Please dont feed the trolls

*& ^^ Xlp0

22.09.2005 20:08

Cheers - it's good to get some clear advice on what to do with these kinds of responses.

lob rampa

collapse the comments section?

22.09.2005 20:13

can someone collapse the comments section like other imc's?

might make it less appealing for them too - less exposure and we can click on them if we want to and ignore the usual suspects

sort it owt!

Problem

22.09.2005 21:07

Where do you stop? When does editing troll's comments become prescriptive editing of various views?

Its the emotion-ridden baggage we want to ditch surely, not sensible debate?

Observer

here's one I caught earlier

22.09.2005 21:12

Well some peeps only understand pictures

big game hunter

I second that

22.09.2005 21:26

I would agree to just get rid of the comments option as well, especially since it is used more as a debating forum rather than a newswire.

Khawaga

"One in two people is a Zombie, a being without qualia, or interior mental experience. They are essentially organic robots who are very good at simulating a human being. But if carefully observed, over time will reveal their innate nonhuman strangeness. Zombie scientists deny that consciousness is a field worthy of study."

___

Censorship by any other name

22.09.2005 23:05

"Censorship, unlike acts or policies of sanitization, refers to a publicly set standard, not a privately set standard. Censorship does not attempt to cover up material made by an organization, but rather to restrict or abolish defined types of material produced by private citizens."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship

Label anyone who disagrees with the nonsense that passes for news on here a troll. The shoddy attempts at owning both the argument and the space does little for any of the decent and thought provoking news that on occasion manages to rise above the tirade of pseudo news and rumour.

Observer

.

22.09.2005 23:33

Please Don't Feed the Trolls

Wikipedia defines an Internet Troll as: "An Internet troll is either a person who sends messages on the Internet hoping to entice other users into angry or fruitless responses, or a message sent by such a person." Boston IMC strives to provide both a grassroots media resource as well as a forum for people to contribute to a meaningful discussion about local issues. Please, when posting comments, be respectful of others and ignore those trying to interrupt or discourage meaningful discourse. Thank you.

-- Boston Indymedia volunteers

Silent Bob

.

Trolls, etc.

23.09.2005 01:01

A TROLL is a person who disrupts an online discussion forum FOR NO GOOD REASON.

An INTELLECTUAL COWARD is a person who seeks to restrict a discussion under some pathetic pretext. Those requesting the hiding of comments, or their removal altogether represent such people.

To the TROLL, I send no message (they don't care), but the message to others is always the same- please ignore them, and NEVER respond.

To the COWARD I say, we all know you have the option NOT to read the comments, and NOT to participate in the discussion. What on Earth gives you the right to try to prevent others from doing as they would wish. Of course, in truth the COWARD is just another of Blair's New Labour (New Reich) goons hoping to eliminate all that nasty free speech that so ill serves their master.

BTW Observer, did you write that dribble that you quoted from wikipedia??? Damn, now *I* am responding to a troll.

twilight

Trolls have some meaning

23.09.2005 09:01

Trolls and their shills(often the same person) usually only appear in strength when the post is hitting where it hurts, witness their panic in the aftermath of the uncovered 'undercover soldiers' who were caught in flagrante in Basra the other day. So their presence is to a degree to be welcomed, although responses to their bleatings are best avoided, even if u r strongly tempted by such an easily ridiculed target.

As for cancelling the comments, that is a troll idea, since it is from the considered comments that we can learn a lot.

thank you

K.

koona

disc

23.09.2005 09:20

. Please, when posting comments, be respectful of others and ignore those trying to interrupt or discourage meaningful discourse

Frig of you pompous yank,so the only meaningful discourse is when you dont step out of the strict confines of indymedia.Its funny you put up with hard right nuts, conspiracy dreaists and the absurd twaddle of twilight,yet whan i try to argue about the dead end of trad left student politics i get slagged off.

Mr Lustbather

Yeah, get rid of the comments...

23.09.2005 14:48

... they are usually drivel... and put people off Indymedia.... It certainly puts a lot of people of publishing stuff... please get rid of the comments, and I might be tempted to use Indymedia more.

becca

Reality Dreck

23.09.2005 14:59

Wow, you selfless hero!

