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November 2009 
Note to a Friend Re: Disruptive Elements in Internet Communities
Posted on Sep 26th, 2008
by 
The Poetic Terrorist
The Poetic Terrorist
I know the internet all too well, I've participated in discussions/forums/message boards for a long, long time and there are always these kind of 'archetypal' members that show up. There's really no way to avoid it unless you surrender the notions of democratic moderation and some other meaningless ideals.
The prime importance is to clear up line noise. This is typically SPAM, which is automated, but in the earlier days, spam could quickly destroy a community. Now you get more sophisticated forms of disruption, one of which are folk like Amber who become obsessive and possessive of a community and as hypocritical as can be. They try to seize control of the community because they are obsessed with their own image and their own 'powers of logic', which are really only disguised powers of manipulation and petty politics.
They will troll old posts, argue on irrelevant points and become very 'verbose', believing that the more they say, the more 'territory' they control in the virtual community. They see that their posts and contributions add up, and interpret the sheer volume of such 'contributions' as proof of their importance and vitality in the community, when in fact they are just derailing the flow of the conversation.
They are meanwhile discouraging others from contributing who are there to collaborate rather than argue, and are quite adept at drawing people into argument. Once this happens, they are 'winning' while the community suffers... they have the attention they lust after, and hold onto it so long as they are not methodically ignored or banned from the community.
When finally they are vanquished, they pervert the facts of what happened (in this case, how convenient that there is no record left to prove the accusor 'right' or 'wrong') and might even post something slanderous up so that the moderator's 'name' and reputation are brought into public question.
A particularly malicious and unenlightened act in this case, as Amber must know that you are attempting to publish. Being the compassionate, ego-free enlightened being she claims to be, I see no reason why she should not be ashamed of her actions. But, everyone has the right to open their mouths and make an ass of themselves. It's part of our culture.
One mustn't react to this by removing oneself though. Form a new blog and continue writing. Continue to work on the projects and writing you love. Put more of your stuff up on the net, so that snitty little denunciations do not show up on the first page of Google.
This 'post' posing as an Open Letter is unscrupulous, and is just another attempt to bait further conflict and argument. As an objective outsider I denounce this act and urge Amber to reform her ways. For her OWN sake, most of all, as anyone with a certain degree of wisdom and awareness can see through the fallacies and contradictions of her statement here, with very little frame of reference.
As an aside, its an extra step, but when you are administering a community or running a blog, always back up everything you write, as it might be useful to you at some point in the future, in a seemingly unrelated effort. You may or may not already do this!
James Lord Bard
The prime importance is to clear up line noise. This is typically SPAM, which is automated, but in the earlier days, spam could quickly destroy a community. Now you get more sophisticated forms of disruption, one of which are folk like Amber who become obsessive and possessive of a community and as hypocritical as can be. They try to seize control of the community because they are obsessed with their own image and their own 'powers of logic', which are really only disguised powers of manipulation and petty politics.
They will troll old posts, argue on irrelevant points and become very 'verbose', believing that the more they say, the more 'territory' they control in the virtual community. They see that their posts and contributions add up, and interpret the sheer volume of such 'contributions' as proof of their importance and vitality in the community, when in fact they are just derailing the flow of the conversation.
They are meanwhile discouraging others from contributing who are there to collaborate rather than argue, and are quite adept at drawing people into argument. Once this happens, they are 'winning' while the community suffers... they have the attention they lust after, and hold onto it so long as they are not methodically ignored or banned from the community.
When finally they are vanquished, they pervert the facts of what happened (in this case, how convenient that there is no record left to prove the accusor 'right' or 'wrong') and might even post something slanderous up so that the moderator's 'name' and reputation are brought into public question.
A particularly malicious and unenlightened act in this case, as Amber must know that you are attempting to publish. Being the compassionate, ego-free enlightened being she claims to be, I see no reason why she should not be ashamed of her actions. But, everyone has the right to open their mouths and make an ass of themselves. It's part of our culture.
One mustn't react to this by removing oneself though. Form a new blog and continue writing. Continue to work on the projects and writing you love. Put more of your stuff up on the net, so that snitty little denunciations do not show up on the first page of Google.
This 'post' posing as an Open Letter is unscrupulous, and is just another attempt to bait further conflict and argument. As an objective outsider I denounce this act and urge Amber to reform her ways. For her OWN sake, most of all, as anyone with a certain degree of wisdom and awareness can see through the fallacies and contradictions of her statement here, with very little frame of reference.
As an aside, its an extra step, but when you are administering a community or running a blog, always back up everything you write, as it might be useful to you at some point in the future, in a seemingly unrelated effort. You may or may not already do this!
James Lord Bard
Access: Public
