[iDC] Internet Tough Guys
Andreas Schiffler
aschiffler at ferzkopp.net
Sun May 20 11:56:57 EDT 2007
Edward Cherlin wrote:
> The principle long known on Usenet is simply, "Please do not feed the
> troll."
So true. Let me mention the 'cancelbot' debate on Usenet a while ago
(http://www.skypoint.com/members/gimonca/usewar.html):
"... While Scientology's reputation on the Net among anyone but
true-believers has pretty much turned to mud, the people who have
worked to defend Usenet's integrity find themselves caught in a
bind--how can you criticize cultists for issuing forged cancels when
you might be using the technique yourself? One answer may be to
define the question as a free speech issue: you cancel people who
are posting noise and trying to drown out discussion, you don't
cancel people who are expressing themselves. This point of view
still doesn't solve the moral dilemma, after all, one man's signal
is another man's noise. The question remains open; meanwhile, the
Scientology cancelbot wars continue. ..."
This may be not relevant anymore, as one can presume that Usenet is
hardly 'used on the net'. Is anyone on this list still plugged into
Usenet? As some claim, Usenet is not dead yet and point to the 'quality'
of this medium ("The End of Usenet", 2005: http://lwn.net/Articles/161395/).
In any case, common 'Troll' solutions always seems to converge to some
form of 'cancelbot', list moderation, or the 'benevolent dictator' forum
admin. In some sense such an intervention is OK for the users of the
medium since it increases SNR (signal to noise ratio). But it comes at
the expense of some technical and human effort and of course the
aforementioned moral dilemma.
But contrary to the general wisdom of "do not feed the troll", I suggest
to make the following thought experiment:
What if we'd allow trolling to happen unchecked? Or at the Internet
level, what if we would just turn off the guards on our servers, disable
the firewalls, allow the trojans in, let the 'tough guys' do their thing
and explore the limitless exploitation of our resources. I bet the
system would evolve to become more 'fit' at all levels (technically and
socially) ... at the expense of some inconveniences while the system
adjusts ... in a much more natural way as the current state of progress
(FUD driven user reactions, security through regulation and central
control, tech investments that essentially maintain the status-quo).
Certainly the limiting nature of todays asymmetric Internet broad-band
connectivity (i.e. upload speeds that are only fractions of download
speeds) would become immediately apparent (i.e. imagine a horde of
trojans that 'suck up' the little upload bandwidth we have to begin with).
--Andreas
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