How To Keep Hostile Jerks frm Taking ova ur Online Community (Dissemvowelled)

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How To Keep Hostile Jerks frm Taking ova ur Online Community

Angry ppl lf fights wl inevitably try to poison successful inet communities. Columnist Cory Doctorow looks @ ways to remove da poison wio killing da discussion 2.

 By Cory Doctorow, InformationWeek
 May 14, 2k7
 URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199600005


da inet tuff Guy is a feature in all inet social forums. These ar ppl who poison discussions w/ anger, h8red, nd threats. Some ar malicious. Some ar crzy. Some ar jus afflicted w/ a rotten sense of humor. w/e their motives, dey 're a scourge. It takes precious lil trolling to sour a msg -board. A "troll" -- som1 who comes onto an online community lukin to pick fights -- has two victory conditions: Either every1 ends ^ tlkin bout him, or no1 talks @ all. nd whr two or mor trolls gather, dey 'll egg each other on, cing who cn anger nd disrupt da regular msg -board posters da most.(cunt. after da troll bridge)

 It cn be distressing. If u 're part of a ns lil community of hamster-fanciers, Trekkers, or Volkswagen enthusiasts, it's ez to slip n2 a kinda camaraderie, a social setting in which every1 talks bout lyf, aspirations, fam problems, personal triumphs. In some ways, it doesn't matter wat brought u 2gether -- da fact dat u 're 2gether is wat matters.

  thn, almost wio warning, ur community goes toxic. som1 in ur group undergoes a radical personality shift nd begins picking fights, or som1 nu comes to da prty w/ an agenda. Or, worst of all: ur lil clubhouse achieves some small measure of fame nd is overrun by newcomers who don't kno dat Liza is a lil bit touchy on da subject of hamster balz, or dat old Fred gets n2 a froth anytime som1 asks bout retrofitting a bud vase n2 a vintage Beetle, or dat every1 ere actually kinda knows Wil Wheaton frm reading his blog nd he's a totl mensch, so jks bout shoving Wesley out da airlock ar frowned upon.

 Sometimes, u rebound. mor oftn, u tumble. Things gt worse. da crowds gt bigger, da fights gt hotter. Pathologically angry (but oftn fny ) ppl show ^ nd challenge each other to nu levels of vitriol.

 In xtreme cases, u end ^ w/ da kinda notorious mess dat Kathy Sierra found herself in, in which trolls directed such bilious, threatening noise towards a harmless advocate 4 "passionate users" in web-applications dat she withdrew frm speaking @ O'Reilly's Emerging Tech conference.

  u cn deal w/ trolls in many ways. Many trolls ar perfectly ns irl -- sometimes, jus calling em on da fone nd confronting em w/ da human being @ da other end of their attacks is enuf to sober em ^. But it doesn't always wrk: I rmr one tym I challenged som1 who'd bn sending me h8 mail to cm ^ nd say da words aloud: da fone rang a moment l8tr nd da first words out of my troll's mouth were, " u f*cking hypocrite!" da convo declined frm der.

 Trolls cn infect a small group, but dey rly shine in big forums. Discussion groups ar lyk uranium: a lil pile gives off a ns, warm glow, but if da pile gets bigger, it hits critical mass nd starts a deadly meltdown. der ar only three ways to prevent dis: Make da pile smaller agn, spread da rods apart, or twiddle em to keep da heat convecting thru em.

 Making da group smaller is ez in theory, hard in practice: jus choose a bunch of ppl who aren't allowed in da discussion nemore nd section em off frm da group. Split. Or jus don't let da groups gt 2 big in da first place by limiting who cn tlk to whom. dis was Friendster's strategy, whr ur ability to chat w/ ne1 else was lmtd by whether dat prsn was ur m8 or ur m8 's m8. Users revolted, creating "fakesters" lyk " nu York City," whom dey cood befriend, forming ad-hoc affinity groups. Friendster retaliated by killing da fakesters, nd a full scale revolt ensued.

 Spreading da group apart is a lil easier, w/ da rite technology. Joshua Schachter, founder of del.icio.us, tells me dat he once cured a mailing-list of its flame-wars by inserting a ten- min delay b/t msgs being sent to da list nd their delivery. da delay was enuf to allow tempers to coo b/t msgs. A similar strategy is to require u to preview ur post b4 publishing it. Digg allows u to retract ur msgs 4 a min or two after u post em.

 But neither of these strategies solves da underlying prob: gtn big groups of ppl to converse civilly nd productively among themselves. Spreading out da pile reduces da heat -- but it also reduces da light. Splitting da groups ^ requires da consent of da users, a willingness 2b segregated frm their peers.

  da hly grail is to figure out how to twiddle da rods in jus da rite fashion so as to create a festive, rollicking, passionate discussion dat keeps its discourse respectful, if not always friendly or amiable.

