[WikiEN-l] Jayjg is AWOL

[George Herbert]

On 8/28/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 28/08/07, James Farrar <james.farrar at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 28/08/07, Puppy <puppy at killerchihuahua.com> wrote:
>
> > > David's has the advantage of shock value, which
> > > commands attention.
>
> > However, as a moderator of this mailing list - indeed, probably the
> > most prominent such - it is imperative that David hold himself to the
> > highest standards of behaviour lest the membership of the list at
> > large believe that it is appropriate to make such comments.
>
>
> You are of course correct. I felt it pointless to tolerate the blatant
> trolling any longer.
>
> (I should know better than to think that would slow the thread down in
> the slightest. Do please continue, all.)

I am clearly not innocent of contributing to this, but I think I have
to agree with Marc and James Farrar here that the use of the word
"troll"/"trolling" here escalated rather than calmed down the
discussion.

The question is, did our actions in arguing that the underlying claims
were unreasonable (calling it trolling) cause the drama and criticism
to die down, or escalate it?  Clearly, we escalated it.

If we can't look back at what we did and the results, and think to
ourselves "Ok, that didn't work, maybe we should try something
different next time", then we're in a world of hurt.

The reason NPA is so important is that not following it takes
situations with one aggrieved party and makes two, and then there's no
right answer.

I'm sure none of us would have reacted with that directed and strong
language to an in-person discussion on the same topic.  It would be
considered wrong and rude to do so, even if we were thinking the same
underlying thoughts in reaction.  Email and posting on wikis
dehumanize the persons at the other end of the net link to some degree
and lubricate people being more blunt than normal.  This is extremely
well documented and something I was talking to psychologists about
before any of them were really studying the net... it's just blatantly
obvious the longer you're an internet communications user.

To the degree that it lets people who want to stir stuff up act more
aggressively, that's bad for online communities.

To the degree that it lets otherwise reasonable people in those
communities react in negative feedback loops with the provacateurs
it's worse.  We have for example MONGO's longstanding negative
feedback loop with at least one set of external trolls, where clearly
they're egged on by his continuing to react in the manner that he
does.

Marc's right that a bunch of us just did that here, me included.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com