Will Steemit's New 'Smart Media Tokens' Mark The End For Comment Trolls?
When I first realised, long ago, that the Internet would be a way for the entire world to communicate without the boundaries of 3D space getting in the way - I had optimistic visions of a shared unity and bond being formed quite quickly.. But then, well.. the comment trolls appeared and so.. that's why we can't have nice things on the internet.
Trolling is simply a name given to a variety of behaviours on social/community websites that are anti-social, abusive and downright irritating - usually the troll is deliberately attempting to annoy or maybe they just can't stop themselves due to their own limited consciousness and lack of awareness/balance and self respect.
From government/military/corporate organised, paid, tactical troll teams - through to pissed off teenagers, it seems there's a troll available for every occasion.. Looking to launch a new charity to raise funds for orphans? There's a troll ready for that - or how about sharing of a plan to create world peace? Oh, look - trolls are calling you a loser and wishing you'd die of cancer!
Steemit has made a remarkable difference to this though; maybe it's partially that Steemit's currently largely unknown status means that the trolls haven't yet joined up and launched an all-out assault -but I think there's more to the situation. Perhaps the more likely answer is that the promise of money, combined with Steemit's reputation system, have rendered the trolls somewhat toothless - their minor motivation for wasting everyone's time has been replaced by their need for money and so they are now going to 'play nicely' to avoid downvotes and losing out.
Whatever the reasons, trolling on Steemit appears to me to be almost non existent - which is pretty unusual for such a site and is surely a strong selling point of the platform.
Smart Media Tokens (SMTs) Could help bring some balance to social interactions!
Besides the obvious benefits of being paid for participating in online interactions, integrating STEEM into an existing website/community, could result in a secondary and powerful benefit - that of detoxifying the comment sections! Unfortunately, I could not see any mention of Steemit's reputation system in the SMT whitepaper released yesterday - however, I think it would be a definite benefit to make sure that any SMTs that are created for third party websites can also benefit from the reputation system too.
Even without the reputation system though, the mere fact of being able to downvote trolls and upvote non-trolls appears to be enough to eliminate the vast majority of time wasting and toxic comments! Quite an achievement!
Could it be that once SMTs and similar ideas become the new 'normal' for social websites, that we will finally be able to have constructive conversations on important topics without facing absurd ridicule that derails topics and entire communities? It would truly be a great thing to behold!
I'd love to hear any comments and input you might have on this topic - let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
Buy My T-Shirts, Gifts & Other Clothing Here.
To be honest, @ura-soul, I'll have to hold my opinion to see how this works. In theory, it could stop members of the Kekistani community from shit-posting just to piss people off.
Then again, I have this theory that trolls only exist to make social justice warriors look like fools.
Like you, I would love to live in a world of debate, instead of name calling.
Will the reputation system stop them? I don't know, but I do know that flagging should be able to stop them, or at least hide them.
Hope springs eternal, ya know....
Perhaps you weren't there prior to the emergence of Kekistan, but there was a time when unparalleled debate and novel thought emerged.
I deeply miss those interactions, and the incalculable value of original thought, unrestrained by PC considerations, and extended by the spontaneous eruption of sharply pointed memes.
Summer came, and the trolls invaded with the entire weight of terrorism at their back.
Like Mordor, it's a grim reminder of what too little respect and devotion to true freedom can become.
Let's hope Steemit doesn't follow that path.
Also, the promise of filthy lucre helps.
Edit: also, SJWs need no assistance to look like fools.
Trolls have many forms and agendas - I have posted previously a fairly exhaustive list of tactics used by professional trolls to specifically target political opponents and pretty much deliberately ruin their life and career. If you really look through the documents leaked by Edward Snowden and via Wikileaks you will see that the governments basically have large scale professional troll teams for .. reasons..
These are the biggest problem online as they actually effect life and death issues - whereas the shit posters just annoy and waste mental and network bandwidth!
That is very true, the governments have professional "Trolls", but since it's government, would they rightly be called "Propagandists"?
Just food for thought.
It might be fair to say that it is propaganda to upgrade government trolls to the title of 'propagandist' ;)
I imagine there is a mix of all of it going on - it's probably quite cheap to hire low IQ trolls just to annoy certain groups - or maybe there is a particularly angry AI supercomputer that has developed some kind of quantum troll capacity.. Let's hope it doesn't figure out how to hack into the nuclear codes! lol and not lol.
