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Twitter Asks For Help Fixing Its Toxicity Problem (engadget.com)

Engadget: Twitter has come under a lot of fire in recent years for issues ranging from not doing enough to stop harassment on its platform to allowing foreign actors to sow political discord. In the past, the company has tweaked its tools, giving individuals more options when it comes to controlling what they're exposed to online, as well as updated its guidelines a handful of times. But today, Twitter announced it's trying out another route -- asking people outside of the company to propose ways that it can promote healthy, open and civil conversations online. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted today that the company isn't proud of how some have taken advantage of its service, specifically calling out troll armies, misinformation campaigns and bots. And he added that Twitter has been accused of apathy, censorship and political bias as it has attempted to fix its problems.

83 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Twitter being accused of apathy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    asks the rest of us to solve their problems. Bravo.

  2. This new leftist langauge.... by civilwaradvocate · · Score: 1, Troll

    "Toxic" is awfully poetic and hyperbolic.
    The leftists keep reaching for new ways to describe how awful it is when their feelings are hurt, and they are tearing the language to shreds as they do it.

    Perhaps it would be best of Twitter really was toxic.

    1. Re:This new leftist langauge.... by civilwaradvocate · · Score: 1

      Pretty sure this is an original observation

      STFU braindead drone

      since this is slashdot, watch me get modded down and this troll get modded up for namecalling

    2. Re:This new leftist langauge.... by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The more a brand and site wants to control the internet, the more the internet enjoys brands that promote freedom.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:This new leftist langauge.... by Narcocide · · Score: 2

      It's neither poetic nor hyperbolic. It's merely metaphorical, and it's been widely recognized as an appropriate way to use the word in conversation for decades longer than "leftist." Did you really not realize that you just actually complained about what you yourself were doing in the same very complaint? Are you really that fucking hypocritical? With a name like "civilwaradvocate" I'm sure that you're not. I'm sure that you're here to troll. So is everyone else watching, so get fucked, alright? Also, you used "awful" twice.

  3. Just shut the whole thing down. by toonces33 · · Score: 1

    That would solve the problem..

    1. Re:Just shut the whole thing down. by Megane · · Score: 1

      Then you would have to deal with the remains being an EPA superfund site. But yes, nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    2. Re:Just shut the whole thing down. by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      Can we do the same thing for Reddit too?

      --
      We'll make great pets
  4. Yeah, good luck with that by JoshuaZ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You are talking about a platform which has a character limit and has many anonymous individuals and where people can post without thinking. Any one of those by itself can lead to problems. All three together? They all contribute in the same direction: emotion and insult over calm and careful discussion.

    1. Re:Yeah, good luck with that by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      which has a character limit and has many anonymous individuals and where people can post without thinking.

      They should implement a monetary value to tweet that scales quickly by IP address or some other metric.

      Slashdot gave moderation power to everyone, but only in small quantities. It's worked rather well.

    2. Re:Yeah, good luck with that by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      There is an much easier to control twitter. So much easier. Keep in mind, twitter is all about the empty squawks of twits, like screeching birds in the morning (of which I get enough with the rainbow lorikeets in their fig tree in my yard), hence I have no need for the twits on twitter. Just like that bird chatter, why record it all forever, at lot of Twitters problems would be solved quit simply be letting the tweets die in the wind. Simply put a life on tweets, no longer permanent, simply transitory. This would make twitter more about the current conversation, rather than a record of it.

      Whether you give tweets say a 30 day life or maximum 90 day life, will alter the nature of the use of twitter. Tweets fading to oblivion tends to take the sting out of them, a heated word in passing, rather than something Twitter foolishly etches in stone. Things can get a little more heated and still it would fade, and the shorter the life of tweets the less the burn. You might even allow user choice on the life of tweets, from say 24h,72h,7d,2w,1m,3m.

      It is too easy to tweet stupid things on twitter and enforcing the fading of all tweets will do a lot to cool things down.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re:Yeah, good luck with that by doom · · Score: 1

      You are talking about a platform which has a character limit and has many anonymous individuals and where people can post without thinking. Any one of those by itself can lead to problems. All three together? They all contribute in the same direction: emotion and insult over calm and careful discussion.

