My First Troll Diary!
Fri May 05, 2006 at 08:06:51 AM PDT
Your Democratic Action Group meets once a week. You started a few years back as a strategy group to win back the City Council, but it has since evolved into a forum to debate a wide array of topics relating to important national issues, the soul of the party, shared values and social responsibility.
One night, you see a new face. A young guy who was invited by a member who saw him deliver a most excellent anti-Bushco snark at a local college rally. You get to talking over cocktails. Out of nowhere he says "I think we still don't know the full truth about 9/11."
"Holy crap!," you think. "Not again!"
What comes next:
Of course you know he is right. Why would we know the whole truth about 9/11? We know the whole truth about NOTHING in the Bush administration. But the group has had this discussion a thousand times. It is not productive. Tempers flare. In fact, such discussions nearly led to the break up of the group about a year ago.
What do you do? Do you tell him that there is an agreement not to raise such topics and calmly explain why? Do you politely excuse yourself and go to another room?
Absolutely not. You reach over, grab a nearby pastry and smush it in his face. You kick him in the groin and call him a tinfoil hat whacko. Then you chase him around the room interrupting every conversation he joins until he finally leaves, never to return.
In the last 24 hours there have been extended conversations (here and here) about how this problem is handled on dKos. We all know the problems of trolls, and the importance of policing. But the majority seem to believe we could all benefit from a modified approach. Rather than recount the problems that are well known, I would like to offer a solution to the problem of Troll Diaries. My suggestion is as follows:
1. Diaries that are clearly meant to inflame or insult remain fair game for Troll Hunting.
Yes, every now and then a bona-fide troll posts a diary designed to provoke and/or draw traffic to a Repug website. These are pretty transparent. My view? Get out the pies and flamethrowers.
2. Establish a clear, written policy on Conspiracy Theory (CT) diaries in the rules.
As of yesterday, the policies in Dkosopedia did not explicitly ban CT diaries. I understand why they should, and apparently so does Markos. Update the policy along the lines of:
We have learned that diaries that suggest conspiracy or speculate on secret government complicity in atrocities are unproductive, divisive and distract us from important issues. You are perfectly free to discuss these issues, just not here. It is a big internet and there are excellent opportunities to start your own blog. Should you decide to post such a diary here, it must be original, fresh and supported by orignal, compelling evidence. If not, expect to be greeted with ridicule, recipes, ponies and flames.
3. Add an item to the rules in the New Diary creation screen: "No Conspiracy Theory Diaries."
4. Require a Miranda Warning before the flaming begins.
When a newbie (I'm one, too) posts a CT diary that is seemingly in good faith, he or she should be informed promptly that the diary is in violation of the rules, given the appropriate links, and asked to withdraw the diary. If the user persists, then let the flame wars begin.
5. Add stalking of alleged trolls to the definition of ratings abuse.
On a number of occasions I have seen perfectly reasonable comments troll-rated for no apparent reason. Yesterday I learned why they are doing this. Some believe that "closet trolls" are participating productively in other discussions to gain mojo points to offset behaviour in other threads. I don't deny it happens, but more often than not it strikes me as its own special conspiracy theory. This type of stalking is disruptive to the rest of community. It disrupts comment threads, and in some cases makes the follow-on comments disappear. If enough evidence exists to warrant troll-rating based only on the user name, then just ban the user.
6. Include blatant Troll-baiting as a reason to suspend TU status.
In a few instances, I have witnessed an active effort to provoke a "suspected troll" with abusive language and unprovoked over-the-top scorn. Eventually this leads the target to strike back in the same fashion, and the zeros start raining down. Again, if evidence of trolldom is sufficient to justify this behaviour, ban the user. Otherwise just keep it friendly with twizzlers and recipes.
That is my 2 cents. Flame away.
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