We need a better class of right wing troll

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, January 17th, 2024 - 11 comments
Categories: admin - Tags: , , ,

Unsurprisingly this week, we’ve had an influx of contenders to be a RWNJ, running anti-leftist and pro-reactionary lines. Also unsurprisingly, the mod workload increased substantially. I just spent an hour sorting through various aspects of moderation, most of it related to the current political controversy.

Regardless of your political persuasion, if you are new to TS and want to comment (or even if you’ve been commenting a while), a few things to understand,

  • Read the site Policy (top of every page). Like most places in the internet, The Standard has a specific purpose, and standards and boundaries to meet and maintain that. Our purpose here is to write posts aligned with the labour movement, and to enable robust debate. Robust debate has boundaries, you can read about them in the Policy.
  • We are under no obligation to let people comment here, commenting is a privilege.
  • Don’t make claims of fact, or reckons, that are defamatory. Such comments put the site owners at legal risk. We ban people for doing that. If you are unsure if your comment is defamatory, err on the side of caution.
  • That’s the first rule of commenting. The second is don’t waste moderator time. Read why here.
  • We expect comments to bring a certain level of political analysis and debate to the table. Reading posts and other people’s comments will give you an idea of what the culture is here. We are not FB/Twitter, so unsubstantiated reckons will get moderator attention fast. As will flaming and trolling.
  • The moderators tightened up on commenting last year because of the election, handing out long bans for repeat offenders to clear the decks so the rest of us could get on with enjoying serious and meaningful debate. My inclination is to continue doing this, because while it might lessen the number of commenters/comments, the nature of the debate improves. It also lessens mod workload. The other mods can comment if they want, but I think it’s fair to say we’re sick of the amount of time moderation is taking. Read this.
  • To understand moderation, read this as well. One day I’ll compile it all into some tl;dr bullet points, but in the meantime, the posts tagged moderation are all here.
  • The sysop, authors and moderators all work hard here, for free. Respecting that goes a long way.

In case anyone is stupid enough to take the title of this post literally and try and be a clever troll, the title was a bit of internet fun. It’s also a test to see if you read the post.

What we really need here is a better class of right wing commenter. We have some, which provides important political insight and stops us being an echo chamber. If you are new and RW, read the right wing commenters to get a sense of how they manage to comment on The Standard.

11 comments on “We need a better class of right wing troll ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Robert Guyton 1
    17 January 2024 at 10:21 am

    May I ask, what do you do where a commenter changes their "handle"?

    It seems some trolls change their clothes and return to the scene. If the moderators know, because they can see the contact address, do they extinguish that handle, or let it through?

    • weka 1.1
      17 January 2024 at 10:30 am

      we pretty much always expect people to use a single, consistent handle. If someone changes their handle midstream, it will generally get picked up and they will be asked to choose one and stick to it or to use the one they have previously used on their next comment.

      Using sockpuppet accounts or creating a new account to skirt a ban will result in a ban.

      Sometimes people have legitimate reasons for changing their handle, either they forgot it because they haven't commented in a long time, or they've realised the implications of commenting publicly on politics. Depends on which mod sees this in terms of how it is handled, but I will ask people to choose the one they want and then stick to it.

    • lprent 1.2
      17 January 2024 at 11:22 am

      All changes to a handle require a moderator to approve and release at least one comment before they can post without a human check.

      If the comment doesn't look like it fits within the sites general policies for robust debate, then it gets sent to trash. Moderators can read trash and all previous comments. So we can be aware of previous attempts.

      Basically most comments that manage to make it past the spam filters and wind up in moderation are from either handle or 'email' changes, inadvertent or otherwise. Which is why moderators always sound somewhat irritable when commentators mistype them or their cookies do it for them. A smaller portion are from people on bans.

      That means that all activity from 'new' handles pass under the eye of a human whose first question is "is this an idiot who is too stupid or too lazy to construct a coherent argument". There is, after all, a reason why on the internet trolls are called trolls. Because they usually cannot do something as inherently human as that.

      Wanting to construct a argument to convince others, in my view, seems to be the main reason for humanity. Watch any child who has language and would really really like to have or do something.

      Their logic and diction may be childish, but they construct arguments that are really tailored to convincing their audience (typically parents) to change their mind.

      Most internet trolls fail that basic test of humanity.

  2. Robert Guyton 2
    17 January 2024 at 10:44 am

    Thanks. Most "return-under-a-new-names" get outed pretty quick – style is hard to hide. There's an app that reveals attempts to assume a new face, and some people have a good "ear" for voice, even when it's text.

  3. Grey Area 3
    17 January 2024 at 11:14 am

    Thanks for the mahi, Weka. And thank you to the other mods. From what I see, the mods here do a good job.

    The Daily Blog is currently awash with trolls. So much so that I mostly don't bother reading the comments. Not so here where I often learn something, gain new perspectives, get useful links, or am challenged by commenters' views.

  4. Gosman 4
    17 January 2024 at 2:15 pm

    I must admit I am quite chuffed to have a rule named after me even though the reason I got the rule named after me was perversely almost the opposite of what the rule is about.

  5. SPC 5
    17 January 2024 at 2:27 pm

    Definition of someone of the right wing troll farm – and all to often given access to MSM.

    Those who conflate anti-Zionism with anti-semitism while practicing the same politics as the Zionists concerned – one rule for the cccupying (landlord government axis) and another for the oppressed.

    https://plainsight.nz/and-just-like-that-golriz-ghahraman-is-gone/

  6. Mike the Lefty 6
    17 January 2024 at 5:48 pm

    Is is even possible to get a better class of what is the lowest form of political life on the planet?

  7. tsmithfield 7
    17 January 2024 at 10:55 pm

    I don't really see the point in trolling. It doesn't achieve anything other than just annoy the people who dislike the views of the troller. If that is the objective, then I guess the troller achieves that. But, other than that there is little value or point to it.

    When contributing to a site where most others have opposing views on many issues, I think it is important to discuss respectfully, and adopt a perspective that in doing so, there is the opportunity to learn from people who see things a different perspective.