      Nice to see someone said the obvious right out of the gate. To take it a step farther: twitter is completely incapable of doing anything at all that might reduce it's traffic (it was like, just last quarter that they amazed the world by reporting a profit for once, right?). From this we can conclude that advertising supported media is a complete bust, and it's completely inadequate for running the information infrastructure of a functional democracy.

      So now we should all start talking about what we're going to do instead. But what the hell, let's get back to right-wing idjits bristling at the phrase "toxic" and whining about them feminazis...

    4. Re:Yeah, good luck with that by nashv · · Score: 1

      Yes, but that also takes away whatever little value Twitter has as a platform for statements 'straight from the source'. At least, that is the main reason the media and many people are on Twitter - a way to communicate with the person in charge, the company you're dealing with directly. Anything tweeted cannot be ascribed to any of the middlemen journalists screwing it up with incorrect reporting etc.

      Giving tweets a lifespan, automatically makes every statement effectively retracted after the said time span. This means I can say what I want on Twitter and it will be removed automatically. Politicians do this with their verbal statements all the time and the only reason they can be pulled up for it is because somewhere there is a journalistic record of it. If Twitter gives tweets a lifespan, then the value of Twitter is an good as the spoken word of a politician. That is, zero.

      --
      Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
  5. The Tower of Babel by Narcocide · · Score: 1

    This time he will strike us all down for our impunity.

  6. There are trolls, idiots by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 2

    And “toxic” to the left and right on many social media sites.
    Most social media suffers from that because the way they function are a popularity contest and you get more likes when being a cunt towards outside your group and being a decent human being.
    But Twitter’s format are even worse because it is best suited for short snarky comments.

  7. President-for-Life by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    specifically calling out troll armies, misinformation campaigns and bots.

    So basically, they're going after the Trump base.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  8. "The Toxicity is coming from inside the building!" by Nova+Express · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Want to get rid of the toxicity? Start by firing Anita Sarkeesian from Google's so-called “Trust and Safety Council.” Twitter's politically unbalanced, SJW-inspired suspensions and shadowbans are destroying Twitter shareholder value.

    Clean your own house first. Then you can start worrying about the "toxicity" of others.

    (What, no story about the outage?)

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  9. Finally Slashdot is back! by civilwaradvocate · · Score: 1

    The peak outrage period from the Google censorship rampage has passed, it's finally safe to re-enable posting!

  10. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by civilwaradvocate · · Score: 1

    Find some pragmatism, fast.
    You are telling a criminal organization to clean its house.

    No, WE have to clean house. This corporate plutocracy is aiming to destroy our society completely, and they are not going to leave peacefully.
    Civil war is inevitable.

  11. Observation by slasher999 · · Score: 1

    The leftists mostly have commented here as anonymous cowards while the more conservative replies are from logged in folks. Says a lot.

    1. Re:Observation by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Get back in the pile. They tuk yer jerbs!!!!

    2. Re: Observation by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Who would've thought that throwing large numbers of people out of work to make corporations more money would've led to social unrest. It's very sad that someone on the left would think that is a laughing matter. President Trump got where he is thanks to the left abandoning the working class. Absolutely hilarious.

    3. Re: Observation by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      I'm not a Trump voter I'm a left-winger, unlike the president who gave the world NAFTA and paved the way for the current car crash in the White House. Trump was the first presidential candidate to talk about the negative consequences of globalisation and those who lost their "jerbs", homes and futures voted him in. Maybe next time you join a Twitter hate mob to get someone fired, pause and ask yourself whether you want to create another Trump voter.

    4. Re:Observation by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Just pop into any story about gender or race issues and you'll find no shortage of logged in (and not brand new) users who have gone full-SJW with denying facts, calling facts racist/sexist, labeling anyone disagreeing as supporting rape/discrimination, and just generally fully embracing overtly false representations to push the narrative. They make those pushing back against that kind of stuff seem conservative, but that's really not the case. You don't have to be conservative to not go batshit insane and dismiss all rules of logic and evidence when it comes to race and gender issues, especially given the desired outcomes are the same. Though the politics threads do bring out some people who inexplicably believe some of the shit Republicans are shoveling these days...

