Comment on Internet forums are disappearing because now everything is Reddit and Discord. And that's worrying.

• Buelldozer@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The fact that most internet discussion happens in extremely censored places is bad.

  Many people, including a large chunk of Lemmy, are perfectly fine with censored discussions. They honestly want it that way…as long as the discussion is censored such that it agrees with their opinion.

  I want the rest of the world to change and this is another tool to help towards that end, not merely an escape.

  It’s extremely difficult to free people from things that they want.

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  • green@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s frustrating but true.

    To use an extreme example, if I saw someone just spamming the hard-R I would want their comment immediately removed. The rhetoric makes the space becomes completely unserious; just not a good environment.

    The funniest part is that this mirrors real life. If someone did that IRL, I would just leave.

    I am not going to argue in terms of right/wrong because I’m just not equipped to. But in terms of platform result, I do not want to participate on a 4Chan clone - because it always leads to unserious discussion, bad faith, and death.

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    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      To use an extreme example, if I saw someone just spamming the hard-R I would want their comment immediately removed.

      In the forum days those users would get attacked and / or blocked by other users. If they caused enough havoc for long enough then the mods / admins would step in. The expectation NOW is that the mods / admins will actively monitor every post and comment in order to remove disagreeable content before it can be seen. That’s quite the change over the last 20 years!

      The funniest part is that this mirrors real life. If someone did that IRL, I would just leave.

      “Mirror” is probably more apt than you realize. IRL you would leave but on the internet you want them to leave. I’m not blaming you or saying that you’re wrong, I’m just pointing out the difference.

      I agree that all forums require some level of moderation in order to keep from turning into total troll-fests however there’s a wide chasm between moderating someone because they won’t stop posting racial slurs and moderating someone because they’re going against the grain / hivemind.

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      • green@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        There’s a lot of nuance to be had here, but it’s a conversation for another time.

        You bring up something interesting though

        IRL you would leave but on the internet you want them to leave.

        I wonder if this is because people view these spaces as a home or a “third place”. Like if someone did something offensive in your home, you would indeed ask (or force) them to leave.

        People also find it insanely difficult to “leave” because all of their friends are on the platform. Since it’s almost never open-protocol, that means being locked to said space - so you can only get people you don’t like to leave.

        We generally agree the moderation has become overbearing. I would argue most of it is straight up ineffective and performative. We need actual data and science backing moderation policies, not just “this feels good”.

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• null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Email is a poor analogy because that’s direct communication.

  As an aside, I work as a consultant and clients are getting scammed via email all the time. Email is responsible for a lot of heart ache and heavy losses.

  Regardless, you might be able to filter newsletters from bills in your email inbox but how do you filter out Russian disinformation farms from reddit?

  I think the idea that the internet might usher in a new information age is dead. Long dead. The internet solved the problem of access to information but now we just produce lots of bad information.

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