And so ends another year...

Posted Dec 26, 2014 22:54 UTC (Fri) by nzjrs (guest, #35911)
Parent article: And so ends another year...

How about banning anonymous or non-subscriber comments?

Non-subscriber comments

Posted Dec 27, 2014 21:25 UTC (Sat) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] (3 responses)

That idea has floated by every now and then; we had a long discussion on it several years ago. The thing is that some non-subscribers have useful things to say; we'd hate to block them all just because there are a few bozos out there. We did add the ability to filter non-subscriber comments, though, so you can get the same practical effect if you want.

Non-subscriber comments

Posted Jan 8, 2015 4:00 UTC (Thu) by thedevil (guest, #32913) [Link] (2 responses)

First, I'd like to add my voice to the choir of personal best wishes to
the editor. Get thoroughly well and don't look back.

Now, on the unpleasant subject of trolling. The article bemoans the
rise of trolling and thanks the polite commenters, but IMO this is a bit
of a misunderstanding. One can be a troll and perfectly polite. For an
example, look at the post by HelloWorld in the Debian ARM64 thread.
That's why eliminating trolls is hard, no language filter or similar can
do the job. I guess it is similar to the legal issues around obscenity.
It's the reaction a troll is trying to provoke that defines him as a
troll, not his language.

Lastly, please don't disable comments by me :-P I was a subscriber while
I had income, and I'll be one again, $DEITY willing.

Define Trolling

Posted Jan 8, 2015 17:34 UTC (Thu) by zlynx (guest, #2285) [Link]

The problem with polite trolling is who gets to define it?

Is it a troll or honest disagreement with the local group think (more politely known as consensus).

Just because many people agree about something does not make it true.

Although, even when something is true it is still trolling, at least a bit. Say that there are two gaming consoles A and B, and by all objective measurements A is better. If an A-Fan goes to the B-Fan web site and posts all the reasons A is superior, that is trolling.

But on a web site about general computer hardware, I don't consider that trolling because A really is better, here are the reasons why, etc. makes perfect sense to discuss there. Even if everyone on the site is a B-Fan, why should A-Fan have to stop sharing the truth?

I see a difference between a web site or forum area set aside for a particular point of view, and places that are for other topics.

Non-subscriber comments

Posted Jan 8, 2015 21:21 UTC (Thu) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link]

> Lastly, please don't disable comments by me :-P

I completely refuse to use that option, FWIW. A lazy "throwaway" username combined with high uid is often an accurate indicator of ill will before reading the comment itself... but account status has about as much relation to the quality of someone's posts as the second octet of their IP.

I find the most nasty and persistent trolls on here usually have subscriber accounts. Not hard when you're paid to deliberately misunderstand something.