    5. Re: Observation by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      But no, it's totally the fault of the black president and the woman

      Perhaps it's the fault of the half-white President we had before? Or is that racist to remind people of the other half of his heritage?

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    6. Re:Observation by doom · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the worst thing that slashdot has contributed to our on-line culture is the idea that not-logged-in means the same thing as "anonymous". Slashdot accounts are not tied to meatspace. Nothing prevents a brigade of fanatics and shills from opening a gazillion accounts under a gazillion different handles. They're all anonymous, because email is anonymous, because gmail, yahoo mail, etc are all anonymous.

    7. Re: Observation by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      the first presidential candidate to talk about the negative consequences of globalisation

      I hope nothing but the best for you, I hope even some day that you make it all the way the way to the start of the cul-de-sac and see what the local street looks like.

      You're really this dull? I guess you didn't hear like, almost everybody on the "left" talking about it, because you don't listen to anything but AM radio and cable newsvertainment.

    8. Re: Observation by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      I wrote a long reply but then it occurred to me that you're too fucking stupid to see why Trump won and like the rest of the pea brained fanatics, you'll carry on doing the same shit and wondering why more and more people reject you.

  12. It's easy by helpfulcorn · · Score: 1

    Just ban System of a Down from Twitter, all your Toxicity posts will go away!

    ... my hayday was the 90s, I'm lost on this shit.

  13. Re: Reality by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    And obviously the reality is that there are 92 genders.

    And that some of the special characters, taken from alphabets like Telugu, that we have to use to represent them in the gender identification string are crashing computers.

  14. The polite folks at Slashdot... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Maybe they can try to be more like Slashdot where the comments are always civil. : p

  15. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by Noishkel · · Score: 2

    And that's exactly the problem right there. Politically driving assholes trying to use their positions of power to suppresses view points they don't like.

    After all, a clearly laid out TOS that get's evenly reinforced would solve 90% of your problems. But the moment when you begin to give an unaccoutable secretive group of enforces power over the rest of the platform you will eventually end up with some levels of abuse.

  16. Toxicity is a Left Word by QuadEddie · · Score: 1

    'Toxicity', 'Problematic'... these are code words for feeling-hurting speech. They're asking how they can have a kumbaya and a feeling-fest? Well, obviously, make it non-anonymous first. Then make people have to verify their identity to join and post, then finally make them show their democratic voting card. Oh, wait, if you make people actually verify themselves on Twitter, that would wipe out 70% of the accounts and expose the over-inflated user counts that Twitter boasts to it's investors. You can't have your cake and eat it too Twitter.

    1. Re:Toxicity is a Left Word by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Part of the problem is that, for many on the left, civil discussion about opinions opposite of theirs IS a "toxic" discussion. For example, talk about immigration reform. Most countries - including Mexico - tightly control their borders and immediately fine, jail and deport those who violate their immigration laws. For example, Norway deports illegal immigrants at twice the rate of the US - but the US is considered the "racist" country for attempting to enforce its own border laws. Talking about implementing the same thing the US - basically following the existing laws - immediately gets one denounced as racist, called a Nazi, and all other kinds of terrible things.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    2. Re:Toxicity is a Left Word by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Hmmm.. If you think they are fact free, then ask for the facts. Show your own. But then, it's a lot easier to just scream "FASCIST!" and "NAZI!" and throw punches...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    3. Re:Toxicity is a Left Word by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      Norway does not have a Statue of Liberty, upon which is graven

      "Give me your tired, your poor,

      Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

      The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

      Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

      I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

      Perhaps you'd like to live in Norway, or Mexico.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    4. Re:Toxicity is a Left Word by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      And you had to go right through Ellis Island - right under the watchful eye of the Statue of Liberty - to be screened to see if you could emigrate to the US. That includes being able to show you could support yourself, you had a skill that was needed, and you had relatives already here to take care of you, rather than the State doing so.

