I made the mistake of looking at the comments on a YouTube video (WHY? WHY DO PEOPLE DELIBERATELY HAVE THOSE INTERACTIONS WITH EACH OTHER??), but saw something surprising. Someone made a remark, and someone else responded in a way that was quite condescending, “explaining” why the person was wrong and beginning with “Actually…” But then the first person replied to that in a very gracious way, saying she completely agreed and had just expressed herself poorly. To which the second person replied saying he was sorry he had misunderstood. And then several more people made remarks along the lines of “A civil conversation in the YouTube comments??? Is this one of the four horsemen??”
Here is what I was wondering: I wonder if it would work to SEED a comments section with FAKE civil exchanges, in order to steer the tone. I don’t mean “Would it be worth the time and effort?,” because probably not. But I mean COULD it be done? Would it WORK?
I notice, as others have pointed out, that the comments sections on this blog tend to be extremely civil/kind/friendly. I’ve wondered if they are civil because they are civil, if you see what I mean: if someone would feel weird and out of place being rude, since everyone else is being kind. Whereas in a rude, mean, unkind comment section, people feel free to jump right on in and add their proud contribution to the world.
So if someone was having trouble with rude comments, I’m wondering if it might work to put in some fake civil ones. Perhaps put a civil/kind disagreement near the top. If it were worth the effort, I wonder would it WORK? (NOT THAT I DO THAT HERE. AHEM.)
This could be an interesting experiment! Wonder if anyone has done it in the academic world — off to skim the university databases! :)
I think it would work. I’ve noticed that when a troll leaves a comment and people just ignore it, the civil conversation just rolls right on.
I think it would work on a small scale if the tone had not already been set, but on large sites with huge numbers of comments (youtube, huffpo), I think people are already USED to leaving snarky/mean comments, so I wonder if it would work. You’d have to do it A LOT, and over MANY posts. Whereas somewhere like this site, the CULTURE is of respectful commenting, so if things got out of hand, you might just need to seed that post, as opposed to all posts over the site.
“..proud contribution to the world” made me LOL. You’re the BEST, Swistle.
I enjoyed that line too.
That’s an interesting theory. I’d like to think it would work. Generally, I stay away from comments sections on sites (except for blogging sites) because it pains me to see so many people behaving so badly.
I like this idea. Also IT’S SNOWING ON YOUR BLOG :) Festive!
Maybe, but in wide open spaces like that I think it would be overwhelmed by the “usual” awfulness. I think part of the reason why “private” blogs have fewer issues with awful commentors is that one had to be searching for a specific topic or question that lead them to the site; whereas, on places like youtube or any of the major sites, they randomly show you other things you might be interested in that can lead people to things they wouldn’t necessarily have sought out and then they decide to be awful instead of moving on. I think people are less inclined to randomly search for things to mock or be hateful towards, but when sites make it easy to happen upon random other things, then they don’t take that extra second to think about if they should just step away instead of being awful.
I also think it has to do with the culture of the forum though. Usually youtube is sort of a grab bag of society meaning there are a lot of trolls. I find some channels better than others- the vlogbrothers usually have an okay comments section.
I think it depends on the blog/website. That kind of gentle exchange is probably never going to happen again on YouTube, regardless of seeding, but on, say, The AV Club it is a definite possibility. An interesting idea…I sense a thesis waiting to happen!
I don’t understand why moderators of reputable websites (especially news-related ones) do not take the trouble to censor rude comments. Really, people, it’s not an unsolvable problem, right? If someone were to post a rude comment on my blog, it would be deleted. I hate the way HuffPost and the Washington Post do not bother to moderate the comments. It’s almost as if they want to foster uncivil discourse.
It’s an interesting idea, and I do think the idea of peer pressure holds weight.
However, like others have mentioned, civility is more likely when that type of culture has been fostered on the site or blog. You’re far too humble to say so, but blog writers/owners play a big part and you’ve done a great job setting that tone. I always know I’ll come here and find the most interesting, helpful and thoughtful comments, mainly because you generate interesting, helpful and thoughtful posts to get us started.
When Linda at All & Sundry (currently down it appears) was writing for a website with rude commenters, a few followed her back to her blog and tried to stir up nastiness, but they were fiercely squelched by her regular readers and she eventually stopped writing at the other site and most of the trolliness just petered out, even when her entries are a bit contentious. I’ve seen the same wave of defense rise up in Julia’s site, Here Be Hippogriffs (she has great commenters in general there, by the way; it’s a shame her entries have been posted less and less often these days) when she had the odd person be unkind. It really does seem to be a blog culture thing.
Can we change the culture of a blog? I think the critical mass might be hard to reach on a site like youtube, but it would be nice if it were possible.
I am available for pleasant commenting services, if anyone is hiring.
Just chiming in to say that I literally wondered for a split second if I was stroking out because I kept seeing little white flashy like strobes on the screen before I realized IT WAS SNOWING ON YOUR BLOG!! Ha ha!! Merry Christmas!
I think that’s an EXCELLENT idea! I love it.