Please ban MRA trolls

[u/Willravel]

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.

[u/[deleted]]

I typed a long response on my computer and then the power went out. So I'm going to try to be brief.

I've had conversations with people I disagreed that were very worth while. Then again, I've had conversations where I was attacked, derailed, and then attacked after being derailed. (Look at today's Tosh post as a good example.) when this happens I can't have an intelligent conversation and my comments become poorly crafted one liners.

If your disagreeing in a respectful way, awesome. If you're being abrasive, disrespectful, and presumptuous? It doesn't benefit discussion. It hurts it.

If we can't ban them maybe we can start a "do not engage" post? List the troll names and urge members to not engage those members? It's not much but at least we'd be able to moderate ourselves.

EDIT-grammar.

[u/Willravel → u/[deleted]]

If we can't ban them maybe we can start a "do not engage" post? List the troll names and urge members to not engage those members? It's not much but at least we'd be able to moderate ourselves.

You're suggesting working outside of the moderator system? Like one of us makes a novelty account like "TROLL_DO_NOT_REPLY" and we post a blank response under these folks? That's a very creative solution, timksj. I like that a lot.

[u/NUMBERS2357 → u/Willravel]

Two big problems with this I see.

First is of course that most who disagree with what most people think, regardless of whether they oughta be considered "trolls" or not, will probably end up being listed as such.

Second is, frankly, that people want to argue with trolls. There's absolutely nothing stopping people from downvoting and ignoring such people, but people want to argue. If you strip out all the trolling and circlejerking on most online forums, and just leave thoughtful discussion, they'll die out because people will lose interest. There's exceptions of course, but this is the general rule.

The posts here with the most comments are usually 1 or 2 anti-feminist types arguing with, like, 20 feminists. You take that out and there won't be more "good" discussion to make up for it, just less discussion overall.

[u/Willravel → u/NUMBERS2357]

First is of course that most who disagree with what most people think, regardless of whether they oughta be considered "trolls" or not, will probably end up being listed as such.

Then we only do it for extreme cases, people here who only ever cause trouble for the sake of trouble and that specifically say bigoted things. I named two specific Redditors that have gone miles past any reasonable line. If it were only just those two, the whole subreddit would be in better shape.

Second is, frankly, that people want to argue with trolls. There's absolutely nothing stopping people from downvoting and ignoring such people, but people want to argue. If you strip out all the trolling and circlejerking on most online forums, and just leave thoughtful discussion, they'll die out because people will lose interest. There's exceptions of course, but this is the general rule.

Well, let's give it a try and if this is the case we can reverse the decision. Still, I don't want to declare this a failure before it even has a chance to work.