Civility on the internet (and in life)
I heard a speaker on the radio this morning talking about how, thousands of years ago when mankind lived in small clans, each person knew (and was probably related to) every person they ran across each day.
As a result, greetings were friendly, conversations were civil and constructive. You knew you would have to deal with that person again the next day.
In large part, according to the speaker, that tendency learned thousands of years ago has carried through to the present. We’re still socialized to be pleasant when we greet people and polite and friendly in our conversations.
Somehow, too much of that has been lost in the emerging culture of the internet. From the beginning of internet discussion groups, message boards, chat rooms, forums, blogs, etc., the culture has encouraged anonymity. While hiding behind pseudo names, people seem to think that rude and obnoxious behavior is okay.
One of our bloggers, the LunaPierCook, noted in a post yesterday that well-known blogger and technology expert Kathy Sierra has halted her blog because of death threats and other nasty attacks targeted at her.
You can follow the links from the LunaPierCook’s post to get the details. But be prepared for some disgusting stuff. Lack of civility is one thing; threats to do harm, especially when mixed with sexual undertones, are quite another.
The discussion on our own forums at monroenews.com also get personal at times, and we often discuss whether we should step in and either monitor the forums more closely or ban people when they get nasty.
We don’t want to do that; as soon as we start deleting posts we’ll be accused of censorship, and we genuinely want an open discussion, free to anyone.
I just wish people could behave as if they were members of a small clan - albeit an online clan - and treat people with a little more civility.
Disagreement is great - that’s what opinion forums are for. But getting personal - attacking the speaker instead of responding to the opinion - shouldn’t ever be necessary.
And real threats like the kind experienced by Kathy Sierra have no place in our society, whether online or not.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:04 am
BBC News reported yesterday on the possibility of a “code of conduct” for bloggers. However, as you say, this happens in other areas of the internet as well. As Kathy Sierra hersefl is quoted as saying in the BBC article, “‘There is an unwritten rule in the blogosphere that it is wrong to delete nasty comments. It suggests that you can’t take criticism but now there is a sense that this is nonsense’”. This has always been nonsense, but too many would rather not stand up for what’s right.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
When I was a student at the University of Michigan, there was a student who lived in my dorm who posted internet rape fantasies about another student. I used to see him all the time in the computing center.
So, it was quite something when he ended up on the front page of the New York Times. I believe that he was expelled from school and criminal charges were filed. This was in the 1997-99 time range. I don’t know the final disposition of his case. But there are real-world courses of action that are possible.
I used to have a friend in Monroe who would write down the license plate numbers of people who were speeding down her street. She would turn the pages in to the police periodically.
Maybe the internet could develop a volunteer group of “police” who would monitor certain things and alert the authorities? We could have a Monroe internet ombudsman or something.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:54 am
Well, I’m back to blogging again. And of course, I’m keeping a particular can of worms open. Foie gras, anyone?
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I can’t wait to see whether our resident Foie gras oppponent has a response.
April 9th, 2007 at 10:20 am
I would read with interest the different barbs people toss back and forth on blogs, and also on our forums. Until it happened to me.
I posted a forum topic on the pet food recall and within two hours got this response from aprilrain:
“what is WRONG with you? WHY is it a big deal? Because thousands of animals are either PERMANENTLY ill and or DEAD. That sounds like a “pretty big deal” to me.”
Have to admit it made me bristle a little - even with my thickened reporter skin. I don’t think I would have gotten the same kind of response in person.