This blog has been getting a lot more traffic lately. The downside is that we’ve had a lot more trolls here lately as well.
Because of this, and because of a shitty situation in one of the comment threads earlier tonight involving an abusive troll who I wish I had banned sooner, I want to open up a discussion to everyone here (that is, everyone here who is not a troll or an MRA).
The question is: Do I need to crack down harder on trolls?
Generally my approach has been to let trolls post unless and until they’re abusive. I know a lot of people here like engaging with trolls and taking them down.
The problem, of course, is that these trolls can quickly become abusive. And this can trigger people.
Should I be quicker to ban people — banning trolls at the first sign that they might become abusive rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt (which, unfortunately a lot of them don’t deserve)? Should I be stricter about who I let post in the first place?
There are actually a lot of people I don’t let post here at all; if their first comment is too aggressive or hostile or (obviously) contains a slur I don’t let their comments through. I’m especially strict when it comes to people posting in threads about women who’ve been harassed.
But I could be stricter, and I could ban more quickly if that’s what you think I should do.
Frankly, I gave up a long time ago on the idea that it’s possible to have any kind of “open debate” with these people. Too many of them are abusive assholes for that to work.
So my priority here is the regular feminist and feminist-friendly commenters on this blog, and coming up with a comment policy and procedures that work better for you all. There are people who enjoy and in many cases feel empowered by being able to confront the trolls here. But I don’t want, and I don’t think any of us want, more situations like the one that happened tonight.
To be honest, I do think I need to crack down harder. I just want to hear what you all think on the issue, and to hear your suggestions as to how to do this most effectively.
The other aspect of this: I think I need to put up more no troll, no MRA open threads. And so I will be doing that.
Thoughts?
(I may not be able to get back to this thread for a little while, but I’ll definitely be back later in the evening.)
The dude literally has 5+ blogs of his own, plenty of sites friendly to his views, and literally EVERY OTHER THREAD in this site that isn’t expressly locked off, and yet he still felt the need to bring that crap here … I guess these MRA types aren’t good at respecting a “No” from anybody. 🙁
How long d’you think it’ll be before Mikey posts some garbage about being “censored” by us? I’ll put a fiver on him using the term “groupthink” !
Galahs? Nice for tourist pics.
Not so nice for anyone with an almond tree. Or any fruit/nut tree for that matter in a dry year or the middle of a drought.
As for kookaburras. That’s one thing I miss from our old house. The magpies would start up around 5.30ish and do all their busy-start-to-the-day chatting and keep going for 2 or more hours. The kookaburras would turn up around 8.30 and do the family yodelling competition thing. I suppose that’s the difference between birds that feed mainly on insects and birds that eat more substantial critters and fish. If lizards are a big part of your diet, there’s no point being up and about before they come out and warm up.
Though protecting productive trees from galahs is one issue. Protecting anything and everything from idiotic, chaotic corellas is entirely another. I reckon they’re mother nature’s preeminent mulch creators for Australian scrub and trees.
…okay, taking out the spaces doesn’t work. Let’s do this a different way.
How about you take a look in the comments section for the Official Welcome Package. Argenti put in a guide to formatting there. That’s how i learned.
http://artistryforfeminismandkittens.wordpress.com/the-official-man-boobz-complimentary-welcome-package/
strivingally.
If you expect anyone here to take you up on that kind of bet, you need to rethink your career ambitions to be a bookie. I wouldn’t put anything I valued into that bet. (Apart from the problem of thinking about Mikey for more time than I already have.)
Ally, sending more hugs if you want them. I haven’t seen the comments (and I’m not looking because I am way too easily triggered lately) but they were awful, the creepy troll was wrong about everything, and I am so sorry he targeted (anyone, really) you.
Also, if I ever get married again (unlikely, I wasn’t that fond of it the first time) this is my second choice for the first dance (first is, of course, “You Don’t Own Me”).
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPNqub966Tw#
Mike wants us all to know that he has nothing to do with the BNP.
Ok, Mike, now go.
