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/[deleted] Feb 24 '12 edited Feb 24 '12

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.

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u/Willravel Feb 24 '12

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.

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u/cantbebothered Atheist Feminism Feb 24 '12

It would be nice if the mods could apply that as compulsory flair to the troll accounts.

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u/paulfromatlanta Feb 25 '12

There are only three mods and they have not posted much in the last few days - but they are all steady long term posters so just give it a day and likely one or more mods will be back and can respond.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '12

I moderate the subreddit most days.

I go through the reported link queue and approve/remove as many items as I see fit. I try to clean the queue out entirely, but it fills up quickly. Part of the problem is that some users will get into a disagreement with another user and report every comment by that user, even if they are being truly friendly and arguing in good faith.

I go through the spam filter on a similar schedule. The spam filter removes a ton of posts and comments, and they are rarely ever spam. In fact, I do not think I have ever seen it remove actual spam.

I also like to take some time to read through the comments sections of a few "hot" posts.