Your righteous mission might bear a little more weight if you actually understood what terms like "fascism", "left", "right", and "Nazi" actually mean.

Otherwise you are just coming across as an angry idiot who gets alarmed when people who actually know avout politics talk about stuff that's clearly wayyyy over your head. If you can't tell the difference between the Green Party and the BNP then that's your look out.

If you want "moral inversion", just go to the mainstream press and read articles like how destroying a police station in Iraq is somehow defending democracy and the rule of law.

But don't try and justify your clueless interventions as some kind of self-appointed "voice of the people" crusade.

got your number

No, don't get rid of the comments

23.09.2005 16:56

"We must not let the terrorists win"

- Tony Blair

Abdul Aziz Ibn-Myatt

Indymedia staff to biased to delete troll messages

23.09.2005 18:00

I would not allow the Indymedia staff to delete messages...first of all the indymedia staffs around the world are volunteer, and probably don't have time for going through all the messages posted every day...... Second, the indymedia staff have there own subjective views, so they may engage in deleting legitimate posts that they don't agree with, or they may allow trolls to keep trolling, because the trolls have views that the indymedia staff agree with.

American Anarchist

...

23.09.2005 19:07

Stop the trolls like Jordan Thornton posting in the place!

Mr False-conciousness

Don't let trolls spoil the picnic

23.09.2005 23:04

Please, oh please don't get rid of or 'hide' the comments!
Trolls try to stifle and derail debate. Perhaps they are even paid to do so - how do we know?
Surely we can use our intelligence to distinguish between an opposing viewpoint and a deliberate effort to sabotage debate? I agree with those who suggest we ignore them, when we detect a troll.
Leave the real discussion (though heated sometimes!) to those who bring real opinion and feeling to this site.

bluey

Who

24.09.2005 01:27

Who is Jordan Thornton?

Colin Jordan

"I would not allow the Indymedia staff to delete messages"

24.09.2005 08:48

anyone can subscribe to the features email list and watch/comment/propose hidden posts. Posts can be unhidden too. All discussions on the list are publically archived. This is about the most democratic, accountable and reversible 'censorship' i've come accross, and without it one person could easily render the whole newswire useless by repeatedly posting, eg blank articles.

imc user

Jordan Thornton

24.09.2005 10:33

Jordan Thornton appears to be the sales and marketing dude for infowars and prisonplanet. Two closely linked e-businesses that sell absurd conspiracy literature and the like to paranoid militia types.

Jordan (under many pseudonyms) regularly spams copy & pasted articles broadly across IMC enticing people to the abovementioned e-businesses.

He throws a wobbly at anyone who dares suggest said spammed articles are total crap and he predictably starts accusing everyone and anyone of being a "spook" or a "troll" or just plain old stupid.

Initially, it seems like a very stupid marketing strategy, but deeper analysis reveals that this faux lunatic persona is just the kind of stuff that appeals to paranoid militia types and who cares about level-headed discerning people! They're never going to buy anything from the sites anyway!

Mystery Shopper

I agree

24.09.2005 15:29

Of course the advantage of Jordan's pieces is that he always mentions PrisonPlanet or WhatReallyHappened really early on, thereby allowing its identification as a piece of rubbish to be ignored straight away!

Boab

pompous observations from a rehabilitated deviant

26.09.2005 22:02

The IMC volunteers are in a difficult position here from what I can gather. The level comment posting is straining resources. As part of the non-hierarchical/free/open structure, they have technical obstacles that prevent tracking identities from within IMC. Then, we have the wholly subjective definition of "troll" and the ramifications on free speech. Then again due to resource limitations as well as sanity limitations, the volunteers do not read/scrutinise every post/comment.

If I read between the lines correctly, there is a growing concern regarding resources versus current structure?

Is Indymedia worth having with no right to reply? Is IndyMedia being dragged into filling the role of Anarchist Chat Forum?

What's the solution??? More volunteers??? Editorial restriction???

Keeping posts to the point and as succint as possible surely helps. Personal attacks and repetitive spamming surely doesn't.

Freedom of speech is for all, including my enemies! But let them get their own server hahaahaha!

magoo

UK Indymedia