I am obsessed with patterns of governance in online spaces, and in the ways those patterns play out over time. One common pattern is for a site to put on a friendly face, while hiding restrictive terms of service underneath. The two common crises this leads to are when the users violate the expectations of the site's owners (old skool:
Habitat; New Skool:
the BBC) or when the users rebel because the site begins enforcing the ToS unexpectedly (old Skool: Habitat again; New Skool:
Fakester revolution.)
Captain Obvious is trying an alternate pattern:
in your face descriptions of dictatorial powers. Since the owner of a site has enormous power over the users' interaction, the C.O strategy is to announce, upfront and in lavish detail, the do's and don'ts of the system
If you are banned for whatever reason, you can only post in the Tard farm. If you can prove that you aren't a total moron there, you might be un-banned. If you re-register with another name, your IP will be blocked.
Stay the HELL out of “TEH SMARTAY FOREM!!!11” unless you can keep up with the topic. The posters in that forum are very protective of it, and rightfully so. Don't post in that forum until you read ALL THE POSTS in that topic first, and are sure you can speak English and use proper grammar and punctuation.
[...]
Off topic/generally retarded posts will be moved to Brain Fecal where the regulars will proceed to rip it to shreds and make you cry. Frequent posters of Brain Fecal worthy threads will find themselves at home in Tardfarm.
Speaking of Tardfarm, THERE ARE NO RULES IN TARDFARM. Go crazy. I don't give a fuck. Do whatever you want. But keep in mind that the things there may not always be work safe.
[...]
You must have 50 posts before you can alter your avatar and custom title. Until then, or even AFTER then, if you do something stupid, don't fret! We will supply you with an appropriate avatar and custom title.
I love the Tard Farm solution -- its not a question of banning or not banning, which gets the trolling impulses up, but rather of where you post, a place with rules or a place with no rules. It's like the old multi-player game solution of player-killing in the wilderness (Tard Farm) but not in the cities (Forums, and esp the TEH SMARTAY FOREM!!!11 (a pattern pioneered by Habitat, because before anyone did anything, Habitat did everything...)
1. Roger Benningfield on February 8, 2004 5:19 PM writes...
Clay,
Same thing from a slightly different angle... that's how I've always handled flaming in the JournURL-powered communities I manage. Rather than get into the sticky business of squelching discussion because it might make someone uncomfortable, I just snip off any really heated branch of a thread and move it to the Hot Topics category, where people can pound on one another at their leisure without completely derailing the conversation.
(The only "civility rule" in Hot Topics is "no whining". The theory being: if you can't take the heat, shut the hell up.)
Permalink to Comment2. Seth Finkelstein on February 9, 2004 1:14 AM writes...
I'm amused too by the "dictatorial powers" TOS, especially from a pragmatic standpoint - if all discussions are going to bog down to "It's TH31R PR0PERTY so IT'S TH31R R1GHT!!!", then might as well just say that conversation-ender up front and dispense with the trouble.
However, I'm not in love with the idea of how wonderful a solution it is, not to remove something completely, but just marginalize it heavily. Pragmatically, these amount very closely to the same result in practice. The differences seem to matter far more in terms of ideological arguments over the definition of "censorship" vs "editing", than any real-world distinction.
That is, the problem is basically the same, which posts/people get put where, the difference is, err. marginal.
Permalink to Comment3. ghani on February 9, 2004 11:01 AM writes...
That TOS reminds me a lot of the Television Without Pity forums, who are so wonderfuly fascist about how to post there, they actually got made fun of on The West Wing about it (yeah, i'm serious). An example from their FAQ:
http://televisionwithoutpity.com/faq.cgi?show=0&q=1682
Question:
Why can't I start my posts with the word "um"?
Answer:
Because nine times out of ten, it precedes a snotty correction directed at another poster.
I'd never thought of moving "hot topics" to another area, but i think it's a fantastic idea. I wonder if there's a similar idea we (website owners) could implement for website comments? I've had more than a couple posts derailed by a few people.
Permalink to Comment4. The Commissar on February 10, 2004 9:57 AM writes...
If I went to that site, the very FIRST board I would visit would be 'tard farm.' Along with a lot of others.
So it's unclear if the site owner is 'enforcing' anything; he might simply be channeling and promoting all the provocative stuff.
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