      When my wife was a legal immigrant, she had to show working knowledge of English, I had to promise to provide for all her needs in the event she could not, and she had a full background screen (and medical report attesting to her lack of communicable diseases) to ensure she was not a felon. When she became a US citizen (December 21, 2017), she again had to show mastery of English, and a clean record (no crimes).

      But apparently, if you just walk across the border, you should expect to get whatever you want, whenever you want, receive support and benefits in excess of those who came here legally, and be freed of the restrictions placed on legal immigrants. All because of "racism" or whatever (never mind my wife is Asian - a small minority inside These United States).

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    5. Re:Toxicity is a Left Word by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      What a lovely story. Fantastic strawman there at the end, it definitely shows exactly what you resent: any infringement upon your native superiority. Also, you're a morally bankrupt lmbecile if what you get from "give me your refuse" is "admission contingent upon enhanced screening".

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    6. Re:Toxicity is a Left Word by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Here's a hint: we've NEVER had completely open, unregulated borders. There has always been an immigration station, a check of who's coming in and out. If you think otherwise - you're an idiot. As far as your virtue signaling, I've lived on four continents (meaning more than a few years) and married outside my culture and race. How about you?

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    7. Re:Toxicity is a Left Word by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

      Here's a hint: we've NEVER had completely open, unregulated borders. There has always been an immigration station, a check of who's coming in and out.

      Funny, that's not how the INS tells it. First sentence: "Americans encouraged relatively free and open immigration during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and rarely questioned that policy until the late 1800s." If I were to apologize for you, I would say that you're projecting modern ideas of citizenship, nationality, and law enforcement onto a society with very different beliefs and practices.

      As far as your virtue signaling, I've lived on four continents (meaning more than a few years) and married outside my culture and race. How about you?

      Dear, whether or not your values match the ones that this country was founded upon is the matter under argument. Virtue signaling on the other hand would include making random statements about what a good person you are. Let's stop before tu quoque, okay?

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  17. EPR to the rescue by shanen · · Score: 1

    The same EPR (Earned Public Reputation) that could improve Slashdot could be used to improve Twitter. I even wrote up a proposal in their weird system. However I'm not holding my breath waiting for Twitter to become useful.

    AtAJG, DSAuPR.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:EPR to the rescue by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      They're doing it in China already.

    2. Re:EPR to the rescue by shanen · · Score: 1

      I didn't know that, but I'll try to find the link you didn't include...

      Now I have mixed feelings about my suggestion. Yes, the Chinese are smart and clever enough, but I have some serious ethical concerns about how they use the technologies. The technologies themselves remain morally neutral.

      Just because the Chinese don't worship the gawd of profit the way they do, doesn't insure they have a better idea.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    3. Re:EPR to the rescue by shanen · · Score: 1

      Is this what you were talking about: https://www.wired.com/story/ag...

      If so, it is quite far from what I am recommending with EPR, though such a metric could be one of the relevant dimensions in certain contexts.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  18. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by Aighearach · · Score: 1

    He said SJW, hurrrrrrr

  19. It's too late by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

    Do the world a favour and shut it down.

    1. Re:It's too late by Megane · · Score: 1

      At least require a warning label. Something like "WARNING: This web site contains opinions known to the State of California to cause social cancer and brain defects or other rhetorical harm."

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  20. Re:Twitter has become a worldwide platform for spe by billyswong · · Score: 1

    People can always feel offended. Misinformation spread always. But when one try to stop misinformation via censorship, it is just authority brand's misinformation that spreads and rulers' heart that got protected, while the people suffer.

  21. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    A lot of people misunderstand what Twitter's goal is. They are not trying to 4chan without the doxing and porn. They actually want to get rid of the Nazis and are looking for ways to do it effectively. Most of their users don't want Nazis there, believe it or not.

    I know, I know, what about free speech and the marketplace of ideas? It's a question of the greater good. Look at Reddit, it got a lot better when most of the really nasty stuff was pushed on to Voat. That's the reality here, if you want really good discussions and debates then there has to be some limit on the trolling and abuse or most people just won't participate and it becomes a fat-hating, Jew gassing echo chamber. A lot like Gab.ai, for example.

