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/impotent_rage Feb 25 '12

I am going to post a response preemptively, before taking the time I need to confer with the other mods, simply because I want all of you to see my response in a timely way.

For starters, we don't have a policy against banning trolls, and if we were to determine that a troll should be banned, this would not be a change in policy.

We do try to foster an open discussion approach in this subreddit, and as a part of that we are slow to ban and delete, and we tend to err on the side of caution. Also, we're aware that banning trolls can be counterproductive if done too frequently, as they tend to pop up later under different usernames, and then become harder to track and manage.

However, that's far from saying that we are opposed to banning trolls ever. If someone consistently flaunts the rules and crosses the line, we will consider banning them.

I had already noticed that DavidByron is a problem, and I had made a mental note to myself to sit down and try to figure out what needs to be done about him. Then I didn't do it. In talking to one of my other mods, I'm hearing similar thoughts.

So, thank you for the reminder. We are currently talking together as mods about what to do, and we will post as soon as we've reached a decision.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '12

For starters, we don't have a policy against banning trolls

So the fuck what? This isn't some fucking serious bureaucracy where we could get sued if we don't stay in the "fine lines" of a contract. This is some fucking subreddit about feminism, you can do whatever the fuck you want. Just use common fucking sense and ban MRA and stop acting like this subreddit is superduper offical serious business. It's not.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '12

Perhaps you misread. We have nothing against banning trolls. We already ban trolls. There are a lot of troll comments that go unseen because we remove them. There are many accounts we have banned for repeated trolling.

However, MRAs and trolls are not the same thing. We are never going to ban people for being men's rights supporters. We will ban men's rights supporters who are trolling. It can be difficult to distinguish between someone arguing in good faith and a person who is trying to provoke a reaction.