Cory Doctorow in his blog "How to Keep Hostile Jerks from Taking Over Your Community" draws on some incredibly accurate observations that I have also noticed. I can relate to this on my Facebook page where that one really "popular" person gets a large amount of comments on a post or photo but when you look to see what the fuss is about, its two people going back and forth and fighting about it. When Cory says that its often hard to get back on track after a flame-war, I completely agree. After a large fight has gone on, people usually just stop commenting or the post/picture is deleted. 
For my Communities Report, I am studying the online Facebook community of the Dance Moms Fan page. While looking through this site I have not noticed huge conflicts that go back and forth throughout the comment feed, but I have noticed little fights. Usually these people are expressing themselves by using CAPLOCKS or exclamation points! I believe the nature of this site does not foster a hostile environment. Most fights are directed towards the characters on the show and how they are wrong. I haven't seen any fights directed at individuals for anything more that disagreeing on who's the best of nicest girl on the show. I believe that this makes this fan cite susceptible to trolls as this community is so active.
Would you agree that this is more of an "argument" situation rather than someone on the Dance Moms fan page trolling and making inappropriate comments?
ReplyDelete