Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 263 posts

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#71

Post by ForHackernews »

dragonwriter wrote: post #59
ForHackernews wrote: post #44

She's still a millionaire executive. Obviously nobody deserves the kind of abuse she's gotten, but I think I could put up with a whole lot of nobodies saying mean things about me on the internet in return for being in her position.

> She's still a millionaire executive. I would presume she's still a millionaire, though I don't have access to her current finances. Of what is she still an executive?

Fine, she's technically between positions. You know as well as I do that she will shortly be made an executive or a board member of some other firm(s). She is part of the executive class.

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#72

Post by istvan__ »

wxs wrote: post #35
itg wrote: post #13

From what i've seen on reddit, twitter, and sometimes even on hn, some are quick to label people whose opinion differs from theirs as trolls. It doesn't matter if it is a polite or well-though out comment, they are quick to shout the word harassment or whatever -ist allows them to hold some moral high ground.

Did you see the front page of Reddit when they were blowing up at Pao over the fat people abuse subreddit? I think it's disingenuous to claim that this is just polite disagreement: http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2015/6/10/...

You mistakenly think that all of the people who signed the petition (~200,000 people) are from the fat shaming subreddit.

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#73

Post by Slick135 »

wxs wrote: post #35
itg wrote: post #13

From what i've seen on reddit, twitter, and sometimes even on hn, some are quick to label people whose opinion differs from theirs as trolls. It doesn't matter if it is a polite or well-though out comment, they are quick to shout the word harassment or whatever -ist allows them to hold some moral high ground.

Did you see the front page of Reddit when they were blowing up at Pao over the fat people abuse subreddit? I think it's disingenuous to claim that this is just polite disagreement: http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2015/6/10/...

Is /r/Stuff, /r/iAMA_troll_AmA, /r/PaoMustResign, or /r/EllenPao_IsA_Cunt even default subreddits? I didn't see any of those on the front page that day. If they aren't default, then does it really matter? If trolls want to troll away in their own little troll cave, so be it?

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#74

Post by partiallypro »

I'm going to disagree. I've been in IRC, Forums, Newsgroups, lurked 4Chan, Reddit, and Slashdot for years. It has actually been evolving to a point, especially among the younger crowd to get bent out of shape about essentially nothing. Maybe that is because more of our lives are online than before, but if you were to go through Twitter and Tumblr and just browse around it is a huge mess of people constantly being offended and wanting an apology. I'm not defending the Redditors that legitimately harassed Ellen Pao.

However, modern media (like Gawker, Vox, Salon, Slate, etc) can somehow turn 3 tweets from anonymous people with no followers into a national shit storm. These media outlets feed the trolls, because it gets them clicks. So, it is of my opinion that the "trolls" aren't "winning" the battle, they just haven't left, and never will. The news outlets are click junkies and know they can foment faux rage by enticing people who otherwise we would have just ignored 10+ years ago. Of course they look large in numbers if you're putting them under the microscope. The thing people who have little online experience miss is that they are making things worse by giving people attention and trying to "silence" them.

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#75

Post by Claudus »

I've been following the Ellen Pao debacle on Reddit, and her misuse of the term "troll" in the article illustrates her ignorance of Internet and Reddit culture that led to her stepping down as CEO.

I'm sure there were many offensive, harassing, and vitriolic comments and directed at her, however they were a result of her incompetent actions and failure to understand the culture that caused the problem, not due to trolls or trolling.

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#76

Post by seivan »

lingben wrote: post #17
itg wrote: post #13

From what i've seen on reddit, twitter, and sometimes even on hn, some are quick to label people whose opinion differs from theirs as trolls. It doesn't matter if it is a polite or well-though out comment, they are quick to shout the word harassment or whatever -ist allows them to hold some moral high ground.

"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted." - Ralph Waldo Emerson edit: although tangentially relevant, this case in Canada is hair raising: http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/christie-blatchfor...

I love that quote, especially since some claim vulgarity is harassment, abuse and bigotry. You're just going to alienate people with that kind of thinking.

How do you define hate, abuse and trolls? In certain countries atheists are considered terrorists. Those who blog about atheism are haters and a bigot. It's justified to hack them to death, imprison them or whip them.

In other countries female drivers are abusing the sensibilities of men.

Who is to say which ones are doing the censorship right, lol.

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#77

Post by fixermark »

joelrunyon wrote: post #21

> The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet Does anyone honestly believe this? Even Ellen in the op-ed says > As the trolls on Reddit grew louder and more harassing in recent weeks, another group of users became more vocal. First a few sent positive messages. Then a few more. Soon, I was receiving hundreds of messages a day, and at one point thousands. These messages were thoughtful, well-written and heartfe…

The major issue is the notion that "jerks sometimes" is evolving into "jerks all the time."

Not yet sure how much of this notion stems from the focus on the problem and how much is actual increase, but it's a problem nonetheless. Why do we tolerate as much trolling as we do? Why do we continue to see trolls as just trolls when we have evidence of people being bullied to suicide via the signal-magnification effect of online interaction?

Re: Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

#78

Post by istvan__ »

DanBC wrote: post #24
itg wrote: post #13

From what i've seen on reddit, twitter, and sometimes even on hn, some are quick to label people whose opinion differs from theirs as trolls. It doesn't matter if it is a polite or well-though out comment, they are quick to shout the word harassment or whatever -ist allows them to hold some moral high ground.

Pao had thousands of people calling her a ching-chong cunt. Why do you think your comment is relevant to this thread?

Like other people display Obama as a non-american, Donald Trump as Hitler and so on. As a public character you should be able to handle that.
Post reply on HN