Welcome to The Hiddens, a diary series featuring Yours Truly documenting, analyzing, and commenting on Community Moderation on Daily Kos. Contributions in comments are welcome.
The numbers in "incident notes" are recs/HRs/replies as displayed on the hidden comments list at the time of writing. If they're followed by a number in parenthesis, that is the total number of replies downthread. If there are multiple sets, the record covers multiple comments, which may or may not be in the same thread. Other special symbols may appear, such as a hash/number sign (#) which indicates the statistics are for a non-hidden comment or other special circumstances.
You know, I just noticed last night that my UID ends with double zeroes. On 4chan, I could have any woman I wanted.
Apparently I did the whole setup at the end of the last edition, and then didn't include the record for the incident I'd been talking about. Woops.
Here it is:
Incident: 'Distasteful'
Incident notes: Feminism, rape (0/14/8, 0/11/5)
Diary notes: Feminism
User notes: Kossack, no diaries
HR notes: easy call, messy response
Disposition: fem Status: rape
I said in the last edition that the incident of trolling can be seen as an expression of a desire to discuss the thorny issue of free will. Needless to say, that discussion isn't going to happen in a feminist diary on the subject of rape. But my point was not that the strong HR response was appropriate, but that the strong social moderation response was unnecessary, given the effectiveness of the appropriate hiding.
Moving on, we revisit the Nuclear Energy area:
Incident: 'E-penis'
Incident notes: Fuk U shima (0/8/4, 0/6/4)
Diary notes: Fukushima radiation scare
User notes: Im Winning, bony mojo
HR notes: predictable but efficient
Disposition: admin? Status: etc.
It doesn't look like these two messages were what killed this "spanking new newbie's" mojo. Previous (1/2/7, 1/1/1) posts in the same thread were contested. While incisive (chicken little environmentalism) the user was obviously well acquainted with the game and the players, so chances are this merely attracted (?) Admin attention and the account was recognized as a zombie. (On that note, stay tuned for a special edition of The Hiddens later today with nomenclature and code hints.)
Now for some more sincere trolling:
Incident: 'Apology'
Incident notes: Rant diary tip jar (0/3/2(4, 27)
Diary notes: Incoherent, mentions I/P, Eve, and Schwarzenegger, republished by "Trolls" group
User notes: newbie, (WEATHER JEWS!)
HR notes: user did not comment in diary
Disposition: meh Status: troll, open
This user is having a positively terrible time trying to fit in, and to be honest I'm fudging by calling them a 'newbie'. As I said yesterday, this kind of polemic is all many people recognize, let alone know how to write themselves. It still looks more like incompetence than insincerity to me. But its an awful lot of accidental trolling, if I can even call it that. Bony mojo is in this user's future without a marked change in posting habits.
An account registered in February becomes suddenly active:
Incident: 'trivial spam'
Incident notes: Obamaphobe (0/31/13, 0/5/1, 0/5/1, 0/5/1, 0/15/1, 0/10/1, 0/6/2)
Diary notes: 2 diaries, both anti-GOP
User notes: Obamaphobe talking points spam
HR notes: self-HOS
Disposition: admin Status: HOS
This case side-steps all my internal conflict about HOS, because the account is effectively a self-declared HOS, spewing deep anti-O talking points at the drop of a hat. If only this moron had the brains to post to the DFH diaries for a while, they might have slipped right into the mainstream of DK undetected. As it stands, it is curious that the account hasn't already gone bony, considering that all seven of the user's contributions to DK are listed above.
The CIJK troll is still at it, racking up two more (0/6/1, 0/6/2) and losing TU status since the last update.
More fun with stupid jokes about stupid PC language poutrage:
Incident: 'Slvt'
Incident notes: Feminist, "s-word" (2/8/6)
Diary notes: More on Ed, for crying out loud
User notes: TU, 2005
HR notes: brief joke (subject line), note contention
Disposition: gods Status: holy frack, open
Yours Truly is a huge fan of Stephanie Miller. Momma is a fan of the phrase "stick up the but liberal", which I am afraid to say is apropos to the seemingly interminable discussion of Ed Shultz's supposedly misogynistic emotionally sensitive "s-word" debacle. I don't use the word myself, for all the reasons the PC fans go on about. I don't suggest others use it. But must we have apoplectic fits when someone does? Is that actually productive, or even progressive? If he'd have called her a dick, would he then be lambasted for sexism just as readily?
