[ScipioAfricanus]

It's not that the "trolls are winning", it's that people are allowing the trolls to bother them. Trolls have always existed; it's our heightened sensitivity and inability to just shrug them off or laugh in the face of their obscenity that's letting them "win".

[ssully]

Yeah this is bullshit. Trolls have always existed, but shrugging them off was never a solution.

In message boards I used to frequent trolls were suspended without question and banned for repeat offenses. Now when trolls get banned there is an out cry from the troll and those in line with them about censorship and violation of their free speech.

The problem is trolls are given too much room to play and speak.

[mindslight]

The conflict is that reddit originally touted itself as a meta-community, where such moderation was applied per-subreddit. If you didn't like the topics/policies of one community, then start another right alongside.

But the desire of investors for widespread palatability and the media's latest push for censorship have perverted the site into creating unified "community standards", across what should be considered independent communities.

Reddit itself gained much of its popularity due to the mass exodus from Digg over their censorship of one simple number! Users inherently do not want to be censored in what they can communicate about, and so the cycle will be with us until we finally scrap this hack of using centralized websites in lieu of end-user software - centralized structures can never remain free of top-down control.

[prepend]

For me the issue is the broad application of troll and liberal banning. I was all on board the detoxify train until I was banned from a subreddit where I had posted for 5 years.

I didn’t know what comment or behavior. Messaging mods said that it was obvious what comment and that I was a troll.

This was confusing to me. I never went back. Now I am skeptical of labeled trolls unless I can assess behavior directly.

[Chaebixi]

> Yeah this is bullshit. Trolls have always existed, but shrugging them off was never a solution.

> In message boards I used to frequent trolls were suspended without question and banned for repeat offenses.

That must be selective memory, or at least not generalizable: on some pretty major message boards (e.g. Slashdot), trolling became a prominent subculture.

In fact, one of the my major memories of numerous early message boards was that trolling was an integral component of the forum culture. Trollish things would frequently be said and you spotted the newbies and outsiders based on how they responded. As you learned the culture, you'd learn not to get trolled and maybe occasionally troll yourself.

[thomastjeffery]

> The problem is trolls are given too much room to play and speak.

That's the problem with your mindset right there.

We are talking about people. To decide that other people cannot say things you do not like to hear is to deny them their liberty. That clearly worse than "trolling".

Getting offended by a person's words or actions is not them doing something to you, it's you doing something to them - or rather, to yourself.

So if you can't - or shouldn't - compel other people to think and act in a certain manner, what do you do?

The answer is simple: show them the door.

[oblio]

No, trolls have not existed in the form they exist since the emergence of the internet. Self-censorship is a wonderful thing. And the way it works is: you say dumb things (especially as a kid), you get slapped by your parents/friends/people around you. By age 18 or 21, you know instinctively that what you can and cannot say around other folks. At least the vast majority of folks do.

On the internet however, there's no real sense of human interaction and the repercussions are usually minimal.

Real life trolling is probably 1/10k of internet trolling.

[ScipioAfricanus]

Ok so some random person is saying something you find offensive or hurtful. You can block them so you don't have to see what they post.

It's a decentralized solution to a decentralized problem.

[thomastjeffery]

So your answer to people you don't like is corporal punishment.

Do you honestly believe that is the best method to improve discourse?

[salvar]

Ah, the old "We just need to change human behaviour" solution. Yeah, that would definitely work if it worked.

[malvosenior]

Stopping trolling is the same. People will always troll. If there’s a text input on a site, it will get trolled.

[jpindar]

When's the last time you saw someone smoking a cigarette?

[ScipioAfricanus]

No one needs to change anything. The internet existed for years without this being an issue.

If you encounter someone on the internet who is annoying you, most platforms give you the option to block them. You do that, then move on with your life. It's not hard.

[dieterrams]

Trying to get everyone to not be bothered by trolls is a massive and neverending undertaking.

[taurath]

Its also impossible. You're not going to have a close conversation with a group of people when a little kid is jumping up and down and screaming for attention in public. Ignoring them doesn't work for either trolls or bullys. Either they run the show, or you do something about them, end of story.

[Infernal]

But policing the expression of wide (and fluidly defined) swaths of thought that some believe to be "toxic" isn't?

[Karunamon]

Yet much more modest than the policing of content that Facebook and the like seems to be interested in.

That goes double when it’s two clicks to permanently dismiss someone from your attention. The best troll repellant is and always has been to ignore them.