The majority of people doing it would probably crap themselves if they were confronted about it in person.
There was a story a couple of years ago about a middle aged woman who was trolling someone online. A TV crew caught up with her on the street and asked her about it. She seemed rational and well spoken, said it was her "right" and "freedom of speech". A few days later she killed herself.
It's to filter out sock puppets. Phone numbers require more effort to generate than email addresses, so by requiring them it makes it harder for sock puppet accounts to be created.
Assuming you are not a sock puppet it looks like yet another mistake.
Alex Jones just happens to pedal conspiracy theories from the far right, or invents his own that are popular with the far right... But isn't actually far right. I'm not sure the distinction matters, as long as nationalists and supremacists are keeping him in business,
Are you a prominent conservative political figure that is currently in the focus of a lot of angry liberal people who like to mash the "report" button (for frivolous or false reasons) and aren't too big/connected that there will be business/corporate/financial retaliation if you get kicked off the site? Congratulations, have a boot to the head! You're banned!
All the evidence I have see suggests that is actually happens to progressive/left leaning users much more often. Especially on YouTube, but Twitter has issues too. A lot of this mobbing gets organized on 4chan, right out in the open, but it's very hard to get a human being at those companies to even notice, let along check the 4chan thread and realize what has happened.
Look at Google's principled stand on censored search-engines in China (*cough*), for example.
Okay, let's look at it. There are search engines in China, big ones like Baidu, so Google not being there is not depriving them of search engines.
So the question becomes, would Google being in China benefit ordinary Chinese people? Access to knowledge is generally regarded as a good thing, despite the censorship. As we have seen when search engines get really good it becomes harder to censor stuff too.
For example, YouTube is blocked. There are some good videos teaching English for Chinese speakers on there, but people in China can't watch them. If Google censored some videos of Tiannamen Square and got YouTube unblocked, Chinese people could see those videos. And videos about how people in the west live, their hobbies, their views on all sorts of things, and their funny cats. That seems like a good thing all round.
Of course we still want the Great Firewall to come down one day, and it could be a cynical money-grab, but overall it's hard to see how Chinese people would be any worse off with a censored Google than with no Google.
Which is one of the major reasons it died off for discussion. Too much spam and trolling, people moved to forums and mailing lists where they didn't have to deal with that shit.
That's the point that is always missing from these debates. Freedom of speech doesn't mean you can force other people to listen. If they want a moderated forum where they don't have to put up with APK's spam or Nazis or whatever then they are entitled to it, and Reddit is entitled to provide it.
Except the entire point is that being armed prevents them from becoming tyrannical due to people being able to shoot any potential Hitler before they get powerful
That filed to help Germany (guns were not uncommon at the time, private ownership was legal) and it failed to stop the US getting to where it is now.
All the efforts by each government to outwit the other by creating "unbreakable encryption" has resulted in it getting into the hands of the civilians.
Actually most of it was developed by civilians and then adopted by the government. It was out there already, and nothing will stop its further development.
The NSA and GCHQ like you to think that they have the greatest cryptographers in the world with their super-secret technology that is decades beyond what we can get, but in reality their only real advantage is the budget to pay some good people to work on these problems full time.
The Second Amendment was specifically written so that the people had the means and the ability to revolt and overthrow the government if it turned tyrannical.
And that was a flaw, in hindsight. I'll get modded to oblivion for saying that, but the reality is that an armed uprising against the government is impossible these days.
Other countries design their democracies to prevent tyranny and to create strong mechanisms for holding the government to account and removing it if it gets that bad. That's the only realistic open, especially in a country the size of the US.
I like Casio graphic models because they are the only ones that support SI engineering units. Saves a lot of time compared to having to enter x10^-9. Their non-graphic ones used to have those units as shift functions on some keys but they removed it a few years back.
You clearly enjoy posting your outrage to Slashdot, otherwise you wouldn't keep coming here to do it. Slashdot is like it is because it has a user run moderation system. Clearly you get some value out of that.
It therefore doesn't seem unreasonable to thank the people who invest their time in making Slashdot/Reddit a better place to post and debate, and try to address their concerns lest you lose that resource that you use regularly.
People want to build communities, for companionship and socializing or for free and open debate in a marketplace of ideas. Both of those things require moderation, and for people who get a lot from those communities it's a reasonable trade to make.
