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GoKunming feedback...

bilingualexpat (219 posts) • -2

@michael: “Resolve the symptom or the root cause. Anonymity creates the opportunity for online bullying. The loss of the mask theoretically makes one somewhat more careful and responsible in their online personas.”

Yes, it’s true that individuals cloaked in anonymity are uninhibited to act in ways they normally wouldn’t. Each one of us are anonymous on GoK, hence susceptible to losing composure on occasions. However, only a few members are chronically engaged in incivility to the point of borderline trolling. These unruly individuals can be identified, hence easily ignored. As studies have shown, ignoring trolls is a relatively effective measure devoid of vicious circles.

Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University, have shown in his famous prison experiment that almost everyone is capable of evil acts if placed in the wrong contexts. “The Lucifer Effect” has been reproduced in over 25,000 behavioral experiments around the world.

Professor Zimbardo concludes that it’s our “social circumstances that determine which of our many mental templates, our potentials, we develop."

I’d argue anonymity sinks deeper when opportunists are granted no-barrier-to-entry accessibility to hide behind anonymous down-votes. This begets an anonymity within anonymity scenario. Unlike uncivil members, this type of unidentified form of incognito trolling can be pervasive and difficult to ignore. Anonymous down-votes are faceless and can be misconstrued as negative feedback from anyone.

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An alternative solution if down-votes remain:

Divulge all identities of those who up-vote or down-vote, separating the two tallies.

For example, our GoK avatars/handles could be displayed when cursor is hovered over the up-votes & down-votes tallies. Perhaps a simple #overlay coding. This transparency feature would shine light on habitual bullies. With greater visibility, predators once hiding behind bushes with their vendetta fangs may be thwarted from pouncing at their victims indiscriminate of contents’ quality.

iTeach (96 posts) • +1

'danger' an' 'serious' are highly subjective

this thread: www.gokunming.com/en/forums/thread/15099/naming_your_child was first trivialised,,then hijacked to ram home a dull, repetitive political point and the 3rd tried to finish it off under the influence of......?
all perpetuated by the self-indulgent TOMs who displayed zero consideration or respect to this OP and frequently to OPs in general
no,,not serious,,but all serves to keep gokm as a private members dominated-outsiders tolerated-club

JanJal (1243 posts) • 0

What might be useful in some situations, is that if the OP would have option to delete messages.

To keep them from applying full censorship, they could be only allowed to delete posts that get sufficient down-votes.

That could help to self-moderate threads that could serve further public service purpose, but may otherwise get lost in meaningless spam.

Dazzer (2813 posts) • -1

if a fairly new persons contribution is to whine about the contributions of other main contributors who have been contributing for several years, it is gonna fall on deaf ears. and you have to wonder if the person is deflecting or reflecting

Trumpster (84 posts) • 0

@bilingualexpat

Can you please identify who the trolls are so that I can ignore them, wouldn't want to inadvertently feed the trolls.

bilingualexpat (219 posts) • -1

That would depend on personal pet peeves.

Some may view Trump as the world’s most dangerous troll. Others may idolize him as savior worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Perhaps a camp out there sees me as a troll... despite my good intentions of liberating GoK from status quo bias.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight (inspired by Nietzsche)

Trumpster (84 posts) • -3
Comment hidden by user downvote Click to expand

You can't even give a straight answer to a simple question. You are basically proposing a solution to a problem that is simply a pet peeve of yours, and doing it very loudly and annoyingly. You are an outside agitator upset that nobody likes you so you go around stirring up trouble out of jealousy. You don't rally care, you just want to be up on a pedestal looking down on people.

Well, at least you admit you are a troll, so I'll give you an up vote so you can feel better about yourself.

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