Dog-piling is when someone expresses an opinion and people swarm in the comments telling the OC how wrong they are and how right they are. Typically the person getting dogpiled is downvoted into oblivion in the process. Note that I'm not talking about anything controversial in their opinion or the comment being trolling in any way; just any general disagreement with the groupthink.
Brief example:
User 1: There are lots of factors at play here, not just money. There's X, Y, Z, and those are all independent from money.
|____> User 2: No, it's money. It's always money
|______> User 4: Right? How can anyone think it's anything *but* money? Some people!
|____> User 3: Yes, well, X, Y, and Z wouldn't be a problem if not for capitalism, so it's definitely money, and you're wrong.
|____> User 5: It all boils down to money; always does.
|____> User 6: Of course it's money. Only a capitalist bootlicker would think otherwise.
|____> User 7: Go back to Reddit, troll.
|____> User 8: You're so close, but it's money.
...
|____> User 999: (Same as the last 998 comments; contributes nothing except attacking the opinion for being different)
None of that adds anything to the discussion; they're not engaging on the subject, just attacking the opinion because it differs.
That behavior does not seem healthy to me and seems like it's almost designed to discourage anyone from expressing any opinion that's not part of the established group think. Again, I am not talking about trolls here, just any kind of differing opinions.
Should that kind of behavior be discouraged? If so, as a mod, what would be the best way to address it? After the 2nd or 3rd dogpile comment, start removing subsequent ones that are just piling on?
It's definitely a people problem, so I'm curious what would be a gentle but firm way to deal with it.
Given that there's no karma here, dogpiling doesn't matter much. Can mute replies and move on.
Muting replies is not a thing on Lemmy.
There’s something called the “arisanal solution” ;)
You monster.
They are on Piefed. Quite a nice feature.
I’m eager to jump but Voyager is a must-have for me (I know it’s coming).
Voyager supports Piefed since yesterday: https://sopuli.xyz/post/29241539
Really? I'm sometimes caught offguard by how meager the Lemmy featureset is in places.
Edit: That said, even quite unpopular posts are unlikely to get so many replies that the user can't deal with them, just due to the number of people on Lemmy right now.
Piefed has that feature. Quite useful.
I always tell myself I should hop into Piefed more often. And I never do it.
...at this rate I'm low-key wishing my instance shifts from Lemmy to Piefed.
Be the change you want to see. The more people use Piefed, the more instance admins will give it a try.
Or just ask your admin directly.
You haven’t touched any taboo yet is my guess.
Maybe I just enjoy the haters.