 Some hav tried to solve dis w/ software. /. ( nd similar group-moderated sites lyk Kuro5hin nd Plastic) use an elaborate scheme of blind moderation in which users ar randomly assigned da ability to rank each others' msgs so dat other users cn filter wat dey read, excluding low-ranked posts. These strategies ar effective 4 weeding out da pathetic attn -seekers, but dey don't hav a gr8 track record 4 creating rollicking discussion. Instead da tone of da discussions, evn read @ da highest lvl of moderation, is an angry, macho one-upmanship. da top posts ar oftn scathing rebuttals of som1 else's ill-considered remarks.

 I'm not sho wy dis is, but I suspect dat it's bc der 's sth fundamentally unfriendly bout a roundtable whr da participants ar explicitly asked to participate in active, public, quantitative rating of one's peers. lyk one of those experimental 1970s communes whr every1 has to tell every1 else da absolute truth all da tym (" ur laff irritates me," " u hav a f@ rear end dat I find unappealing"), dis does a gj of gtn all da cards on da table, but is less successful @ inspiring an atmosphere of chumminess.

  thn der 's da psychological efct of trolling: 4 a certain kinda prsn (guilty as charged), flames ar nearly impossible to let go of. I gt tons of lovely fan mail frm ppl who wnt me to kno how much dey liked my books. I luv these notes nd write short, polite, thank- u letters bak to each prsn. But da memories of these valentines fades quickly. Not so da ill-considered, pseudonymous rant frm som1 who's convinced dat I'm on da take, or who has some half-baked theory bout copyright, or who wants to say insulting things bout my fam, m473z, interests or habits.

 Those ppl command my full attn. Many's da tym I've found myself neglecting a warm bed, a hot meal, or a chance to go out 4 a cup of coffee w/ a m8 in order to answer some mean-spirited note frm some 16- yr -old mouth-breather who achieves transcendence only thru pointless debate w/ strangers. 4 many of us, our psyche demands dat these insults be met nd overcome.

 I m, by my nature, a scrapper. I come frm a fam of debaters, nd my job 4 several yrs has bn to win debates ova copyright nd digital freedom. I thnk dat many technology designers ar of a similar bent: Argumentative nd boisterous, hard-pressed to bak away frm evn a pointless fight. nd it is these ppl who oftn end ^ designing our tool-suites 4 online communities. We view ourselves as locked in an arms-race w/ trolls who seek to overcome our defenses.

  h/e -- nd thankfully -- many community conveners ar of a mor amicable bent. Although dey 're not technically capable of wrtg their own msg -board tools, dey ar socially qualified to wield em.

 Take my m8 Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who moderates da sprawling, delightful msg -boards on Making Light, a group-blog whr da msg boards run da gamut frm da war in Iraq to Buffy da Vampire Slayer fan-fiction, nd whr dey discussion is almost always civil.

 Teresa is a troll-whisperer. 4 some reason, she cn spot irredeemable trolls nd separate em frm da merely unsocialized. She cn keep discussions calm nd moving 4wd. She knows wen deleting a troll's msg wl discourage him, nd wen it wl only spark a game of whack-a-mole.

 Teresa calls it "having an ear 4 txt " nd she is full of maddeningly unquantifiable tips 4 spotting da rite rod to twiddle to keep da reactor firing happily wio sparking a meltdown.

 In da wake of da Kathy Sierra mess, Tim O'Reilly proposed a Blogger's Code of Conduct as a way of preventing a recurrence of da vile, misogynist attacks dat Sierra suffered. da idea was dat bloggers cood choose to folo da Code nd post a lil badge to their sites affirming their adherence to it, putting msg -board posters on notice of da house rlz. Although it sounds lyk a reasonable idea on da face of it, bloggers were incredibly skeptical of da proposal, if not actively hostile. da objections seemed to boil dwn to dis: "We're not uncivil, nd neither ar those msg -board posters we regularly c on da boards. It's da trolls dat we hav trble w/, nd dey 're pathological psychos, already ignoring our implicit code of conduct. dey 're gona ignore ur explicit code of conduct, 2." ( der was mor, ofc -- lyk da fact dat a set of articulated rlz only invite ppl to hld u to em wen dey violate da spirit but not da letter of da law).

 O'Reilly built his empire by doin sth incredibly smart: Watching wat geeks did dat worked nd wrtg it dwn so dat other ppl cood do it 2. He is a distiller of inet wisdom, nd it's dat approach dat is called 4 ere.

 If u wanna fight trolling, don't make ^ a bunch of a priori assumptions bout wat wl or won't discourage trolls. Instead, seek out da troll whisperer nd study their techniques.

 Troll whisperers aren't necessarily vry gud @ hacking tools, so der 's always an opportunity 4 geek synergy in helping em to automate their hand-crafted techniques, giving em a software force-multiplier 4 their gud sense. 4 e.g., Teresa invented a technique called disemvowelling -- removing da vowels frm some or all of a fiery msg -board post. da advantage of dis is dat it leaves da words intact, but requires dat u read em vry slowly -- so slowly dat it takes da sting out of em. nd, as Teresa recently xplaned to me, disemvowelling part of a post lets da rest of da community kno wat kinda sentiment is nd is not socially acceptable.
 