Back in the BBS days, then Usenet, mailing lists and early forums I never got that kind of abuse. These days threats of violence and doxing are often the first thing you get hit with. And I have been doxed and had stuff sent to my home, my wife's home, our email accounts flooded etc.
It's illegal to own a shotgun for personal protection where I live, and I doubt it would be effective against floods of spam mail or people calling my employer.
All of that is designed to shut down free and open debate. It's censorship. Intimidation designed to silence views that the perpetrator does not like.
I agree. It could be implemented by having moderators who use troll and then others mod/meta-mod positively lose the ability to moderate. Would take more than one incident.
The other problem is that new accounts are more likely to get mod points than old ones, so trolls can create be accounts constantly and be fairly sure if getting them.
Firefox, the browser that secretly installed an advertising plugin running native, unreviewed code on your computer? The browser that integrated Pocket?
Chrome really upped the game for security in browsers. It also stated a performance arms race that gave us huge gains.
Google also did a lot to kill flash. Not just the plugin, but by moving the web away from flashy animated sites (pun intended) and back towards information and useful content by ranking such sites higher.
Even if you don't use it, it's been an overall force for good that benefits everyone.
I wonder if the nuclear fan who modded this "-1 troll" really believes that criticism of his favourite electricity generation technology is actually trying to troll them, or if they just hate open debate.
Coal is insanely cheap because the costs are externalized. Renewables are cheaper than coal in countries that don't allow costs to be completely externalized that way, at least for onshore wind. Offshore wind will need another few years.
Slashdot Mirror
The majority of people doing it would probably crap themselves if they were confronted about it in person.
There was a story a couple of years ago about a middle aged woman who was trolling someone online. A TV crew caught up with her on the street and asked her about it. She seemed rational and well spoken, said it was her "right" and "freedom of speech". A few days later she killed herself.
The sad thing about this straw man is that it helps the actual literal swastika-displaying 1488-chanting domestic terrorist Nazis out there.
If content is not illegal, Twitter should not be restricting it in any way.
Name one business that uses "not illegal" as its required standard of behaviour for patrons.
It's to filter out sock puppets. Phone numbers require more effort to generate than email addresses, so by requiring them it makes it harder for sock puppet accounts to be created.
Assuming you are not a sock puppet it looks like yet another mistake.
Alex Jones just happens to pedal conspiracy theories from the far right, or invents his own that are popular with the far right... But isn't actually far right. I'm not sure the distinction matters, as long as nationalists and supremacists are keeping him in business,
Are you a prominent conservative political figure that is currently in the focus of a lot of angry liberal people who like to mash the "report" button (for frivolous or false reasons) and aren't too big/connected that there will be business/corporate/financial retaliation if you get kicked off the site?
Congratulations, have a boot to the head! You're banned!
All the evidence I have see suggests that is actually happens to progressive/left leaning users much more often. Especially on YouTube, but Twitter has issues too. A lot of this mobbing gets organized on 4chan, right out in the open, but it's very hard to get a human being at those companies to even notice, let along check the 4chan thread and realize what has happened.
Maybe that explains why the US has such a huge problem with phone spam.
Look at Google's principled stand on censored search-engines in China (*cough*), for example.
Okay, let's look at it. There are search engines in China, big ones like Baidu, so Google not being there is not depriving them of search engines.
So the question becomes, would Google being in China benefit ordinary Chinese people? Access to knowledge is generally regarded as a good thing, despite the censorship. As we have seen when search engines get really good it becomes harder to censor stuff too.
For example, YouTube is blocked. There are some good videos teaching English for Chinese speakers on there, but people in China can't watch them. If Google censored some videos of Tiannamen Square and got YouTube unblocked, Chinese people could see those videos. And videos about how people in the west live, their hobbies, their views on all sorts of things, and their funny cats. That seems like a good thing all round.
Of course we still want the Great Firewall to come down one day, and it could be a cynical money-grab, but overall it's hard to see how Chinese people would be any worse off with a censored Google than with no Google.
Which is one of the major reasons it died off for discussion. Too much spam and trolling, people moved to forums and mailing lists where they didn't have to deal with that shit.
