Trolls
21 hours ago
- The word "troll" has two meanings: originally a deliberate instigator of conflict, and more broadly anyone who behaves rudely in forums.
- The four causes of trolling are distance (anonymity), the personality type of hackers (more comfortable with abstract ideas than people), incompetence (easier to insult than argue), and forum culture (trolls thrive where rudeness is tolerated).
- A Gresham's Law of trolls exists: trolls drive away thoughtful users, leading to a deterioration of forum culture.
- News.YC (Hacker News) is designed as an experiment to avoid trolling through guidelines, community moderation, and a karma system that penalizes rudeness.
- The experiment appears successful so far, and optimism remains high because core users are refugees from trolled sites and actively work to maintain civility.