    No one has come up with a solution to this yet. Maybe there isn't one. Maybe it's not actually a huge problem either. Look at the alt-right in America. They took fringe ideas on the very far right and mainstreamed them. It's proof that simply not giving Nazis a platform doesn't stop nationalist ideas from being discussed and seeping into the mainstream when there is enough support for them. It actually seems like the marketplace of ideas is working quite well.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  22. You have to use Twitter by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    To have any suggestions to improve it.... only twits use twitter... sorry.

    --
    [($)]
  23. Dorsey is a SHITCOCK by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    n/c

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  24. Close Trump's account by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

    Only then anyone will consider Twitte's intents seriously.

    1. Re:Close Trump's account by MtViewGuy · · Score: 1

      Twitter won't do it because the then-CEO of the company, Dick Costolo, was an attendee of that private dinner held by President Obama (along with his most-trusted adviser, Valerie Jarrett) back on February 17, 2011 along with the CEO's of Apple, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Oracle Systems and Yahoo!. Trump could use that dinner meeting to open a major investigation of all eight companies I mentioned in a First Amendment free speech lawsuit, since all eight companies have corporate headquarters in the USA.

  25. Re:More like the polite folks at Slashdot by Megane · · Score: 1

    Hard to be not civil when the site is broken for a whole week.

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  26. Simple solution by nip1024 · · Score: 1

    Quit catering to pussies. Let people block and then quit trying to censor people into being Stepford users online. If someone doesn't like something some mean person says, they can block. Otherwise stay the hell out of people's way. Trying to cram everybody into the snowflake generation will never be easy, will never work well and will always screw someone out of an opinion.

  27. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Most of their users don't want Nazis there, believe it or not.

    Most of their users don't want fuckwits that post #PunchANazi or #KillAllMen on there either, but those are the cunts Twitter chose to run their Trust and Safety Council.

    if you want really good discussions and debates then there has to be some limit on the trolling and abuse

    So why don't Twitter act to prevent it - from all sides on the political debates.

  28. CGNAT by tepples · · Score: 1

    Some countries have a disproportionately small allocation of IPv4 address space. Home ISPs in those countries may put hundreds of subscribers behind one IP address using so-called carrier-grade network address translation (CGNAT). Cellular ISPs worldwide use CGNAT as well.

  29. Re:Ban Donald Trump by rnturn · · Score: 1

    On the other hand... his twitter gaffes do, sometimes anyway, provide a little comic relief from the onslaught of bad news coming out of DC.

    Now back to my morning covfefe.

    --
    CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  30. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    Most of their users don't want fuckwits that post #PunchANazi or #KillAllMen on there either, but those are the cunts Twitter chose to run their Trust and Safety Council.

    Would be more convincing if you named them, perhaps with a link to when they said those things.

    Having said that, I'm not sure punching Nazis is all that objectionable.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  31. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Oh, fuck you.

    The President of the United States is openly defending Nazis and promoting child molesters for public office

    Hyperbole much? Your post is 100% indicative of the problem. One side can state what you say above, and it's all A-OK. Say anything you don't agree with and it should be banned. You don't want a free discussion of ideas, you want a rigid ideology and limited conversation.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  32. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by MtViewGuy · · Score: 1

    Here's the thing that has to really scare Silicon Valley: back on February 17, 2011, President Obama (along with his most trusted adviser, Valerie Jarrett) held a private dinner in San Francisco. Among those in attendance were the then-CEO's of Apple, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Oracle Systems, Twitter and Yahoo! (there is even a picture of a dinner toast from that dinner published by the White House press office).

    We're not sure what was privately discussed at that dinner, but if we find out a "gentlemen's agreement" was made by these companies to censor the political Right with Obama's personal approval, then all eight companies I mentioned could be subject to a First Amendment lawsuit because the companies engaged in censorship with the blessing of the US Government.

  33. Re:Be Cautious by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Ahh, yes. Tell us how Ms. Clinton is so pure for having hundreds of Top Secret and Classified e-mails on an unsecured server, whilst others in the Government are jailed for 6 photos. ANY reasonable person would have concluded she should have at least been charged, if not convicted, of gross negligence for the handling of sensitive information.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  34. Re:Be Cautious by doom · · Score: 1

    Like much of the American public, I wish you guys would shut up about her emails already.

