Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail
From: Jason Friedman <jsf80238@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: Why online forums have bad behaviour (was: Steve D'Aprano, you're the "master". What's wrong with this concatenation statement?)
Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 21:05:57 -0600
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Message-ID: <mailman.619.1463108759.32212.python-list@python.org>
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> TL;DR: because we're all human, and human behaviour needs either
> immediate face-to-face feedback or social enforcement to correct
> selfishness and abrasiveness. Where face-to-face feedback is lacking,
> social enforcement needs to take more of the load.
>
>
> Many people have a false sense of entitlement to be caustic in dealing
> with others, and have no better response to a request that they tone it
> down than to escalate their bad behaviour.
>
> This behaviour is usually counteracted in face-to-face interaction, by
> being confronted with the immediate result on the other person: most
> people don't enjoy *seeing* other people become upset, so most people
> tend to work harder to be more polite in face-to-face discussion.
>
> On an internet forum, especially one with such low bandwidth as text,
> these feedback mechanisms are not sufficient (not immediate enough, and
> not informative enough) for the person to experience a link from their
> bad behaviour to the unpleasant consequences.
>
>
> This isn't a new problem. It's not new to the internet, and it certainly
> isn't new to humans.
>
> What is new, though, is that many online communities =E2=80=93 the Python
> community specifically =E2=80=93 have decided we are not going to tolerat=
e
> anti-social behaviour, and we have also enacted policies to enforce that
> decision.
>
> We'll always have some anti-social actors, and bad actions by otherwise
> good actors. Many of them when confronted will respond with petulance
> and name-calling and bullying and other schoolyard reflexes. We have to
> be consistent in rejecting such behaviour from our community.

Well said.