Sometimes, just sometimes the internet makes a few things far too easy.

"Ever since Salon automated its letters, it's been hard to ignore that the criticisms of women writers are much more brutal and vicious than those about men — sometimes nakedly sexist, sometimes less obviously so; sometimes sexually and/or personally degrading. But…

This is also a reflection on the authors styles -…

We had an admin I begged our boss not to fire because every time she did something, I got to add a new section to the manual.

What a wonderful observation. Emma, you have changed the entire direction of my client discourse.

In terms of a public statement, I am working on a rant about…

Although the behaviour David was originally talking about goes way beyond trolling into scary dangerous stalker loon stuff.

Thanks, "merc" for the nice little clever racist dig you got in when I dared do that

Really? Did I do that? Didn't intend to put a racist dig in there, and if you read one of my comments, you may note that I consider myself a dick, so don't…

audiologists call it 'cocktail syndrome'. it's a common condition symptomatic of the early stages of hearing loss.

Like anyone who dares to questionthe liberal/left…

Alas Che I am profoundly deaf when there is background noise (called having a low signal to noise ability)

I have exactly the same problem – i blame those litte earbud headphone things. And last year this guy made it a lot worse.

It means I don't go…

The trolls are usually best politely dismissed in brief and otherwise watched with amusement, it's better to chide…

I don't actually read all the comments myself as there are so many. Im fact generally I stop reading most threads at 40 or so comments as I figure any good points will have been made by then.…

The Premium SMS Moderation Service (PSMSMS) has wings though... I'm not being greedy here. Honest.

lemme see your del.icio.us account?

Not in the Freudian sense of course.

some of the complete assholes commenting on [Kiwiblog's] threads are doing [Kiwiblog} and [DPF's]reputation as a site host a disservice.

That would be complete assholes of either orientation...

But "trolls" versus "loons": anyone care to offer a conceptual analysis of the differences between trolls and loons? And is there a…

Finally in terms of standard of comments, it might surprise some but it drives me crazy also. If there was some magical way to improve them I'd love to know about it.

actually, i've been thinking about this.

david, the fact is that you need to take greater control of…

I believe there exists a plugin for WP that allows voting on comments – see this URL. If you don't find that sufficient, drop me a line, I'd be interested in developing something similar for…

What I would really like is some system where people can rate how good a comment and a commenter is, and easily set it not to display those below a certain level

actually, that would be a great tool.

The moderator will then receive notification and check out your comment.…

well said.

i guess the licensing/moderating objectionalbes goes back to the old free speech thingy. what isn't often mentioned by those apt to squeel about free speech rights (and sorry for sounding like a grandpa), is that they also invoke duties. so…

Yeah I know, completely impractical and in the end probably wrong (in that grand sense of right and wrong)

but oh so tempting

Of course…

Not that I in anyway condone 'dick-ism'…

However, there really isn't a lot a small but popular site/channel can do if a person or people get serious about trying to disrupt it. You just have to hope your…

I imagine that they'll be very surprised to find out that the real Che is...

my funniest farrar story is from the last great blend.

we rocked in and sat down next to gemma gracewood, and lo and behold, on the far side of gemma was mr. farrar.

my gf…

-- seed the group early on with people who set the tone you want to have; then cultural norms develop and posters become self-policing.

We get…

What did you pitch at them?

I introduced myself as Che Tibby & demanded a co-star slot.

I imagine that they'll be very surprised to find out that the real Che is about 4 feet taller than me, and has neither an appalling speech impediment nor a comical limp.

(Personally, I find MeFi to be a bit Leiberman Democrat, but perhaps that's just me)

Really? I find some of them a bit... 'simplistic libertarian'. I still read the site obsessively, though...

http://engtech.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/five-ways-to-fix-diggs-comment-system/

In fact that highlights a particular challenge for a government entity that wants to encourage discussion. At the end of the day, a private site owner can say "this is my site and this is how I run it and…

my weak attempt to slander mr farrar aside

Channelling Zelig, I went & stood behind Mark Blumsky & beside David Farrar, in front of Parliament and made a pitch on your behalf.

The classic work from Clay Shirky. Lots of food for though there.

a flag on their IP

You should log IPs where admins/mods can find them, so that it's easier to catch people with multiple id's and sockpuppets, but don't make them the basis of automated behaviour, because organisations with broken servers will result in you applying your discipline to many many…

thanks. will steal those ideas and use them as my own.

the stamp says "troll", with a hyperlink to an explanation of what that means?

i get that "talk-back"-style commenters are a part of the blogsphere, but kathy's case clearly illustrates…

other than a new army of moderators, what can be done to limit these dicks?

You don't need an army of moderators, just a couple. My fave hangout, Metafilter, has thousands of active users but only three people with mod privilege. But what you do need, based on my observation…

what can be done to limit these dicks?

The same thing that is done in normal polite society to limit these dicks. If some gormless bigots butts into a conversation with rabid idiocies, they are either shunned, or informed that their opinion/interjection is not on/unwanted/just plain wrongheaded.
Of course, in…

it also means i can talk about work!

there's a lot of curiousity in the public…

Oh oh... pumps.

Why are they called that? Never figured it out.

Oxford sez: "C16: of unknown origin"

—

Also, if someone makes an unpleasant comment and then claims that it was "just" a joke (implying that jokes are inherently innocuous), their claim usually falls over when no one is…

and ben. your mate might be interested in this. ideas in blog

near the bottom he talks about just that idea.

Why are they called that? Never figured it out.

was it farrar?

i hear he loves watching pump-action.

If you mostly hang out in a mileu where nasty people say nasty things, you may start to believe that it is actually normal. And then you are somewhere else, unconscious of how…

Sometimes it seems the Internet is a catalyst for suppressed misogyny and sexism. It's very hard to mention Helen Clark without a sneering choir going on about lesbianism and her looks appearing, for instance.

As perhaps a mild example of the abovementioned condition, I was…