    If you want to talk about something relevant: Hillary sent hired Brock-puppets out on the net to try to manipulate public opinion during the 2016 primary--

    Am I the last person in the United States who remembers this and finds it offensive? Yes, it sucks that the Russian can manipulate "social media" (maybe: "anti-social media"), but it isn't a Good Thing when someone else does it, either.

  35. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by doom · · Score: 1

    .. back on February 17, 2011, President Obama ... held a private dinner in San Francisco. ... We're not sure what was privately discussed at that dinner,

    Considering that 2012 was an election year, I'm pretty sure it was:

    Obama: Give me money.

    Glad to solve this one for you.

  36. Re:Be Cautious by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Oh, I remember about her doing that. But that is not illegal. Keeping classified and top secret information on your own personal computers IS illegal. I'd rather we start with actual crimes before we break down to "I don't like it so I should complain about it" things that you may feel are in poor form - but are completely legal.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  37. Very simple solution by quonset · · Score: 1

    If one tolerates bad manners, they grow worse. Our pleasant habitat could decay into the sort of slum Elli-Five is, with crowding and unmannerly behavior and unnecessary noise and impolite language. I must find the oaf who did this thing, explain to him his offense, give him a chance to apologize, and kill him.

  38. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by doom · · Score: 1

    Really? Hand on... nope, still liberal. Oh well, try again.

  39. Re:Be Cautious by doom · · Score: 1

    Yeah, maybe it was illegal, maybe it wasn't, and maybe it was a technical violation that no one in their right mind would care about and maybe it wasn't, the point isn't relevant. It has nothing to do with anything in the present discussion, and it has nothing to do with anything actually going on in the present-day world because HILLARY IS NOT PRESIDENT.

    Getting the government to be more or less fussy about transparency rules and/or classified information (if any) will not fix social media.

    On the other hand, a filter that drops idjits and shills that try to drag discussions off into rat-holes, that would actually be a feature worth having.

  40. Users can block those they don't like by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    No need for all of Twitter's abusive censorship.

  41. Typical libtard by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    Too stupid to have any real thoughts. So just parrots memes.

  42. Twitter is fine with leftist hate and threats by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    But censors even the most moderate conservatives.

    Conservatives have been banned for opinions, and facts. Even when done so in perfectly polite manner.

    Tweets promoting killing Trump, killing all police, and killing all whites, are all over twitter.

  43. No hope by nashv · · Score: 1

    The problem Twitter has is the same problem inherent to every platform (Slashdot, Reddit included) which ascribes value to any statement/opinion based on what people think of it. Any such upvote/downvote/trending/retweet/like system tends to select the *popular* opinion, not the correct solution.

    Now it would be all good if this was done by automated bots and computers who run multiple simulations to check objective validity and then in some statistical measure determine that the solution supported by the maximum number of simulation runs is likely to be the correct one. This does not hold true when humans (flawed, emotion and biased in a myriad ways) determine what gets spread.

    In short, there is no hope.

    --
    Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
  44. Re:Ban Donald Trump by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    Nice idea, but Trump draws a lot of attention and that's what Twitter's advertisers want. Maybe ban advertising? No, seriously, wouldn't life be so much better without ads constantly telling us how inadequate we are?

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  45. Re:Be Cautious by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Twitter can do what it wants - it's a private company. When the Government starts censorship - that's an issue. And when the Government has one set of rules for us and another set for our "superiors" - THAT is a huge problem. Some animals are more equal than others, and it always seems those on the political left prefer it that way.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  46. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by Noishkel · · Score: 1

    They actually want to get rid of the Nazis and are looking for ways to do it effectively.

    Yes, because there totally is a real problem with 1930s style socialism loving German nationalist on Twitter. Oh, of course I know that's what you mean. What you mean to say that everyone you don't agree with is Hitler.