Like Socrates, I have no answers, only questions. Like Socrates, I imagine you would like to force me to drink some hemlock and STFU.
And so serendipity gives me another kick to the balls with this:
Incident: 'Kucinich haters'
Incident notes: hate is such a strong word (0/3/2, 0/5/3)
Diary notes: DKE
User notes: TU, 2006
HR notes: pie fight (Kucinich?)
Disposition: DKE Status: (10/1), open
This incident tests the idea that DKE is 'no politics/horserace only' or 'scholarly opinion', as the grievance seems to be that the user took exception to unflattering characterizations of Dennis Kucinich. Advice to users and group members who believe the lines are clearly drawn: not so much.
Here's an example of that "caught out in the open" thing I talked about earlier:
Incident: 'dearleaderswarm'
Incident notes: trivial to the nth degree (0/8/3)
Diary notes: trivial, tip jar is (14/17/222)
User notes: TU 2008 'Fuck the Democrats, useless, leaderless party' (from Jan2010)
HR notes: tip jar HR issues
Disposition: prophetic Status: tips, open
I've just got to give a link to the comment because it is only a subject line, I haven't figured out if it is ironic or not, and with the sig line of the hidden user it almost makes a haiku. This incident also brings (back) up the issue of HRing tip jars.
I contend that HRing a tip jar is never abuse, and uprating a tip jar is never inappropriate. I have to admit I kind of like (in an 'intuitively important' sense) this counter-FAQtual approach, which isn't really at all counter-FAQtual. AFAIK it has always been the tradition that HRing a tip jar is a sign of disapproval, at most disrespect, not a moderation decision following the same rules as hiding comments. This obviously isn't a universal understanding, but I dare say it is a controversial one, because I am very sure I'm not alone on that. Hiding tip jars doesn't hide the diary; HRing tip jars doesn't follow the same guidelines as hiding comments. IMHO. But I feel compelled to add that I don't encourage hiding tip jars (once hidden, non-TUs cannot tip them to counter the hivemind) and for the same reason I strongly advise reccing tip jars on the flimsiest of justifications, if they aren't already full enough to be safe from getting hidden.
Here's a kinda nasty Kossack, I'm not sure what to make of, but somebody seems to:
Incident: 'deepend (or: medical waste? really?)'
Incident notes: non-trivial, yet stupid (0/5/2)
Diary notes: pro-choice, feminist
User notes: old timer, non-TU, 2005
HR notes: wtf, TU (2004) aptly provides social moderation backup
Disposition: gross Status: yuk, open
Some old Kossacks are farther on one side of the ontological issue than others.
Did I say "free will"? I meant "personal responsibility":
Incident: 'quote'
Incident notes: NYPD blues (0/9/4, 0/6/2)
Diary notes: 'Acquitted but guilty'
User notes: Kossack, 2009
HR notes: personal disparagement
Disposition: silly Status: CM, open
From the user who got hidden:
Those who are imprudent are justly blamed for their foolishness and so bear a share of the blame for the calamities that befall them.
There are some contexts where that idea is reasonable. There are some where it is not. Debate ensues about which any one context is and where. But it hardly needs to be said that any diary discussing rape isn't up for grabs in this regard, however vehement the condemnation of those acquitted. It isn't like you're going to convince them to calm down, trollboy.
Now here's a lesson that the 'group-centric' approach to moderation might not be as clean-cut as we'd expect, but effective moderation is easy for those in the know:
Incident: 'lost and GUILTY'
Incident notes: misogyny, straight up (0/14/5, 0/7/5, 1/5/3)
Diary notes: 2, (Feminist/Mojo Friday/NFTT/FP, rape)
User notes: 2008, 280 comments, no diaries, bony mojo
HR notes: posting opinions, yes, but stupid ones
Disposition: fem Status: trolled, bony
if I were the kind of person that could categorize things, this one would still blow the top of my head off. Note the impossibility of knowing what rules will control you in any diary without scrutiny, but note also the irrelevancy of that issue, given these misogynistic comments. Easy enough to recognize this as a troll now, but what about the comments posted over the last two years? All cover, says the paranoid mind, he couldn't possibly ever have had any honest intentions, and not agreed with us on feminism.
