Tumblr and Trolls

September 20, 2008 at 6:46 am · Filed under community, social networks

Trolls
Tumblr Breeds Its Own Species Of Griefer: The Anonyblogger is an article by Silicon Alley Insider about Tumblr and some serious trouble they’ve been having with trolls ( or griefer, if you prefer that term). The basic problem is spelled out nicely in the article:

Here’s how anonyblogging works: let’s say johndoe.tumblr.com is your target. You create a free account called “johndoesucks” (or whatever, the cruder the better), then “follow” John’s blog. Obsessively “reblog” every post John makes, adding snarky, mean, or outright profane commentary. Tumblr’s “dashboard” system means that people follow John will likely see the nasty comments. It’s the equivalent of watching someone shout at your pal as he walks down the street. But what makes the attack so unpleasant is that there’s no way for John to shake a malicious anonyblogger.

I attended David Karp’s talk yesterday at Web 2.0 Expo called “Design Case Studies: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (presenting alongside Avi Munchnik of Aviary). David presented the concept of “hell banning”, which means making a user invisible to everyone but themself. So the troll continues to post and sees their posts up on the site, but to everyone else it seems like the troll has suddenly disappeared.

I had the pleasure of having lunch with David afterwards, and I asked him more about that, specifically “Won’t the troll’s followers be suspicious when suddenly their anti-hero disappears?”. David said no, because all of the trolls followers still see the offensive posts, it’s just everyone else that benefits from the muting.

That’s interesting. You are now segregating your audience into troll supporters and everyone else. You give the troll a soapbox and their existing audience, and the troll can scream and yell into that vacuum to their heart’s content. Everyone else, however, is spared the abuse and harassment.

Of course, this only works if you have a social network where users can follow each other. For a traditional discussion board, this won’t work nearly as effectively.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: , , , , ,

Leave a Comment