donheff
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I just read an article in the Guardian that got me thinking about why this forum works. How the Internet Created an Age of Rage discusses the phenomenon of "deindividuation" which the article describes thusly:
It's what happens when social norms are withdrawn because identities are concealed. The classic deindividuation experiment concerned American children at Halloween. Trick-or-treaters were invited to take sweets left in the hall of a house on a table on which there was also a sum of money. When children arrived singly, and not wearing masks, only 8% of them stole any of the money. When they were in larger groups, with their identities concealed by fancy dress, that number rose to 80%. The combination of a faceless crowd and personal anonymity provoked individuals into breaking rules that under "normal" circumstances they would not have considered.
The article goes on to explore how this problem can destroy a blog when anonymous posters pile on with enraged comments. It is an interesting read describing a problem that could easily ruin ER.org but doesn't. Why? I think because, to a large degree, we are not truly anonymous. Most long term participants develop an online reputation that we don't want to destroy. Even though we are not generally known by real world names we are not completely anonymous. So, even in the political forum, where opinions can get hot and even hostile, we almost always hold the line to reasonable discourse. And, although we get irritated at the mods at times, they really do play a key role making sure that we don't go over the line. Probably more important, the mods (and regulars as well) ensure that trolls can't successfully sneak in and break up a conversation.
So, I hereby toast the mods and the regular posters who keep this forum such a vibrant retreat.
By the way, reading about trolls reminded me of an article I read in the early days of the Internet (before browsers were big and Usenet was the place to be). The War between alt.tasteless and rec.pets.cats, Wired, circa 1994, is a hilarious (and sad) look at how a group of anonymous posters from one newsgroup ganged up to destroy another newsgroup. It was my first intro to how bad anonymity can get but still a great read - like watching an oncoming train wreck. (I think the correct name of the evil newsgroup was alt.humor.tasteless but who knows.)
It's what happens when social norms are withdrawn because identities are concealed. The classic deindividuation experiment concerned American children at Halloween. Trick-or-treaters were invited to take sweets left in the hall of a house on a table on which there was also a sum of money. When children arrived singly, and not wearing masks, only 8% of them stole any of the money. When they were in larger groups, with their identities concealed by fancy dress, that number rose to 80%. The combination of a faceless crowd and personal anonymity provoked individuals into breaking rules that under "normal" circumstances they would not have considered.
The article goes on to explore how this problem can destroy a blog when anonymous posters pile on with enraged comments. It is an interesting read describing a problem that could easily ruin ER.org but doesn't. Why? I think because, to a large degree, we are not truly anonymous. Most long term participants develop an online reputation that we don't want to destroy. Even though we are not generally known by real world names we are not completely anonymous. So, even in the political forum, where opinions can get hot and even hostile, we almost always hold the line to reasonable discourse. And, although we get irritated at the mods at times, they really do play a key role making sure that we don't go over the line. Probably more important, the mods (and regulars as well) ensure that trolls can't successfully sneak in and break up a conversation.
So, I hereby toast the mods and the regular posters who keep this forum such a vibrant retreat.
By the way, reading about trolls reminded me of an article I read in the early days of the Internet (before browsers were big and Usenet was the place to be). The War between alt.tasteless and rec.pets.cats, Wired, circa 1994, is a hilarious (and sad) look at how a group of anonymous posters from one newsgroup ganged up to destroy another newsgroup. It was my first intro to how bad anonymity can get but still a great read - like watching an oncoming train wreck. (I think the correct name of the evil newsgroup was alt.humor.tasteless but who knows.)
