[Imc-web] Trolls Worth Watching

[Mike Lehman]

Kevin said it was OK for me to post these comments he sent me to the list.
Mike Lehman

I know I haven't been around much for meetings and such- but I have been
visiting the site every day. I think more aggressive action is very a good
idea.
I don't see why an insult or a personal attack is something that belongs 
on a
local news discussion board at all. I, personally, would be in favor of 
hiding
any post which attacks people or begins with a childish insult. At the 
least,
a post which is *nothing but* an insult should be hidden. They'll whine 
about
censorship; but it's not "censorship" when someone comes into a bar or
restaurant and starts abusing the customers, is it? Or if you go into a
library or community center and start shouting at people?

And I think it really does inhibit participation from others. Instead of
intelligent discussion, you can be GUARANTEED to find the discussion taken
over by abusiveness and insults. Visiting the IMC website is much more
stressful than it needs to be. I often feel like visiting the site is a 
chore-
an obligation to support something I believe in. It's hardly ever 
enjoyable,
for what it's worth.

As long as nothing which is NOT an insult or attack is hidden, the IMC 
will be
about 10,000 times better than any conservative forum in existence. And it
really isn't all that hard to tell what is an attack and what isn't. The 
few
gray areas can be left unhidden by default.

I've been thinking about this for a while- and I really think Mike has the
right idea. If anything, I don't think he's going far enough.

Again, I know this is the first any of you have heard from me in a long 
time,
so I realize I shouldn't be insistent. But that's my two cents.

-Kevin Heinrich

Then Kevin added this:

Mike-
Go right ahead. I had actually intended to reply to the whole list- I think
the difference between Pine and Webmail confused me.
It seems to be two or three people, max, but they're doing a good job of
shouting most everyone else down. And I like the approach you described in
responding to Paul. I don't think banning individuals [will] work- or at 
least
it will take a lot of effort, since he can always just post under a 
different
name. Cracking down on individual posts which are clearly nothing but 
blatant
attempts to bully and silence others seems like a better approach.
-Kevin