Jump to content

Troll-friendly: Difference between revisions

4,447 bytes added ,  7 September 2004
delinking, to avoid involving this important concept with issues that are at least rather controversial and speculative, and have gotten quite personal.
No edit summary
 
(delinking, to avoid involving this important concept with issues that are at least rather controversial and speculative, and have gotten quite personal.)
 
(13 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
A '''[[troll]]-friendly''' [[system]] or [[social software]]-based service (like the [[opinion wiki]] or this [[R&D wiki]]) assumes that [[built trust]] is very low, [[found trust]] is very high, and that [[grown trust]] will not happen unless a degree of [[politics as usual]] is allowed to apply in that system.  In other words [[sysop]]s do not push their luck or assume they are in charge, and the [[Consumerium social club]] can't over-ride [[consensus]] rules.
An internet discussion forum is considered '''troll-friendly''' if it does not take steps to discourage [[trolling]].  Troll-friendly policies include:
*not banning or moderating accused [[trolls]],
*not preventing the forum being accessed from [[open proxy|open proxies]],
*allowing [[anonymous post]]ing or allowing easy creation of new accounts,
*not permitting deletions of materials based solely on accusation of authorship
Being troll-friendly implies also controls on the [[sysop power structure]] such as to prevent or restrict any [[sysop]] acting alone from:
*redefining trolling as [[vandalism]] arbitrarily
*selecting its own political labels on controversial topics
*subverting [[due process]] for any cases of [[outing]] or [[alleged and collective identity]] confusion, in particular, banning all "user X is user Y" class of comments as irrelevant or biasing
 
Because controversies on these issues are common, usage of this phrase has also become very common:
*"We also have troll friendly proxies," - [http://brawl-hall.com/pages/index2.php brawl-hall.com]
*"VT is definitely a troll-friendly environment, but I make a habit
of using the report option when they get too far out of line." - [http://www.funmac.com/showthread.php?t=6971 re: VersionTracker]
*" Fanhome is a Troll friendly environment. ... Yet here you are. Like I said,
Fanhome is Troll-friendly." - [http://mb3.theinsiders.com/fvancouvercanucksfrm1.showMessageRange?topicID=2963.topic&start=21&stop=31 Vancouver Canucks "FanHome" site]
 
Some services say as explicit matter of policy that they are '''not troll-friendly'''.  For instance, [[Wikipedia]] goes on [[wiki witchhunt]]s against presumed trolls who question its [[sysop power structure]].  The term troll-friendly is quite common:
*"We are not Troll friendly.  Postings that have been placed on the boards to disrupt the flow of conversation will be removed..." - [http://www.cruise-addicts.com/forumguide.html CruiseAddicts.com forum guidelines]
 
=== '''troll-friendly''' [[politics as usual]] ===
 
Troll-friendly [[wiki management]] [[Wiki best practices|practices]] are designed to accomodate the [[New Troll point of view]] as much as possible. Rather than attempting to classify, categorize, restrict and challenge what [[trolls]] do, it attempts instead to engage them using [[political virtues]]:
 
*prudence,
*conciliation,
*compromise,
*variety,
*adaptability, and
*liveliness.
 
These democratic values were listed by [[Bernard Crick]] as alternatives to [[ideology]] or any "absolute-sounding [[ethic]]".
 
Very tellingly, [[w:political virtues|the article that is supposed to explain this is a mere stub]] at [[Wikipedia]].  This will not surprise anyone familiar with their [[GodKing]] or [[sysop power structure]], which lacks very considerably in these virtues.
 
=== trolling, trusting, process and forgiving ===
 
Any '''[[troll]]-friendly''' [[system]] or [[social software]]-based service assumes that [[built trust]] is very low, [[found trust]] is very high.  It further assumes that [[grown trust]] will not happen unless a degree of [[politics as usual]] is allowed to apply in that system. ''This seems to be one motivation for proposing explicit [[faction]] support.''
 
The main motive for troll-friendly policy is that consensus has to form on the basis of strict [[due process]].  Low-integrity editors must be "driven off":
 
[[Trolls]] believe that when someone has actively participated in building a [[sysop power structure]] that engages in [[ad hominem revert]], [[ad hominem delete]], [[witch-hunt]], [[inquisitor]], [[psychiatry]], [[libel]] and [[echo chamber]] tactics, under the same identity, they ''should'' be ''actively'' [[driven off by trolls]], and good riddance.  If they wish this not to happen, they should make a new identity, and change their behaviour under the old one on any [[large public wiki]] where they are known for this inexcusable [[sysop vandalism]] - probably also giving up any position in the [[sysop power structure]] as well.   
 
If they do all this and become an advocate for true [[soft security]] at least in cases other than [[simple vandalism]], and become widely known for changing their spots, at that point, [[trolls]] usually say it is the obligation of any '''troll-friendly''' wiki to not only accept them back, but honour their conversion to the ways of trolls...
 
=== Implications for [[Consumerium Services]] ===
 
For consumerium, this means [[sysop]]s should not push their luck or assume they are in charge of every [[faction]] or can resolve [[political dispute]] when people devote their lives to that in the real world and fail.  In the long term it means that the [[Consumerium social club]] shouldn't over-ride [[consensus]] rules.  It pays to push this process out to [[user-land]] to support a reliable [[Consumerium buying signal]].
10

edits

We use only those cookies necessary for the functioning of the website.