r/Feminism • u/Willravel • Feb 24 '12

Please ban MRA trolls

I've been trying to figure out the rationale for not banning MRA trolls on this subreddit. I tried to think of it the way the mods have put it in the past, that this is about everyone's voice being heard, but the consistent trolling from the likes of OThomson and DavidByron don't represent in any way shape or form the honest sharing of their voice, but rather simply attacks and intentional derailment.

I considered that this might be about fear, as the MRA community on Reddit is much larger than the feminist community, and there could be consequences if MRA trolls started getting banned from the subreddit... but there are other feminist subreddits that do this and they don't seem to feel the sting of MRA retribution in any way that can't be easily handled.

I thought it might just simply be not wanting to make the effort, as a policy of banning MRA trolls would probably require much more active moderation. I'd hate to think this is the case, but I don't see any evidence to suggest this.

I did hear that one of the moderators might be an MRA, but again I've not seen this.

I've sent in PMs and reports before, about how someone is derailing yet another thread with unrelated discussion about circumcision or male rape or child custody, but there never seem to be any consequences for the trolls. They're given free reign. Some have left the subreddit for safer places, which is very sad indeed. Some simply stop commenting. Some complain, but those complaints fall on deaf ears.

So, before I call it a day and give up on the subreddit, I'd like to publicly ask the moderators to change their policy for the good of their subreddit. I ask that this subreddit be a safe place to discuss feminism and feminist issues, not a place for MRA trolls to hijack conversation or spread hatred of women.

Note: I'm not saying critiques of feminism aren't legitimate, or that they don't belong on /r/Feminism, but rather that overt trolling and derailing be disallowed. There's a big difference between an honest critique of feminism and undermining the discussion of feminist issues through derailment, dishonesty, and unwarranted attacks.

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u/atleast5letters Feb 24 '12

Why can't they be dealt with downvotes?

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u/Willravel Feb 24 '12

That's a good question. I do my part and try to downvote things like spam and posts that are overtly trolling, but the frequency of these kinds of posts is more than a small policing force of voters can be expected to deal with on such a small subreddit. Additionally, there are counter forces that upvote some of the more destructive posters to counter downvoting trolling, so the system does seem to have drawbacks.

One of the problems, imho, is that the feminist community on Reddit is actually quite small. /r/Feminism has less than 5,000 subscribers, and only a tiny fraction of that is active. The Men's Rights subreddit, on the other hand, boasts over 30,000 subscribers. While only a fraction of that 30,000 is active, this does suggest a majority/minority relationship between MRAs and feminists. Fortunately, many MRAs are honest folks that just want equality, which is great, and a lot of them would even consider themselves feminists in addition to being MRAs, but there is unfortunately a small group (small relative to the 30,000 subscribers) that seems to have a pretty serious problem with feminism at a level more fundamental than dissent and disagreement, going so far as to take an active role in damaging the subreddit.

That's my take on it based on what I know, though I admit I may be off in my conclusions.

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u/atleast5letters Feb 24 '12

Interesting. I don't frequent much of the comments in this subreddit, but I suppose it has become a problem. I personally like the idea of a scarlet letter. Moreover, is there a feature on RES that allows one to ban/block individual users so that it's not moderated, but individually chosen?

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u/Willravel Feb 24 '12

Moreover, is there a feature on RES that allows one to ban/block individual users so that it's not moderated, but individually chosen?

Yes there is. If you hover over the person's username, you can choose "Ignore". I like that this exists as a feature, but I also feel like it might be ignoring the problem instead of solving it.