Shut down the trolls
“They have a cave troll!”
Psychological research has proven again and again that anonymity increases unethical behavior. Road rage bubbles up in the relative anonymity of one’s car. And in the online world, which can offer total anonymity, the effect is even more pronounced. People — even ordinary, good people — often change their behavior in radical ways. There’s even a term for it: the online disinhibition effect.
Read Online, Anonymity Breeds Contempt in the NYT.
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December 1st, 2010 at 09:50
Just want to say that that line is one of my favorites in The Fellowship of the Ring, especially as uttered by Sean Bean. I have been watching that movie for three Sundays now because my four-year old nephew is just so obsessed with it. Thanks for sharing the NYT article. There really are a lot of trolls out there and you’d be surprised to discover that some of them are people you’d never expect to have trollish behavior. Plus, I didn’t know that Tolkien was referencing Plato with the One Ring!
December 1st, 2010 at 11:58
The troll situation used to be particularly bad in a couple of online groups that I administer. (“Troll” is too benign and is an insult to real trolls; they’re more like “online terrorists” a la Osama and his gang.)
It only improved when we managed to unmask the terrorists and reveal their real identities — who were in fact regular named group members in hypocritically good standing.
Today these groups have a much lower tolerance for anonymity; we no longer admit new members without sufficient real-world identification. And the terrorists have been shut out for good.