online trolls and imzy

[orangerful]

Tim just sent me this article from TIME about "How Trolls are Ruining the Internet". I don't feel like there is anything too new here but it was a good read.

Though I do have to say that we need to give these weirdos a better word rather than "conservative" and "alt-right". People who respond to any kind of criticism with racial slurs and death threats need an equally upsetting name. And some of them are "liberals" and "alt-left" too, and they can be just as bad. So let's just get one word that lumps them all together and maybe they will start to realize how they are NOT part of normal society, and no political party needs to feel ashamed for them. Just be ashamed because they exist and disown them all.

The coolest thing was about a new online community created by former Reddit employees. Imzy is meant to be an online community that stays positive, where discussions are actually discussions, not just one sided attacks. And no one is going to build communities on the site around hating other people.

Anyway, I signed up to see if I could get a beta code. I was trying to think if I had any communities I could lead, but I don't think I'm online enough, so I'm not going to apply for that.

There was a lot of excitement these past two days, but I will post about that later. Right now, I need to get myself together :)

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

About Imzy -- I have a bunch of invitations (they just sent out ten new ones), so if you'd like one, supposedly that's faster than waiting for a beta invite from the site. Would just need your email.

[daria234.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link and the info about Imzy!

That's a great point about needing a better name for them. People who fetishize being cruel and think that makes them free or honest or enlightened to some special truth... (Some word more specific than assholes would be good)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yeah, liberals can troll hard. I think it's where you go in general. For instance, because I've never really veered into "geekspaces", I didn't realize how much misogyny there was - my spaces had always been very feminist or at least female positive. So when I voiced surprise that a more "geek" oriented site had so many sexists, someone was like "well, yeah, duh." Who knew! (This was before GamerGate and twitter in general brought out a lot of the misogyny.) And my online circles are still pretty liberal, so much of the trolling I see is from fellow liberals who take things too far.

However, I don't think it's always trolling, just people overreacting. To me, trolling is more deliberate. Like if I said "well of course you think that, you watch Buffy." Even if watching Buffy has nothing to do with anything and I'm clearly just digging at you to get a reaction. And of course the really dark and twisted stuff, although in those cases I actually think "troll" is too nice a term.* Whereas some people are just argumentative and defensive. Especially online, where it's so easy to read what you want to read, or what you cynically assume the other person must "really" be saying.

*It's like when you read about bullies, then you find out the bullies tried to kill the kid's dog or something. That's not bullying anymore, that's animal abuse and possible childhood psycopathy.

[erychan86.livejournal.com]

An online community that stays positive? That would be so great!!! I hope they'll be able to keep it that way...

I still think Tumblr ruined the web :) that's were all the negativity comes from... :D

[night-owl-9.livejournal.com]

Internet positivity is incredibly hard to come by. It's great that Imzy has shown up at all.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

I agree that trolls can be found on both sides.
I had to unfollow my neighbor because he was so intensely "left" that it was hard for me as a Dem to continue visiting his page.

[koyaaniisqatsi.livejournal.com]

That was definitely a good read about trolls. Thanks for sharing. The same goes for Imzy, too! :D

[blakmagjick]

omg...I actually read that whole article (whereas I usually suffer from a bad case of TL;DR)...and I hate people. Ugh.

But you are right, it was a good read.

I'm totally going to check out Imzy :)

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

Sadly, trolls can be found anywhere :(

[copulates.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of Imzy before now, but it sounds interesting! One of the things I hated about Reddit was how it has such a hivemind mentality about it, and just how negative it was most of the time. It's cool that they're trying to turn it around to something better.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

That is a neat idea! Hope that site does well, I truly do.

As for trolls...there really is no such thing as political affiliation for them, that is true. They cover all politics, spectrums, races and genders, really. I guess "troll" does not always suffice, but most situations when you deal with one, it fits. Maybe super-troll or mega-troll for those who fall outside the norm...

*HUGS*

[colls]

So let's just get one word that lumps them all together
Assholes? ;)

I heard about imzy today on twitter. I hope this new shiny is better than the last new shiny (tumblr)