Ok I’m clearly sleep deprived, I was sending a love song to y’all, and I was joking about weddings. And now I should get sleep (also unlikely). /barely coherent ramblings
Oh! Dave! Is there a way to make it appear to the troll that their comments are posted but no one else has to see them? I remember that feature from the BBS’s pre internet. Twitting.
strivingally, I’m with mildlymagnificent, that’s a sucker’s bet! 😀
I loved hearing the kookaburras in Fawkner Park laughing. People would stop and listen and smile at each other. Good start to the day.
Seconding hellkell:
And, Mikey B. needs banned. He’s posting in a thread clearly labelled “No MRA” and spamming, to boot.
I was a bit too late for discussion, but for whatever it’s worth as a daily reader, occasional commenter, and never-targeted person, I really, really like the sounds of what you spelled out for the new method of moderation, David. Thanks for providing this space.
This is what I get for posting without refreshing the page.
Thank you, David. Mikey B. needed to go.
Thanks David.
@thewatchingdog The @ doesn’t do anything computer-y, but it lets people know that you’re responding to someone, as it stands out. Blockquoting is difficult, if worst comes to worst, just use normal quotes and the @, we’ll get it.
There’s a good tool for blockquoting, if you use Firefox – the text formatting toolbar add-on. It means you don’t have to type html code, you can just highlight the text and make blockquotes, links, italics and so on. Jefrir told us about that one and it’s made things SO much easier for me.
Oh, and in case Mikey-the-loser is still lurking: Lieutenant-General Morrison (Australia’s army chief, he of the famous “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept” speech last year) has made another great speech in London, at the Global Summit To End Sexual Violence. This is the part I’d particularly like Mikey to read in words of fire – him with his “ooh you feminists diss veterans” shit.
“Armies that revel in their separateness from civil society, that value the male over the female, that use their imposed values to exclude those that don’t fit the particular traits of the dominant group, who celebrate the violence that is integral to my profession rather than seek ways to contain it … they do nothing to distinguish the soldier from the brute.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-14/australia-army-chief-delivers-speech-to-summit-on-wartime-rape/5523942
Aw, you banned Mike? Now I’ll never know if he has a blog.
We have kookaburras, magpies and lorikeets buzzing about in our garden. It gets very noisy. Also the honey-eaters bully the cats (for those of you who remember as I’m such an occasional commenter …well, lola the kitten died, and I said I wouldn’t get another, that I’d give older cat Molly a break. Yeah, well, that lasted as long as my vet pal needed a home for a fluffy torti…). Anyway, sometimes the cats are surveying the kingdom from the back deck, and a squad of honey-eaters show up and yell at them to stay away from their chicks. Galahs, cockatiels and parrots put in an appearance sometimes. The other day, there was a kangaroo in the street.
I love Australia! Citizenship next.
Lola died? I don’t remember that, BigMomma (which, given I’ve CRS these days, doesn’t mean much). 🙁
But fluffy tortie? PICTURES!!!!
So many birds, and a kangaroo! Beautiful.
oh shit, sorry to hear about lola. 🙁
Just found out that, apparently from Sunday, it is “knit and crochet in public week”.
No I never said about lola. I felt awful, we’d had her less than a year. She was hit by a car, mrbigmomma found her and we hid her from the kids. We gave her a farewell ceremony at the bottom of the garden and elder daughter planted some flowers. So now we have poppy who is fricking adorable but I am so paranoid and shoo her away from the front of the house…and by extension, the road. I’ll try to figure out how to post pics.
Oh, cool!
… Does knitting on the train count? I see people doing that fairly often anyway. I used to do scads of knitting in public when I was commuting.
Hmm, I have an appointment in town. Let’s see: knit in waiting room, knit at tram stop, knit in park if it’s not as wet as it was today. That should cover it.
BigMomma, that’s so awful. All the hugs.
If you have any pics online, just copy the URL here and we can click on it. They won’t show up in the comments.
http://imgur.com/GdqUpCt I bet that doesn’t work. Imgur is beyond me.
Oh it did! Well that’s Molly being accessorised by my thoroughly pink compliant second daughter