It's just the Internet - LOL

posted by Brian Houston (dag) 1 decade 1 year 8 months 1 week ago • 7,350 views
On VideoSift your actions matter. I promise that the things you comment and do here will never be written off as "just the Internet". When you do something great - I hope that you get commendations and kudos from other Sifters and us admins. When you do or write something awful - I hope you get recognition from us too - a warning, a suspension a banning.

We don't want people to ever write off activities here as "just the Internet" because that's dehumanising. It let's you rationalise any kind of shitty behaviour - because it's "not real life". That's sociopathy.

Treat each other well because we're all here watching, we're all human beings - and it matters.

52 Comments

bareboards2 says...

Thanks for this, dag. It is one of the reasons that I am still here after so many years. There are consequences to bad behavior. We do have a community.

Thanks for helping us stay on track.
*quality

braschlosan says...

A message like this sounds good on "paper" but I see it as a threat to those who would challenge the establishment. From my experience on this site the comments considered to be "awful" are fairly tame.

What you have done is put us passionate people under a constant state of fear that some random admin will take the "my poop doesn't smell" route and damage our account status.

Try dialing it back a notch. Allow users to express the natural anger and disagreement that exists in all humans. Apply the warning/suspension/ban when its actually needed. I feel that any user on the receiving end of this punishment should be allowed to explain himself to an UNBIASED moderator.

Don't let the whiny attention grabbers bait others into anger and then punish those who couldn't hold back! Too many times the real troll went unpunished (the sign of a master trololo)

I capitalized unbiased because I feel those in power do not fairly represent the community as a whole. The best governing party should have those who share a common goal but disagree on the method to obtain it.

If what we say really does "matter" then as a sociopath shouldn't I be able to express what is in my mind (within reason)? Or should I bottle it up and release these feelings on a scapegoat instead? By denying the outlet we end up more hurt.

dag says...

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Thanks for the counter-point, but we're definitely not going to dial it back a bit. We recognise that you have a choice where you spend your time - and there is a plethora of websites that don't have a dial at all.

Why does VideoSift have to (also) be a place where anything goes - and everyone gets to be as nasty as they want to be? Isn't that the status quo for most platforms on the Internet? I give you any Youtube video comment stream as exhibit A.



We have chosen to differentiate ourselves as a community by not being like that. For people that don't care for this - I give you the dial-less sites.

>> ^braschlosan:

A message like this sounds good on "paper" but I see it as a threat to those who would challenge the establishment. From my experience on this site the comments considered to be "awful" are fairly tame.
What you have done is put us passionate people under a constant state of fear that some random admin will take the "my poop doesn't smell" route and damage your account status.
Try dialing it back a notch. Allow users to express the natural anger and disagreement that exists in all humans. Apply the warning/suspension/ban when its actually warranted. I feel that any user on the receiving end of this punishment should be allowed to explain himself to an UNBIASED moderator.
I capitalized unbiased because I feel those in power do not fairly represent the community as a whole. The best governing party should have those who share a common goal but disagree on the method to obtain it.
If what we say really does "matter" then as a sociopath shouldn't I be able to express what is in my mind (within reason)? Or should I bottle it up and release these feelings on a scapegoat instead? By denying the outlet we end up more hurt.

dannym3141 says...

>> ^braschlosan:

A message like this sounds good on "paper" but I see it as a threat to those who would challenge the establishment. From my experience on this site the comments considered to be "awful" are fairly tame.
What you have done is put us passionate people under a constant state of fear that some random admin will take the "my poop doesn't smell" route and damage our account status.
Try dialing it back a notch. Allow users to express the natural anger and disagreement that exists in all humans. Apply the warning/suspension/ban when its actually needed. I feel that any user on the receiving end of this punishment should be allowed to explain himself to an UNBIASED moderator.
Don't let the whiny attention grabbers bait others into anger and then punish those who couldn't hold back! Too many times the real troll went unpunished (the sign of a master trololo)
I capitalized unbiased because I feel those in power do not fairly represent the community as a whole. The best governing party should have those who share a common goal but disagree on the method to obtain it.
If what we say really does "matter" then as a sociopath shouldn't I be able to express what is in my mind (within reason)? Or should I bottle it up and release these feelings on a scapegoat instead? By denying the outlet we end up more hurt.