&&&
I heard this morning and have confirmed that Red State Ambassador got the much anticipated admin ban that he deserved. His final comment was actually at 6:00 Thursday evening, and included a vow to rise from the dead as a zombie. But that was after insisting he couldn't be banned, so it shouldn't even need to be said that it was just his last trolling attempt to sow discord and paranoia. I know my efforts here inevitably appear to most of you to be very close to if not outright "defending trolls", claiming they are all truth tellers (no matter how many times I point out the actual trolls that aren't truth tellers) or that they have a right to disrupt our conversations (no matter how often I point out that those conversations are often only blanket parties for the disruptors) or that we can't police our own language (because untrue accusations that I'm a misogynist or pro-rape don't deter me from calling something 'poutrage').
And the threads this morning in The Hiddens (yay! there's threads in The Hiddens!) have been more of it. It is a slow process; I didn't ever think it wouldn't take the whole three months just to break even. Of course, I also didn't anticipate that I'd get the very strong if silent support of such a large number of regular readers. This is an insider's vice apparently, I'm glad to see that despite the hundred odd views I can apparently guarantee every day, nobody thinks this should be on the rec list, not even to hold it up as a punching bag. And once again I'll point out that for all the avid (yet, honestly, somehow half-hearted, I swear) push-back I'm getting from even my strongest critics, there hasn't been a single HR on a single tip jar since the series began; not even on those godawful Meta Callout diaries. Few tips, sure, but no donuts either.
So, yes, if there's resistance to the Reign of Terror that my efforts threaten to rain down upon DKos like chunks of the earth spewed by a volcano, for that's what it sounds like my critics are insisting this is, I understand that. But please note how truly half-hearted that resistance is. I'm very used to people knowing I'm right and not wanting to admit it because I'm so nasty, in their minds. My social talents border on the Asperger-ish. I'm just mean and egotistical. Supposedly.
But you know I'm right. Yes, there are zombies and yes there are trolls and yes there are racists and yes there is poutrage and yes yes yes we must defend our clubhouse community center against people who, no matter how sincere they are, can't help but disrupt things by repeating familiar arguments. The discussion needs to be moderated from the center (Community. Center. Get it?) without dismissing the opinions at the extremes. It isn't anything more than that. Being careful of the rhetoric that we use is what will let DK be all it can be for all of us, not simply being careful of the words that are allowed to appear in a comment.
So Red State Ambassador is gone, but no, that doesn't mean we know who they were, why they were here, or whether they'll be back. Paranoia is not appropriate moderation policy. Sure, we're getting 'infiltrated' all the time by 'right wingers'. But you can't really infiltrate an open society, all you can do is participate, and perhaps do it badly. We can all love DK without taking our fellow Kossacks so seriously that any one of them could be a witch just waiting to be hunted.
So back to the records, and for heaven's sake throw me a tip for crying out loud.
Moving on, and yet still circling around. This is a hop on which is part of the same incident as a previous record in today's edition:
strong>Incident: 'Return of slvt'
Incident notes: flame out (0/4/2, 0/3/1)
Diary notes: More on Ed, for crying out loud
User notes: TU, old timer (same as previous incident)
HR notes: pie and donuts all up and down the threads
Disposition: agony Status: frack!, open
This TU is having something of a meltdown, abusively HRing comments that aren't sufficiently supportive of his perspective in the pie fight. He's already lost one bar, and will have his donuts taken away if he doesn't calm down. But I have just discovered that he is a member of the Pink Clubhouse group, providing several more layers of irony to this unfortunate circumstance.
Now for some more potential "egg in the face of Yours Truly" action which I'm sure will thrill my detractors:
strong>Incident: 'frankenstein (or: that's frankenstein)'
Incident notes: nuclear energy (0/3/1, 2/5/1)
Diary notes: Fukuchickenlittleshima
User notes: frankenstein monster, "industry shill", banned
HR notes: The second comment in this record is no longer hidden at the time of writing, having been uprated as I was investigating the case.
Disposition: open, admin Status: admin, open
It is supremely instructive to note that the "shill's" last comment was this:
sitting down and scooping the internet
to find the most hysterical voices is a negative contribution to the community on my book.
and that it is being uprated even after the account was closed. If religious fealty to anti-nuclear energy politics is required to be a Kossack, it should say that on the registration screen.
A good note to end on, I guess, because we've hit the top of the list again. There won't be any late update today, but I'll check comments sometime tonight. It's a beautiful spring day, and I actually do have a life it turns out, if not much of one, so I'll see you tomorrow in The Hiddens.