    Hey, if you're going to go full blown Godwin's law right off the bat that I'm not going to treat you with any respect or credibly. Especially when you're going to start citing every single retarded trope and accusation against other communities and platforms that the left has declared to be 'literally Hitler'. Hell, I don't even like most social media. Twitter, Gab, or Reddit. Some parts of 4Chan are fun, but I don't actually like Nazi memes. They're kind of dumb.

    But as a final point I'll also point out that the idea of no-platforming any social out-group has literally zero chance of working in the long run. You'll just drive them underground and build more more social resentment towards to the point you actually end up invigorating these extremest groups. It's just basic human psychology.

  47. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

    What you mean to say that everyone you don't agree with is Hitler.

    I'm pretty sure he meant the white supremacists pretty much everyone has been calling Nazis for well over half a century. Except you and some other weird Slashdotters of late who have suddenly decided now's the time to insist there's some meaningful difference between the various groups normally put under that umbrella.

    And he's right. Pretty much nobody (outside of the Nazis themselves) wants Nazis on Twitter, and they're there, and given the extremism, and the consequences of that extremism, most Twitter users would rather they not be on Twitter. The question is how best to make that happen.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  48. Re: Ban Donald Trump by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

    So far as I can tell, the real reason fake progressive running dogs hate President Trump SO DAMNED MUCH is because he is openly pro-worker.

  49. I've yet to see a system that works better than /. by UpnAtom · · Score: 1

    Now Slashdot got invaded by enough alt-right to drive off people like me who didn't want to read self-entitled hating teenagers. So that might need to be taking into account.

    (Reading /. for the 3rd time in 2 years.)

  50. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    I meant literal Nazis. They kindly wear swastikas to make themselves more easily identifiable.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  51. Re:I've yet to see a system that works better than by shanen · · Score: 1

    Not sure if that qualifies as a request for additional details on the suggestion, but I admit that it's a touchy point. I don't think it would be good to use such dimensions as conservative versus progressive or gun friendly versus anti-gun. Basically a can of worms, but it also reflects my philosophy that I want to be open to differing perspectives as long as they aren't coming from a intellectually dishonest Sophist, a crooked salesperson, or some other flavor of liar.

    I tend to think that Slashdot should have a block function for personally annoying nuisances, perhaps as an option on the Foe status. However I generally think that a moderate bias in favor of positive EPR would be sufficient to block most of the noise, and I might want to bump it up higher. For example, I favor funny people, though I think that dimension should be adjusted to a broader label, something like "makes me happy" versus "makes me sad". In general the group aspects of Slashdot are weak, but I sort of count that in Slashdot's favor...

    Two other areas of interest... The first might be called contagious or predictive filtering. If some identity resembles identities that I've already reacted against, then that's a reason to reduce their visibility. (If you're a friendly guy who likes newbies or a masochist who likes feeding the trolls, then you could adjust your settings that way to make them more visible.)

    The second would be the idea of "self-discreditation". For example, that could be done with a visibility check when someone starts a reply. If the person who wants to write the reply has a relatively low EPR such that the reply will not be seen by the OP, then there would be a warning and suggestion to comment somewhere else (such as the top level of the discussion), but if the low-EPR person insists on replying anyway, then it would get a self-discrediting prefix on the reply, something like "Not a sincere reply and not seen by the OP."

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  52. Re:"The Toxicity is coming from inside the buildin by rhazz · · Score: 1

    Nothing. Nova hasn't posted since January, but in his/her 2 posts today there are 3 links to their own blog... so we can assume they will take any excuse to put in a plug.

  53. Re:Ban Donald Trump by Not-a-Neg · · Score: 1

    Teach children reading/listening comprehension and the problem will go away.

    --
    -==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
  54. Re:Be Cautious by doom · · Score: 1

    Twitter can do what it wants - it's a private company. When the Government starts censorship - that's an issue.

    Allow me to quote the article under discussion:

    Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted today that the company isn't proud of how some have taken advantage of its service, specifically calling out troll armies, misinformation campaigns and bots.

    Taking Jack Dorsey at his word, what can Twitter possibly do to reign in these problems and still remain Twitter? I would suggest the answer is next-to-nothing.

    So we need something better than Twitter