Sorry, that's bollocks. I'm prone to passionate comments around here, i make a few of them, sometimes regret a few of them.

As a passionate person, i endorse the sentiments shown by dag in the original post. By and large you'll find this place polices itself. Genuinely rude people are chastised by long standing members long before any authority gets involved. The populace votes (in comments), and dag rarely goes against what the popular opinion is - usually because the popular opinion is the "right", or "best" one (as in the morally right choice to make). Everyone gets to vote, so what the community wants (on average), it basically gets. How is that bad?

Besides that - the community voted for a dictator, and dag reluctantly agreed (i assume that hasn't changed and i'm not late to the party). I doubt he'd fight an attempt by this mass of passionate people (that are now frightened) trying to drum up support for a new vote on "how to run things". I don't think these people exist. If you're outright nasty to someone else, you get a series of temp bans until eventually you have to go.

If you're edgy and borderline, then you generally get away with it. Until you go too far. But that's WHY it's edgy and borderline. Like choggie. If the boundaries were extended, they would need to be pushed further by anyone wanting to be edgy and borderline. What's edgy and borderline about being within the rules? Before you know it, it's a free for all (youtube comments?). It's not like anyone gets banned without the siftpolice thoroughly investigating it.

dag says...

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Just speaking generally, I think the "over-sensitivity" claim is often trotted out by people when they are being kind of insensitive.

You can still be passionate, vulgar as fuck, interesting, funny or odd and employ the golden rule.

>> ^gorillaman:

Forget the medium, what about 'it's just a conversation'? You can go too far with this and give people an excuse to be oversensitive.

Deano says...

I think I've seen the spat in question. It fascinates me how text communication has such a powerful way of getting acrimonious. Even seeing a downvote can, weirdly, bring your blood to the boil.

And I'm a really moderate person!

Personally if I feel someone's being silly I now usually back out as there is rarely, IMO, any chance of them seeing sense.

I bet Tim Berners-Lee thought that the web would foster closer understanding and communication but you only have to look at many sites around the net for a more dystopian view.

Having said that, it doesn't have to be that way and I understand Dag's point. Also Dag I imagine this can be a bit of a burden or perhaps just an annoying distraction so I can just thank you and Lucky for your continued awesomeness and providing the only "community" I've really felt any kind of connection with.

/end brown-nosing/

crotchflame says...

Well written, Dag. I think this site strikes the balance better than any other that I'm aware of. I don't comment a lot here but it's one of the few websites I visit multiple times a day (and probably much too often) and that's mostly because of the community involved here.

ulysses1904 says...

I don't know if this is off-topic but while I have the mic I wanted to express my appreciation to dag for maintaining this site. VideoSift has introduced me to many things here that I don't know that I would have seen otherwise.

Everything from Rita Pavone to a documentary on Three Mile Island to the VICE guide to Liberia to math and science videos and old songs and movies that I had forgotten about or never knew about. Where else you gonna find all that?

ChaosEngine says...

>> ^ulysses1904:

Everything from Rita Pavone to a documentary on Three Mile Island to the VICE guide to Liberia to math and science videos and old songs and movies that I had forgotten about or never knew about. Where else you gonna find all that?


Apparently on reddit

*rimshot!

Thank you, I'll be here all week....

Deano says...

Where they constantly complain about "reposts" and "karma". It's a strange, rather self-congratulatory community at times and it feels like a group I just can't get into.

The stuff you find is brilliant at times but it's strictly a read-only experience for me.

Actually can anyone explain what the point of karma is? Is there a leaderboard or something because I've never seen one. I just don't get their meta-game.


>> ^ChaosEngine:

>> ^ulysses1904:
Everything from Rita Pavone to a documentary on Three Mile Island to the VICE guide to Liberia to math and science videos and old songs and movies that I had forgotten about or never knew about. Where else you gonna find all that?

Apparently on reddit
rimshot!
Thank you, I'll be here all week....

joedirt says...

What did I say now?

Seriously it is just the internet where people get butthurt way too easily. Little babbys need something real to worry about.

But I also have no problems with what Dag says and punishing/banning people for being asshats, it just shouldn't be a surprise when it happens because... IT IS THE INTERNET. In my opinion the problem is the sensitive coddled only-child shutins that have to feel special and find it impossible to just ignore some asshole. I've always considered providing a public service to the panty bunchers on the sift.

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