this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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Is the bot/troll situation getting worse? (lemmy.giftedmc.com)
submitted 10 months ago by haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
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It feels like the amount of both, divisive posts and ghoulish comments is rising again.

One could argue that the world has a lot of divisive stuff going on and lemmy just talks about it. But the way people post about stuff seems more oot and hateful than it has been in the past.

Not saying it is that but if I wanted to bring the Fediverse down or at least keep my customers from going there, I would sow this stuff as much as I can.

I'm blocking ghouls left right and center atm but if I ever asked a friend to join lemmy, I'd hate to think of what they would see that I dont anymore.

Do we need stronger moderation?

  • Maybe ban politics from c/memes?
  • Become a little more stringent on "dont be a jerk" rules in communities?

One thing that really bothers me is the collapsing "discourse". Trying to mend fences and keep the conversation between sides going ime leads to nothing but downvotes and shitstorm.

I feel like a little more interaction (instead of intervention, at first) of the moderators would do wonders there.

Thanks for reading this rant. Have a nice day.

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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I've been noticing the same sort of behaviour that you're talking about. And while I don't know the cause, I don't think that it's caused by trolls or bots. Instead I'm guessing a few potential factors:

  1. Demographic concentration in general purpose, lax moderation instances, tailored to attract your typical Reddit user instead of more reasonable people.
  2. Lemmy+Kbin users being proportionally more combative, entitled, petty, and/or whiny, due to how people reached this platform.
  3. "Powerjanny" mentality being inherited from Reddit, specially given the likely higher proportion of former Reddit moderators here.
  4. General lack of mod tools, forcing moderators to take sub-optimal decisions on how to handle users and content.
  5. Normalisation of witch hunting, making people walk on eggs to avoid being confused with witches, and assuming that the ones not walking on eggs fly on a broom.
  6. Normalisation of stupidity, and subsequent normalisation of oversimplifications, assumptions, genetic fallacies, phobia against uncertainty, decontextualisation, etc.; with those things either making the stupid act in a hostile way, or others act in a hostile way towards the stupid.
  7. Natural reinforcement of behaviour in social groups.

This is already a rather large wall of text and I'm trying to be succinct, but feel free to ask further reasoning on any of those points.

Disclaimers to avoid replies to this comment that would exemplify itI'm aware that I'm not exactly "gentle" towards users showing stupidity, thus being part of the problem, and in no moment I even implied to be "above" it.

By "stupid" I'm clearly referring to able people who behave in an irrational way. I am not talking about disabled people. In fact "the stupid" is better seen as a set of user behaviours than as a specific group of people.

[–] Blaze@discuss.online 3 points 10 months ago

Very good points, thanks for sharing.

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 1 points 10 months ago

Good points. Thanks. I see your comment as very reflected and although pretty honest (which is generally frowned upon here I guess) its not mean imo. I like it.