Are people on the net saner than they used to be?

[Sunflower-Products]

I was reading the Zen Cart Wiki, there is a section admonishing users to be polite, understanding, and careful in their phrasing.

On reading this, it occurred to me that I have not stumbled onto the non-stop flame wars that were so common in my memory. Now, I guess that I should include that the times I'm remembering are about the mid-90's to ... some years back. Call it five years. 2004.

Have we grown up? Are all you kids out there now more thoughtful than the kids back then? Am I just not wandering into the wrong part of net-space these days?

I'll stop the mawkish questions now ....

 

[Dazz]

Nah lol, they still happen on various site's but generally they get banned pretty quickly and their threads get deleted by the admin's................. IMO no one really tolerates that kind of childish rubbish anymore, the vast majorities opinion seems to be 'if you haven't got a valid point, don't bother posting anything'

One exception seems to be btjunkie in the comments, quite a lot of flaming there hehehe sometimes by me if I spot an obvious idiot lmao.

 

[Kayos]

No, we still have tons of chuckleheads and 10 year old prepubescents trying to start flame wars using extremely bad grammar and whatnot. They think they are anonymous so they do stupid things.

It'll pretty much be like that always.

 

[garrettroyce]

As long as it is possible for people to do and say essentially whatever they want with very few repercussions, there will be trolls on the internet. Anonymity seems to bring out the worst in people...

 

[lemon-tree]

It really depends on where you look. Some places will have a user group that is sensible, however, some sites seem to attract all the people who posts incomprehensible rubbish. I think this might apply:

 

[Duxter]

I'm not sure the individuals who do that have matured, but I think that as more and more people start frequently using the web, those individuals are representing a far smaller percent than they used to.

 

[yowhasoy]

I think that people have gotten older, frankly. The flame wars were during the abnormally free points in the internet's history, and now, people are realizing that their lives online are now connected with their lives in the real world. Facebook and Myspace have made the internet a personalized space, changing the thought process of its users.

 

[Anna]

I don't think it has stopped, but that the moderators of forums (and other places) has become better to spot them before it gets out of hand and deal with it (locking thread, banning people).

Could also be as someone suggested, the "flamers" are now a lower percentage of the over all users then they used to be as Internet has became more commonly used.

 

[garrettroyce]

I don't think it has stopped, but that the moderators of forums (and other places) has become better to spot them before it gets out of hand and deal with it (locking thread, banning people).

Could also be as someone suggested, the "flamers" are now a lower percentage of the over all users then they used to be as Internet has became more commonly used.

Yeah, I really think people have become less tolerant of this sort of behavior.

 

[ichwar]

Yeah, I really think people have become less tolerant of this sort of behavior.

With more competition on the web now, people have to be polite or lose out. I mean, If there's only 1 or 2 forums for people to talk about stuff on the web, the mods don't need to keep stuff clean and polite because people will come in spite of that, but when there are thousands and thousands of forums, people only go for the best, thus urging site owners to keep their sites acceptable!

 

[lemon-tree]

I think it also helps that moderators now have a lot more expertise and powers of moderation as the internet has become more dynamic. For example, we can rapidly find and remove stupid and irrelevant posts and have more power to prevent users from returning. Improved expertise means that we now know better how things run, especially with the rise of open source internet software, allowing us to make it work in the best way.

 

[zen-r]

I think any improvement can in part be attributed to better software nowadays, which facilitates better filtering, monitoring & control of the users (by the moderators or just the software on its own). Techniques involving IP address blocking, membership/ login requirements, age verification, offensive word screening, moderator controls, feedback/ reputation/ report systems etc all help.

It's a shame that sites like YouTube seem to have completely shirked their responsibilities in this department. Comments left by users in their pages contain endless flaming, swearing, advertising spam & just general gibberish. No moderation in site. It makes coming back to x10 such a pleasure!

Edit : Ooops. I wrote this before lemon-tree posted. Some duplication of ideas here!

 

[Anna]

yes, seem that forums generally have better moderations then comments on other places, such as youtube for instance. One reason for that might be it's less posting to moderate done during a day, or just that the community it self are better to help reporting to the mods of a forum.

 

[garrettroyce]

I think a lot more gets reported as well. People no longer revere flaming and spamming like they used to.

 

[zen-r]

I think a lot more gets reported as well. People no longer revere flaming and spamming like they used to.

Well **@!!$#{$*!! you garrettroyce, & **@!!$#{$*!! to the rest of you !!

 

[Sunflower-Products]

Wow, I got a lot of response on this.

I like the dilution and accountability theories - these 'feel right.

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Okay, well there *is* diode-head ... guess you can't get away from it entirely. (Hey, where are those smileys to insert?)

 

[ichwar]

zener, you make my point about youtube. google has no reason to moderate youtube because youtube has no real competitor!

 

[zen-r]

That's true. The only way they might clean up their act is if they either get some decent competition, or if they are forced to by some regulating authority.

Occasionally, other factors come into play, such if YouTube were to decide that the comments section was damaging their public image, or if advertisers put pressure on them because they didn't want to be associated with it. But that doesn't look like it'll happen any time soon.

 

[garrettroyce]

Well **@!!$#{$*!! you garrettroyce, & **@!!$#{$*!! to the rest of you !!

Reported.

 

[zen-r]

.... People no longer revere flaming and spamming like they used to.

.....incorrect.

I think a lot more gets reported as well......

OK, you've obviously proved yourself right on this one!

P.S. Reported back at ya (you included my offensive language in your own reply. Hehe.)