this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 55 points 11 months ago (3 children)

There is one complaint that I have about the mods across Lemmy, they seem to be hesitant to crack down on trolling. This has, in turn, made trolling easy thanks to the audience Lemmy attracted. Love the mods here, but when someone calls out a troll, maybe don’t remove the comment calling out the troll and leave the troll alone to continue trolling. Your contribution is actively negative if you do this.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Damn, I thought I was the only person who noticed this. It's just like being in elementary school all over again. The bullies run rampant, but any time anyone stands up to the bullies, they get in trouble while the adults (mods) ignore the various abuses the bully gets away with regularly.

Life never really changes, does it?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I've seen very little trolling, definitely not rampant for what I'm subbed to. I have seen a fair amount of people that become offended by silly stuff.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I've seen the main two types of trolls: people who try to cause problems in a subtle way for the sake of entertainment (the good trolls), and the ones that attract downvotes by saying the dumbest shit you've ever read (the bad trolls). I actually enjoy the good ones, it seems like they don't tend to show up unless there's already a flame war going on, and they can be pretty funny. The bad trolls are just assholes in disguise. Sadly the bad trolls tend to get ignored.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

People don't agree on what's dumb shit to say is the problem.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's more that they say it in what appears to be an intentionally inflammatory way. Like, sometimes there are really bad takes that seem trollish on their own, but when someone says it in an inflammatory way, it's hard not to see them as a troll.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Honestly, I say shit that people disagree with and are pissed off about pretty often.

But personally, I only really run into what I'd actually consider trolls on occasion.

More often than I'd like, sure, but I guarantee you there have been people who think I'm a troll just because I have and voice a strong opinion that they disagree with in a way that they can't comprehend or deal with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is false consensus somehow related to subjective opinions?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Eh, sometimes. Sometimes there are really bad takes that feel trollish on their own, but most of the time it's a bad opinion stated in a seemingly intentionally inflammatory way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I've seen people who had profiles that literally professed that they only existed to troll, and their accounts lasted longer than people who said something wrong politically regarding Israel/Palestine.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

lol that's wild, trolling on here seems pointless with the low user base.

Not gonna lie I filtered out Israel, Palestine, and hamas when that started, because of the differing political groups being so hard line/obnoxious in the comments.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

trolling on here seems pointless with the low user base.

You would think that, right? Some people legit have nothing better to do.

I mean, I know I've got nothing better to do than dick around online, but like... I still want to have real conversations and not just try to upset people. It's really weird, unhealthy, antisocial behavior.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s mostly in the politics communities, for all the good that information does you. It’s incredibly blatant, though that doesn’t stop folks from biting the hook given the spectrum of people here.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I feel bad for anyone who mods a politics community. Those comment sections are insufferable.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They chose their torture… but yes, the comments they sift through are among the worst in the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Zero faith that anyone moderating a politics community is doing it for any reason other than to have control of the discourse.

Just because Lemmy is a more cohesive unit where overall political leaning is concerned, doesn't mean that it's unfiltered and unbiased.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's the same groupthink that happened on reddit. Someone says something incidiary, another responds, and depending on the slant of the community, people dog pile. Same shit happens, as you said, in life.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Yeah, I think it's important to keep in mind that the Fediverse doesn't solve any of the problems that come up when a bunch of people talk about stuff they're passionate about. The problems Federation solves is the incentivizing and spotlighting of the sorts of toxic behavior we see on corporate social media.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Yup, that's what happens whenever "civility" is the primary metric used for moderation.

Trolls post heinous nonsense, and respond to people in the most insufferable rage-bait-y manner. But if anyone so much as calls them an asshole, they get their comments removed for saying a no-no word.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Defining "trolling" is complex.

People have unpopular opinions that they vehemently defend.. it's not always bait or just being an asshole for the fun of it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The difference between “notice me, I’m an attention-seeking asshole” and “notice me, my opinion is unpopular” can be difficult to discern, but becomes obvious with context. Most especially when you both point them out and provide the context. As an attention-seeking asshole, it’s a bit frustrating to be told that I can’t recognize someone doing what I do, but far less subtly.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think just the nature of social media in and of itself creates "trolls"...

Everyone seems to think WE all know everything about everything and we just can't resist the compulsion to tell and "educate" others .

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That’s precisely why it can be frustrating to attempt to save someone the headache of engaging with a person speaking in bad faith, only to have the warning removed and to be told “don’t do that again, you’re being rude.” There are quite a few naturally occurring issues with social media, not least of which are trolls, and to hand wave them does little to improve the situation.

Look, all I’m saying is that if I see a streak of people writing dissertations in reply to a visibly disingenuous commenter, my warning might be worth keeping.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Lol... I don't even know what to say to you anymore...

It basically goes back to what I said earlier... People define things differently and believe and are passionate about different things.

"Bad faith" is something that people may not always agree on and could be considered subjective, too.

Cool though... I guess it kind of proves my point actually.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

Dude, it’s accounts named “boomer opinions” or “communist git” roleplaying as racists and extermination enthusiasts. I understand your point, you just lack context and a relevant point. Had you asked rather than affirmed, you might have had both.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The mods are trolls too. don't kid yourself. I've had several less than amazing mod interactions. There's even less here on Lemmy to prevent mod abuse, and it's absolutely already rampant.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

One doesn't need to browse the modlog of instances like lemmy.ml for long to realize there's still a lot to be improved on. Mods and admins can just delete your messages and ban you for literally what ever reason and there's nothing you can do about it.

One could argue that doesn't matter on Lemmy because you can just move to another instance, but considering how much complaining there's about twitter here every single day here I'm not sure if those people actually believe what they're saying.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

That's certainly part of what made reddit get so shitty too.