Musings on the Signal to Asshat Ratio While Traversing the Intertubes.
There are a myriad of things about the Internets that warm the cockles of my geeky little heart. One is the inherently collaborative nature of the whole thing. Hell, it’s what the whole Web 2.0 business model is based on (and yes, that term drives me nuts too). Unfortunately, this is also one of the things i absolutely HATE about the current state of the web. While the whole instant feedback/conversation thing has been around pretty much since the web’s inception, it’s something that I haven’t really followed for very long. I’ve got ZERO Usenet cred.
I guess my first experience with reader feedback started when I began following a few comic book news sites/forums a couple of years ago. While a particular story or press release might have only seemed slightly interesting to me, the conversation from the users that followed was almost always just as compelling, if not more so. And then a funny thing happened. It wasn’t a sudden thing, it just kinda crept up slowly. It started with nearly every new story having the first few responses simply say “First Post!” or “*** creator sucks!!”. Eventually I discovered I was much happier just ignoring the comments altogether. Nearly every other site I’ve frequented has reached this point for me at some point. For Digg, it was last week.
When I first started reading Digg on a regular basis, it did have casual dipshitery to deal with. Constant cries of “Dupe!!” drove me up the wall, but could (for the most part) be ignored. I’ve consistently learned more from the comments on any given story than anything from RTFA . When they implemented the user administered commenting system, i was elated. It pretty much took care of those minor annoyances and let me get to the good stuff. Alas, not any more. I think the site has finally reached a critical mass in which any amount of decent, well thought out discussion has been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of idiots. While the comment moderating might block the most offensive comments, it doesn’t prevent the whole train of discussion from coming of the tracks. It only takes one ignorant, racist comment on a Barack Obama story to plunge the whole conversation into a flame war that has nothing to do with what the actual article was about. And as tremendously satisfying as it may be to hit that “block user” button, it still feels like slapping a band-aid on a severed limb.
What’s the solution? I really have no idea. Maybe a more active “official” moderator in addition to the user-policed system. Maybe, like in the happy-fun-fairy-land-that-only-exists-in-my-head, if people would just take a few moments to think about what they are about to type we’d all be a lot happier. Oh, and maybe some actual accountability for what is said,that’d be nice too.
All that being said, I, myself, am necessarily helping to add to the intelligent discourse on any of the sites I frequent. I’m a bit of a serial lurker but when I do get around to adding my voice to the conversation I make damn well sure I’ve got something to actually add. And maybe that’s the problem, it’s just too easy to drop in a quick “u rteh sux 0r” and be on your merry way… or maybe I’m just getting old. And even though it can be exhausting, I still believe the conversation to be incredibly vital and I think I speak for everyone here at SilentTalkie when I say we want to hear what you all have to say, just make sure it’s something worth saying.