I absolutely LOVE the lack of trolls on Steemit! I have blocked probably at least 200 trolls from my big account on Instagram. If you post controversial stuff, the trolls will find you on there. And you can’t flag them away on there like you can here on Steemit! Love it!
I can imagine, yes - I have over 100 blocked on Facebook without much trouble. I have gotten to the point where I just leave groups if there isn't a solid anti-troll intention from the admins as it's just a waste of time being there.
My own social network has zero trolling too, which is partially due to my adminning, but mainly because of the intention of the site. A troll requires space to be opened for them and so, we just don't open it!
That’s so cool I’ll have to check out your site also (: How many users and when did you start it? I’m intrigued.
Great, ok - you are welcome! There are several hundred registered users but active user levels are low for several reasons - mostly, I think, because people are so invested in using the mega sites that they don't like to move elsewhere. Since I built the entire social network myself (using open source code) and there is only me working on it - the traffic levels tend to reflect my own level of engagement on other networks... So as I make posts and share them on social networks, the traffic goes up and new members join - but when I stop, the traffic drops off. Google effectively delisted the site for several years and that is a long story, but I post controversial material there and they typically don't like that much. I also have zero advertising budget.
I started working on the early version of the site about 10 years ago - but during that time I have had to put a lot of time into caring for my elderly parents and also healing myself following a near fatal car crash.. All of that has slowed me down a lot. Despite all the challenges, I still think that it will get a lot bigger once I put the finishing touches into it and make moves to build it up a bit.
Well that all sounds really interesting man. I’ll sign up soon and show it to others (: Wishing all of us the best in the future and anything spreading conscious awareness is an A+ in my book! ❤️
Let's hope so! The absence of trolls and advertisements is one of the main reason I'm staying with steemit! The fact that you can get paid is just an added bonus. Great post!
Thanks! Yes, we shall see.
Exactly right; and it works from the other end too. The morale boost I get from dropping a dollar on some struggling artist isn't wearing off.
The benefits are many, yes :)
True - I noticed this too right from the get-go. Steemit encourages 'good behaviour' and decent human etiquette, either filtering out the trolls or maybe even turning them into more palatable netizens.
God knows this comment would have a lurking goblin ready to pounce if I'd written it elsewhere ;)
Baby steps - this is the 12 step program for recovering trolls, after all! ;)
haha - 1. We admitted we were powerless over our trollism :)
I have direct personal knowledge of trolls becoming 'good citizens' because of Steemit's potential to produce rewards.
'tis a beautiful thing to see!
Agreed! Funny how a little transparency in a voluntary social setting inspires positive change ;)
I honestly feel that this is a good thing. Trolls are a nuisance that needs to be purged from the internet. period. Trolls are a waste of resources and a waste of information that is, in most cases, disinformation that is being used in a weaponized format to confuse people trying to learn true and valuable information so that they can advance and expand their knowledge.
I have upvoted this post due to the subject and the fact that I have had one troll comment on a single post on here of mine, and I just had to downvote him and move on.
Here is my most recent post if you are interested.
https://steemit.com/divination/@ladyreijya/daily-tarot-influence-for-09-30-2017
Obviously there are less trolls when there is money involved. But on the other hand it creates for more butt kissers. I really think it depends on how it's implemented and what kind of site it is, to be effective.
Great post! ;)
thanks for sharing
You are welcome!
As a proud Kekistani, I always look to the heavens for an even more robust community to share my opinions. Remember we as humans can't all believe in progressive ideals that rid the planet of opposition viewpoints. I'm holding my pen steady until the final implementation of the SMT is fully brought forth. Until then, #DeusVult...
Trolling is a necessary part of vibrancy Ura. Half of the fun of the You Tube comment section is reading nutty troll comments and writing "don't feed the Troll" so that you do feed the Troll.
Vibrancy requires balance and wisdom to be maintained ;)
Where I was raised, if people publicly behaved like some of the commenters do on Youtube, they'd get a broken nose (at best) pretty rapidly.. Now I don't advocate violence, but I do advocate peace and trolls don't do peace - so they've got to go.
Go placidly amidst the Trolls and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence...