This Thought Brought to You By My Hammer

[leahbobet]

(It makes things look like nails. *g*)

Okay, idle hypothetical I'm throwing out here:

What do you think would happen if SFWA empowered a newsgroups moderator to enforce a code of conduct for the org's online spaces?

Because y'know, it's really just a standard-issue troll infestation they have going there. Just a long-standing and entrenched one.

Comments

[lisamantchev.livejournal.com]

It has been suggested, but the reaction is always OH NOEZ MAI RIGHTS.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

In my experience, those are the people you want to moderate the most. Because their rights seem to mean the right to be a dick to everyone else and yet, escalate all injuries to the highest level if they feel slighted.

[lisamantchev.livejournal.com]

Yes ma'am. Every single one of your words = gospel freaking truth.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

People would scream and yell about how you're trampling all over their rights.

They would probably scream and yell IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME!!!!!

You know, like that...

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Crap, Lisa beat me to the bunch...

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Hee. And the reply stands. ;)

[lisamantchev.livejournal.com]

*L!* I loff, especially how we were both inclined to cap everything.

[wyrdwriter.livejournal.com]

Sorry
But
FIXATED
on the
SNOW LIGHTENING

They keep promising it here (S.E. MI) but I have yet to see it.
I WANNA SEE IT!

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, major snow lightning. It was snowing so heavily the snow looked like fog, and so the light diffusion when the lightning hit was...

I think the whole world went bright white.

It was terrifying.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Perversely, it always makes me feel better to see that the pros are just as prone to hissyfits and maladjusted behavior as amateurs are. Moreso, really; amateurs can't posture and fight over money.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I sort of go "I have to deal with this shit forever?" :p

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

If you need to fill a job which requires people skills, and the choice is between an sf/fantasy writer and someone with Asperger's, choose the aspie. At least the aspie knows he's not good at dealing with people.

Not nearly true of all sf writers, of course.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Heh. Actually, knowing someone who has an Asperger's diagnosis? He's very responsive to how people act. He looks. And you're right -- Fandom Asperger's, less so.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I gave up on the SFWA newsgroups several years ago. So - what you said.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I wonder if anyone's selfless enough to actually try it. I mean, I do a moderating job. 95% of the time it's pretty peaceful, now that the rules are in place and it's been proven the rules are The Rules, No Exceptions.

But, y'know, they pay me, and the 5% when it isn't peaceful? I wouldn't do it if it wasn't an actual job.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Moderate that group of - um - yeah - um - them? Hard to imagine how much money one would need to make it worthwhile to the moderator. Otoh, really, if one had the power, and didn't care about the squealing roaring and whining over slighted entitlement, it would be doable. Not by the likes of me, though.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Good idea if they could make you the moderator and give you the right to thwap people on the head with a baguette.

(Why a baguette? I dunno. Maybe because you wouldn't have to hold back, but it would still hurt enough to make a point?)

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Hah. Right. The moderating I do already? They pay me for.

[slithytove.livejournal.com]

Any unmoderated on-line group will eventually deteriorate into Usenet-type flame wars, interspersed with trolling. These will eventually drive off all the sane people, who will be followed by the flamers and trolls, who are only there because they have an audience. A sparsely-populated burned-out group remains. See: Usenet. Or Wikipedia, which is still struggling with this issue, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing.

Probably the same is true of any group, anywhere. Even though 95% of people want to be civil, and expect civility from others, there will always be 5% who don't. Bars need bouncers, on-line groups need moderators.

Just because we're all smart, educated, and adult makes no difference. We still have that five percent who get a dopamine surge to their reptile brain from sticking their finger in someone else's eye. Remember that person you ejected from your flist a while ago? Exceptionally bright, interesting, accomplished -- and just can't keep from picking fights.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I've seen this happen. I'm currently moderating a victim of that dynamic back to life. The first month was...hairy, let's call it.

I wonder, with SFWA, if anyone would have the authority and/or the balls to find a moderator for the groups and stand behind them utterly: empower them to clean the town up. And how much of the ongoing idiot scandal it might solve if that person could grit their teeth and stick it out that hairy first month or two.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

They would argue for seven years over what the code of conduct should be, then eventually come up with one that empowers the trolls while punishing the good people.

This isn't so much a futurist question as a historical one.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

That's only if you do your document-writing with the voices of the trolls being considered.

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

I think there would be trollfolk for whom the single-minded goal would become: DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER MODERATOR.

And the so-called authority figures say "You handle it" and hide somewhere.

Not that I'm cynical or anything.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Yah. If anyone was to do this, they would have to be strong of stomach indeed.