Q: Have you ever experienced online bullying or harassment? If so, explain what you did to resolve the problem. If not, what will you do if this happens in your community?
A: While certainly not intensely vicious, these are the trolls hanging on my troll hall of fame currently…
Inshallah, I’ll add to that wall in the near future as I’m as unphased by this sort of language as I am sure that haters are going to hate.
It’s not bullying or harassment but it’s certainly not complimentary language. What I did is ignore it. We did not think to get rid of the comments section of our articles because despite this sort of garbage, there was a mildly worthwhile conversation happening.
Q: What are some innovative ways that you’ve seen news organizations deal with comments so that readers are protected from harassment while still being encouraged to participate in community conversations?
A: I’m actually not as familiar with the tools to reform comments as I am with the general discussion about them. This post helped inform me in that regard.
I still run into the question of how to distribute the conversations much in the way that content is distributed. Can we have a conversation on a variety of social platforms and have them appear under the article and vice versa? For example, a comment I post to Reddit appears on the article page and a user replies to my comment on the article page and it appears under my comment on Reddit.
Q: How do you plan to encourage healthy conversation in your community?
A: Productive conversation is important in my community. Lamentations do not normally drive change. There is also the matter of how deeply to engage in driving discussions in our communities, right? Should the discussions flow naturally and — sometimes — into unpleasant diatribes against institutions or be facilitated away from that by an individual? Does that make the discussion natural?
In this regard, I’ve thought about how exactly to maintain the brotherhood and sisterhood of the student debt community when it comes to student debt holders who carry the same burdens but have higher incomes. This is the greatest tension I’ve found that might lead to conflict and disparagement.
The idea was that we, as high school students, took out student loans to pay for college because we were being offered a deal: sign on the dotted line to be given a spot in the middle class and be economically secure. That deal is not working out for many student debt holders but it is for some. Do those with student debt but making six figures have the right to complain like those living paycheck to paycheck?
I think that they do for several reasons…
a) Targeting someone for success that is, in many ways, randomly given is ignorant. It will lead to hostility that will lead to…
b)…a splintering of the movement. Hostility between individuals in a movement are egotistical and not about the greater cause but the individual ego. It must be prevented at all costs.
So, does that mean someone needs to facilitate productive dialogue? I think so. That’s why the Coral Project exists. They’re trying to be facilitators through technology.