 

wen Teresa started out disemvowelling, she removed da vowels frm da offending msgs by hand, a tedious nd slo process. But shortly thereafter, Bryant Darrell wrote a Movable Type plugin to automate da process. dis is a prfct e.g. of human-geek synergy: hacking tools 4 civilian use based on da civilian's observed needs.

 But der aren't enuf Teresa's to go arnd: how do we keep all da other msg -boards troll-free? agn, da scrt is in observing da troll whisperer in da field, lf techniques dat cn be encapsulated in tutorials nd code. der is a wealth of troll whisperer lore dat isn't pure intuition nd gud sense, techniques dat cn be turned n2 tools 4 da rest of us to use.

 A m8 who's active on da Wikipedia community once summed ^ her approach to lyf: "Don't let assholes rent space in ur head." dat is, don't let da jerks who crash ur community turn it n2 a cesspool. It's easier sed than done, tho.

Assisting da troll whisperers nd learning frm em recognizes dat most of us wnt a civil discussion, nd giv us da tools to repel trolls. Instead of implying dat we all lack civility, these techniques recognize our gud wl nd hlp us solve da hard social problems of keeping da pathological personalities renting space in our heads.

Disemvoweling
 frm Wikipedia

 Disemvoweling, disemvowelling ( c doubled L), or disemvowelment of a piece of alphabetic txt is rewriting it w/ all da vowel letters removed.[1] dis original sentence:

  da kwik brown fox jumps ova da lazy dog

  wud, after being disemvowelled, luk lyk dis:

  Th qck brwn fx jmps vr th lzy dg

 Disemvoweling is a common feature of SMS language.[1]

 bc disemvoweling makes txt legible only thru significant cognitive effort, it is used by moderators on inet forums, newsgroups nd blogs as a way to limit da effectiveness of unwanted postings or comments, such as inet trolling, rudeness or criticism. Disemvoweling maintains some transparency, both of da act nd da underlying word, which wud not be da case if da entire offending post is deleted. da word disemvoweling is a pun on vowel nd disembowel.[1]

 A technique dubbed splat out was used by Usenet moderators to prevent flamewars, by substituting a "splat" (i.e., asterisk) 4 some letters, oftn da vowels, of highly-charged words in postings.[2] Examples include Nazi→N*z*, evolution→*v*l*t**n, gun control→g*n c*ntr*l.[2]

 

 " da purpose is not to make da word unrecognizable but to make it a mention rather than a use."[2] da term "disemvoweling" —attested frm 1990[3]— was occasionally used 4 da splat-out of vowels.[2][4]

 Teresa Nielsen Hayden used da vowel-deletion technique in 2002 4 inet forum moderation on her blog Making Light.[5] dis was termed disemvoweling by Arthur D. Hlavaty l8tr in da same thread.[6]

 Nielsen Hayden joined da group blog Boing Boing as community mngr in August 2k7, wen it re-enabled comments on its posts,[7] nd implemented disemvoweling.[8] Gawker Media[9][10] On 30 October 2k8, tym magazine listed disemvoweling as #42 of their "Top 50 Inventions of 2k8 ".[11] sites adopted disemvoweling as a moderation tool in August 2k8.


 Xeni Jardin, co-editor of Boing Boing, sed of da practice, " da dialogue stays, but da misanthrope looks ridiculous, nd da emo sting is neutralized."[12Also, Boing Boing producers claim dat disemvoweling sends a clear msg to inet forums as to types of behavior dat ar unacceptable]

In July 2k8, nu York Times reporter Noam Cohen criticized disemvoweling as a moderation tool, citing a June 2k8 dispute bout da deletion of all posts on Boing Boing dat mentioned sx columnist Violet blu.

 

  In da Boing Boing[14] A subsequent unsigned case study on online crisis communication asserted dat "removing da vowels frm participants’ comments only increased da gulf b/t da editors nd da community" during da controversy.[15] cmt threads resulting frm dis controversy, Nielsen Hayden used da disemvoweling technique. Cohen noted dat disemvoweling was "Not quite censorship, but not quite unfettered commentary either."

  Matt Baumgartner, a blogger @ da Albany Times Union, reported in August 2k9 dat da newspaper's lawyers had tld him to stop disemvoweling comments.[16]


 Nielsen Hayden originally disemvoweled postings manually, using m$ Word.[17] bc da letter Y is sometimes a vowel nd sometimes a consonant, der ar a variety of ways to treat it. Nielsen Hayden's policy was neva to remove Y, in order to maintain legibility.[17]

  da technique has bn facilitated by plug-in filters to automate da process. da first, 4 MovableType, was written in 2002;[18] others ar available 4 WordPress[19] nd other content mngmt systems.