User blog:Edwin Shade/How To Deal With Trolls

Seeing as there was a recent incident involving a vandal, and many more like it in the past, it begs the question: "What it is to be done with people who repeatedly mess up the Wiki ?"

I like to solve problems, so this naturally appeals to me, because it is a difficult one. Banning a person like Superman38791 and their numerous sock puppet accounts suffices to halt the vandalism momentarily, but in a few weeks they'll just come back and pose trouble again, more or less forcing an admin to block them indefinitely. It is crucial that we work out a way to prevent trolls from ruining the website not only by vandalism, but by also causing members to become suspicious of new users, and sparking conflict between members.

For instance, on Unknown95387's talk page an individual who had been on this Wiki ever since it's creation accused Unknown95387 of being an account by Superman38791 just because their names bore an extremely vague resemblance, which can be said of many names on this Wiki which are not affiliated with trolls, (e.g. Rpakr and Rgetar).

There are differing opinions on how to deal with trolls, but the most marked of these differing opinions are those of Cloudy176 and PsiCubed2; whose interactions are honestly quite strained at this point. Cloudy176's approach to vandalism and trolling is to merely revert some of the edits that were made, and the seemingly relaxed attitude towards people who ruin the Wiki is what has PsiCubed2 so upset, as shown in the below comment.

The thing that does  drive me crazy, is that nobody else seems to care. Cloudy treats these offenses as if they are some big amusing joke... But it isn't funny at all, when a discussion I've opened is suddenly spammed with 100 irrelevant posts. No, Cloudy, the proper response to this kind of behavior is not to tell a joke about it on your talk page. The proper response is to delete the offending posts (and after you actually do your f***-ing job, feel free to crack up any jokes you wish).PsiCubed2(talk) 20:22, August 24, 2017 (UTC)

Before telling what I feel should take place, I will instead offer a possible explanation to why Cloudy176 might appear "relaxed" in his treatment of trolls, so that PsiCubed2 can perhaps reconcile with Cloudy, and vice versa.

On Cloudy's profile status, in the category My Occupation Is, he wrote "Undergraduate, and experiencing technical difficulties again". As someone who is an undergraduate, it is likely Cloudy must put in long nights with homework, and this may cause him to put off visiting the Wiki for a while. When he does come on the Wiki, why would he contribute to any of the stress he may have by bothering to get upset over an internet troll ? The short answer is, he wouldn't, and therefore he calmly reverts some of their edits and then goes his way. By telling jokes about the incident he deals with it in his own way, and is not necessarily making light of it at the expense of others. It is within his personality to crack jokes, (it is in the personality of every computer programmer it seems).

Up until now it may seem like I have said this all in defense of Cloudy176, but as an outside observer, I recognize PsiCubed2 is also in the right. PsiCubed2 feels that when people are allowed to have their content remain on the Wiki and are not given firm dealings, they might believe the Wiki is an acceptable target, and that the admin's actually approve of it ! I can understand why PsiCubed2 would feel that way, and to an extent, I agree with him - I believe offensive blog posts should be deleted, and that if Cloudy wants to archive them then delete them, that is fine, just as long as they are gone from the main space.

PsiCubed2 may also want to carry on serious conversations with people about mathematics, and therefore feel a more relaxed atmosphere towards people who have no serious regard for mathematics or who want to learn is contributing to the trolling epidemic. Cloudy in turn should be aware of PsiCubed2's opinion and others when making decisions, and sincerely acknowledge that he may not be in the majority when it comes to certain methods of dealing with vandals.

My main intention though is not to become a follower of either one of these two individuals, but to develop an amalgam solution that will hopefully satisfy both of their wishes while offering a new solution to this problem. The solution is as follows.

Certain users, such as Sbiis Saibian and Username5243, appear to have just nominative titles on their profile page, ("Over 9000 Googolisms" and "Tireless Contributor" respectively for those particular examples), which appear not to affect their level of responsibility, but are there to commend them in some way for what they have done. I propose we adopt a similar standard for individuals in this Wiki who have been here long enough to demonstrate that they want to seriously help and contribute something of worth, (around four to six weeks should be sufficient), and that the nominative title "Verified" or "Helper" be added to their profile page. I also propose we nominate individuals who excel in certain areas for those categories, so that at the end of the year, a list can be published of people who have made significant contributions to this-and-such portion of Googological research. I will in fact publish such a list at the end of this year, honoring those like Deedlit11 who have been especially helpful. I know this idea has been tried in the forums for nominative those who write good blog posts, but if it were extended it could encompass more people.

Now granted, trolls will always be able to do something if they are determined enough, but by bring the community together it will be truly be more difficult for them to really disturb anyone, because the attention will be shifted away from dealing with them, and more to drawing closer as a group of people who just want to do math. This doesn't mean I feel a free-for-all approach should be taken, no, I believe it is necessary to be strict when someone goes against Wiki policy and isn't apologetic, however, it should not consume people to the point where they are fighting against each other and insults are being thrown around.

Please leave comments to this post if you agree with my proposals, or if you feel there is a better way or different way of going about things. I'm open to all suggestions and appreciate them.