people on the internet who go out of their way to argue

[amw]

What is it that goes through the minds of people that compels them to log on to the internet and just keep... on... arguing? Desperate to get the last word in, apparently incapable of reflecting on their own compulsion to try to lecture others

Comments

[picosgemeos]

since then you're basically policing who is allowed to speak

I think this probably changes from person to person. Some people might enjoy intelligent argument and leave up contrary opinions, while others will want a place with zero conflict - I think it's nice that it leaves it up to the user to decide what their space will be like. For myself, if I get intollerant, hate-filled stuff, it's an immediate mute and block; but if it's someone with a new perspective, wishing to engage in an idea, expressed in a polite way, I leave it up.

Threads does have a blanket no-comments option as well, so only people followed can respond. I think a lot of new users don't know this and so have left themselves open to trolls (but then the muting/blocking option comes in handy.) Someone posted today a nice summary of how different it is from Twitter:

"Twitter blocks still leave up existing direct replies to our posts and allow trolls to continue replying to other people in the thread. Threads, however, completely hides the troll's reply thread including all replies to them. So you effectively de-platform them from your replies while preventing anyone else from seeing and engaging with them!"

It's tough, especially in the workplace where anti-abuse systems crash up against the bean counters who want as much engagement as possible and give zero shits about who gets hurt along the way.

I can imagine! My feeling is that Facebook was initially like that but now some of them have learned the lesson and want Threads to be something different. The pile ups that happen regularly on Twitter only happen on Threads if the user really wants to bring out the trolls. There's even a box to tick (over on Instagram) to remove any political content from your feed, if you want to lower even more the chance of a troll finding you, which I've seen a lot of people report as having opted for.

[amw]

You have a lot of faith in Facebook! I consider them amongst the worst of the bunch as far as violating people's privacy and evil anti-competitive practices go. I know i should probably suck it up and get over it because pretty much all social events in Taiwan are organized through Facebook or Instagram, but sometime maybe about 10 years ago - probably around the time they bought WhatsApp - i just lost any hope they wouldn't be scumbags, and Cambridge Analytica/Brexit/Trump/Myanmar/Canadian news/etc just keep reinforcing what a bunch of assholes they all are. And yet... I still have the Facebook account in case I for some reason need to get in touch with people I knew years ago, plus a WhatsApp to talk to dad. Ugh, I'm part of the problem...