That's the point that is always missing from these debates. Freedom of speech doesn't mean you can force other people to listen. If they want a moderated forum where they don't have to put up with APK's spam or Nazis or whatever then they are entitled to it, and Reddit is entitled to provide it.
Except the entire point is that being armed prevents them from becoming tyrannical due to people being able to shoot any potential Hitler before they get powerful
That filed to help Germany (guns were not uncommon at the time, private ownership was legal) and it failed to stop the US getting to where it is now.
It's like Usenet but you don't need a client or have to pay to access it, that's the value. Well, the moderation is more effective too.
All the efforts by each government to outwit the other by creating "unbreakable encryption" has resulted in it getting into the hands of the civilians.
Actually most of it was developed by civilians and then adopted by the government. It was out there already, and nothing will stop its further development.
The NSA and GCHQ like you to think that they have the greatest cryptographers in the world with their super-secret technology that is decades beyond what we can get, but in reality their only real advantage is the budget to pay some good people to work on these problems full time.
The Second Amendment was specifically written so that the people had the means and the ability to revolt and overthrow the government if it turned tyrannical.
And that was a flaw, in hindsight. I'll get modded to oblivion for saying that, but the reality is that an armed uprising against the government is impossible these days.
Other countries design their democracies to prevent tyranny and to create strong mechanisms for holding the government to account and removing it if it gets that bad. That's the only realistic open, especially in a country the size of the US.
I like Casio graphic models because they are the only ones that support SI engineering units. Saves a lot of time compared to having to enter x10^-9. Their non-graphic ones used to have those units as shift functions on some keys but they removed it a few years back.
You clearly enjoy posting your outrage to Slashdot, otherwise you wouldn't keep coming here to do it. Slashdot is like it is because it has a user run moderation system. Clearly you get some value out of that.
It therefore doesn't seem unreasonable to thank the people who invest their time in making Slashdot/Reddit a better place to post and debate, and try to address their concerns lest you lose that resource that you use regularly.
You mean like people who moderate Slashdot?
People want to build communities, for companionship and socializing or for free and open debate in a marketplace of ideas. Both of those things require moderation, and for people who get a lot from those communities it's a reasonable trade to make.
Back in the BBS days, then Usenet, mailing lists and early forums I never got that kind of abuse. These days threats of violence and doxing are often the first thing you get hit with. And I have been doxed and had stuff sent to my home, my wife's home, our email accounts flooded etc.
It's illegal to own a shotgun for personal protection where I live, and I doubt it would be effective against floods of spam mail or people calling my employer.
All of that is designed to shut down free and open debate. It's censorship. Intimidation designed to silence views that the perpetrator does not like.
I agree. It could be implemented by having moderators who use troll and then others mod/meta-mod positively lose the ability to moderate. Would take more than one incident.
The other problem is that new accounts are more likely to get mod points than old ones, so trolls can create be accounts constantly and be fairly sure if getting them.
Discord is buggy, especially the update mechanism.
Hangouts is better. Simple, low overhead and the way it handles conference calls is the best implementation I've come across.
Lenovo makes ultra thin and light but also very easy to service ThinkPads. So do NEC and Panasonic.
Being impossible to service is a design choice.
Chrome doesn't have ads and Google respects Do Not Track, which you can enable in Chrome.
Firefox secretly installed an advertising plugin for a TV show without permission.
Your trust is misplaced. Also, "neoliberal fascist enterprise" makes you sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist.
Firefox, the browser that secretly installed an advertising plugin running native, unreviewed code on your computer? The browser that integrated Pocket?
Mozilla are worse, if anything.
Chrome really upped the game for security in browsers. It also stated a performance arms race that gave us huge gains.
Google also did a lot to kill flash. Not just the plugin, but by moving the web away from flashy animated sites (pun intended) and back towards information and useful content by ranking such sites higher.
Even if you don't use it, it's been an overall force for good that benefits everyone.
I wonder if the nuclear fan who modded this "-1 troll" really believes that criticism of his favourite electricity generation technology is actually trying to troll them, or if they just hate open debate.
Coal is insanely cheap because the costs are externalized. Renewables are cheaper than coal in countries that don't allow costs to be completely externalized that way, at least for onshore wind. Offshore wind will need another few years.