Obviously, the internet has always been a toxic place, (the phrase “flame war” has been around for decades,) but it seems to have gotten so much worse over the last few years. I used to think decentralization of the internet would fix the worst of it, but Lemmy seems to have gotten worse alongside the rest of internet culture, proving me wrong. How do we fix/improve this culture of toxicity?
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Lemmy hasn’t gotten worse. Lemmy has become more popular with all of the Reddit fuckery. When more people show up more problems come with them.
Same thing with big cities. More people = more assholes and crime, and more expensive. More people moving into my town is destroying all the land (ripping out forests for row after row of shit apartments) all built by the same company. More crime now because of more people coming in.
Never understood the lemmy circle jerk for megaopolises. I’m sure its just because most have never been out of their 13 sqft apartment and don’t realize how awesome wide open spaces are. Sad really.
You’re only in control of yourself. Write thoughtful and positive posts, replies. Up/downvote based on how thoughtful and positive you think posts are.
You don’t have much power but what you have you can use.
the best possible answer.
Be the change you want to see in the world, online and IRL. it’s the philosophy I live by
Many people post online because they want to have an argument or bait other people into an argument. I’m not sure how you can correct a fundamental human flaw in a specific online community.
Some things we could encourage: Design social spaces with more repeat interactions. Many toxic people feel they can just move on to another part of the crowd. But if everyone knows them, and that they’re an asshole, It’s not so easy. See the example of “beep”, a user in the comics community who repeatedly cropped out the artist of comics.
I could also envision ways to reinvent forum moderating. For instance, one idea I had for moderating toxicity in a video game is that bans would not last a very long time, but for them to be lifted, the offender must upload a video, or present themselves live on webcam, of themselves describing what they did and apologizing.
If it’s too much, there’s more subtle approaches; like that old study on DOTA 2 where they’d present a post match survey, asking people to rank their teammates - then their own level of team contribution - and it would lead to reduced toxicity in their next match.
The first rule of the internet I ever encountered back in the mid-90s was “don’t feed the trolls”. We’ve lost that piece of philosophy along the way, and now we all actively engage with cunts instead of just blocking them and moving on. Oblivion is the ultimate tool for dealing with anonymous people who behave like fuckheads. It’s a win for them if you respond to their provocations, so just don’t. Don’t be posting shit like “I know you’re trolling, but…” just don’t even acknowledge them. Block/report/move on. It’s really that simple. The simplest remedy is also the most effective. How cool is that? We just have to tell our limbic systems, because the urge to engage is overwhelming sometimes. But take pleasure in sending these bastards into the abyss, enjoy hitting that block button and growing your blocklist. Look at your blocklist from time to time, and bask in the glory of it. Delight in how many people have been stopped dead in their tracks from ever bothering you again. Get excited when you see a new cunt emerge, and how much fun it will be to add them to the list.
As for ‘reply guys’ and general pissiness from curmudgeons (that is, people who are dickish but not actually harassing you) you can simply think of whatever anger or displeasure they’re expressing as being very much their problem. If they talk to you like you’re stupid, just know that they’re struggling with their own issues and that’s why they’re behaving like a stone in everyone’s shoe. Talk to them normally and without emotional language (if you need to talk to them at all), and keep in mind that anyone else who happens upon this interaction will see that you’re a reasonable and cool person and the other guy is a wanker.
If you knew the other person had a brain tumour that made them behave like a prick, you’d be much less bothered by them, but the thing is, that “brain tumour” exists in everyone. No one is really the master of their own behaviour, we’re all dragging millennia of other people’s genetic shittiness behind us, and our individual capacity to introspect and reflect on our shittiness and try to do better is also something we don’t create within ourselves, we’re all pretty much stuck with what we have, with our wiggle room for improvement being as preordained as our circulatory systems. So think of everyone as a tumour-riddled victim of circumstance and they won’t be able to hurt or annoy you anywhere near as much. Be happy that your particular tumours aren’t making you behave like a dickhead in public. It’s all about framing, just don’t let the other guy do the framing and you’re good.
“Don’t feed the trolls” can be good advice; I recently (one or two comments back!) made such a suggestion myself.
But it seems like there are times when we have to engage. Trollish behavior is behind phenomenons like fake news, incel culture, etc. - clearly those need addressed wherever they come up. The correct response seems to be situational.
You don’t, the internet has always been this way.
If we block and ban everyone that thinks differently from us, we can create a utopian paradise where everyone thinks the same. This might go on for years-decades maybe-until Elon Musk perfects his Neurolink protocol. At that point we will merge our thoughts, creating the ultimate Unity.
There will be no more hunger, no more pain. Dissent will be unthinkable. We will become…One.
You can’t. It’s driven broadly by human stupidity, which has been exploited by the rich to make us hate each other over nothing.
This is of course by design so the dissatisfaction people have with society/life/etc gets attributed to each other, instead of the actual source.
The problem is, you can’t make stupid people think.
I would warn that you can see different results across language barriers. Some games actually have much nicer communities in other languages.
It shows you there are different circumstances leading to the vein of toxicity, but the causes might be much larger than a moderation team could tackle.
One thing is to ensure that people understand you won’t take their bullshit anymore. Mass muting, banning, and deplatforming helps get rid of a lot of toxicity because said people are only interested in it.
Block .ml and don’t engage with .ml users
I can really only compare to Reddit and find the fediverse generally better
But those outliers are a doozy. I don’t recall even wanting to block anyone on Reddit but have blocked at least half a dozen here. Just earlier today I had to because we were enjoying a nice discussion, then someone stumbled in saying they’ve debated politics with me, starts attacking, trying to start an argument over something completely unrelated …… Reddit had plenty of trolls but I never encountered anyone there who followed me around to be an asshole.
So on the one hand the capability of blocking anyone is a great way to stop seeing the most toxic part of the fediverse, but on the other hand there’s got to be a more permanent solution
Ill be honest I read it as reintroduce not reduce lol
it consists of people too mad to be on reddit, sad trans people, and people who try to deal with linux everyday, and me…so this stress will eventually come down as toxicity with the lack of moderation. im not saying moderation is the solution, im saying this is how we are, let us be.
