because this place generally seems to accept utterly reprehensible behavior. I don't understand why aggressive sexism (and racism too, though that's not this thread) is tolerated on Y Combinator's doorstep. I told dang when I spoke to him about this that I think not eighty-sixing racists and sexists will self-select out the people who aren't , and that's a real bad lo…

> I've flagged more posts in this thread than I have at any point on HN, by a lot. It's kind of amazing.

There's some inconsistency with flagging. If the comment is flagged it turns to [flagkilled] at which point it can't attract any more downvotes. But some posts are not bad enough to flag, but very unpopular, and people can just keep downvoting those posts - even after the post can't be edited any more.

It'd be nice if the edit period was as long as the downvote period. And it'd be nice if a [flagkilled] post was still able to be downvoted, or it automatically attracted some downvotes when it dies or somesuch.

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#75

Post by twinspop »

shalmanese wrote: post #29

The most recent episode of This American Life ( http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/545/i... ) has Jezebel writer Lindy West reach out and talk to one of her trolls who created a page celebrating her father's death and claiming she was a disappointment to him. He sent her an apology after realizing there was an actual person on the other end of his trolling and they actually have a remarkably civil…

This phenomenon can be found all over the place. Follow some of the cycling hate on twitter some time. People fantasizing about literally killing people with their cars. Why? Because they lost 12 seconds on their 30 minute commute?

It's a weird disconnection. The 'targets' are moms, dads, sisters, brothers, friends... people. I just don't get it. Why are some people so lacking in empathy?

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#76

Post by seba_dos1 »

geoelectric wrote: post #69
hoopism wrote: post #4

Scary to think that the venn diagram of young gamers and future programmers is pretty substantial. The ratio of men/women in college was pretty abysmal. This may not be the exact cause, but it certainly doesn't help the cause. Truly is a shame that so much talent is driven to other fields due to lack of basic social skills.

The Venn diagram of young gamers and the entire population is pretty substantial, so I'd be cautious about overvaluing this correlation.

...and I'd actually say that for programmers the percentage of people who were young gamers is lower that for the rest of the population (or at least their gaming looked a bit different, focused on different genres etc.).

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#77

Post by MrDom »

wpietri wrote: post #66

For those who don't normally have "showdead" turned on, it's worth doing so for this article. A) I'm grateful that HN's more active moderation is taking out some of the trash. And B) it's worth noting the details of the sort of awfulness that's getting moderated here. This isn't just a gamer problem.

> I'm grateful that HN's more active moderation is taking out some of the trash.

I don't see it that way. I read those comments and there's very little vitriol in there. There's a lot of legitimate counter arguments being made that are being flag killed. You're essentially being grateful that HN's moderation is stifling any attempt at disagreement with their own political views.

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#78

Post by [deleted] »

MrDom wrote: post #77
wpietri wrote: post #66

For those who don't normally have "showdead" turned on, it's worth doing so for this article. A) I'm grateful that HN's more active moderation is taking out some of the trash. And B) it's worth noting the details of the sort of awfulness that's getting moderated here. This isn't just a gamer problem.

> I'm grateful that HN's more active moderation is taking out some of the trash. I don't see it that way. I read those comments and there's very little vitriol in there. There's a lot of legitimate counter arguments being made that are being flag killed. You're essentially being grateful that HN's moderation is stifling any attempt at disagreement with their own political views.

[deleted]

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#79

Post by wpietri »

DanBC wrote: post #73
wpietri wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As makers and participants in internet culture, I think it's incumbent on all of us to find ways to minimize the downsides of anonymity and pseudonymity while maximizing the benefits. Because otherwise, the baby's getting thrown out with the bathwater. Note, for example, that Facebook doesn't allow any anonymity, and Quora only allows it with tight controls. I think the long-term trend is to get rid of it, which woul…

People are fine being ignorant bigots under their real names on Facebook. http://www.salon.com/2014/12/10/whats_up_with_the_rag_head_w... Facebook introduced a new feature; created an ad with a Sikh man; racists everywhere.

Sure, some people are fine being ignorant bigots in the town square at high noon, too. But that doesn't mean that people are equally comfortable being bigots no matter the circumstance. And even if the amount of bigotry were identical whether anonymous or not, it doesn't mean that people won't perceive anonymity as the problem because of the broken social feedback loop.

That said, I think anonymity actually is an enabler here. The KKK knew exactly what they were doing with those hoods.

Re: One Week of Harassment on Twitter

#80

Post by wpietri »

MrDom wrote: post #77
wpietri wrote: post #66

For those who don't normally have "showdead" turned on, it's worth doing so for this article. A) I'm grateful that HN's more active moderation is taking out some of the trash. And B) it's worth noting the details of the sort of awfulness that's getting moderated here. This isn't just a gamer problem.

> I'm grateful that HN's more active moderation is taking out some of the trash. I don't see it that way. I read those comments and there's very little vitriol in there. There's a lot of legitimate counter arguments being made that are being flag killed. You're essentially being grateful that HN's moderation is stifling any attempt at disagreement with their own political views.

Huh. An anonymous dude who thinks that feminism is the enemy is fine with bigotry. Who could have guessed?
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