The State of the Chatterbox
Due to time constraints, we weren't able to get to everyone's responses regarding moderation in this week's AtS, at least not in any meaningful way. In general, we don't always get to every question that is asked, sometimes simply because we don't have an answer in the moment, but we do see all of them! Even during that hour, many of us are often tasked to or divided between multiple projects. You've seen some of us instead follow up after AtS ends, whether it's to address more involved questions that we have the answers to, or questions relevant to our projects in general. Rather than respond in the thread sometime after AtS where only a few may see it, we wanted to take a moment to address the situation in a space that's available to everyone, at least those who opt in to these notices.
If you normally don't get alerted to new posts in this thread, and are only seeing this post because someone linked you, remember that you can click "Enable Staff Notices" at the top of the page to get notified going forward.
We're aware that the atmosphere and activity in the Chatterbox is awful, and has been awful for quite some time. We know that the size of our mod team is too small, and thus the ability of our mods to stay on top of the problematic people can be lacking, especially during some hours. We do want to stress that our small team works hard and dedicates a lot of time to cleaning up these accounts; these people return on new accounts so frequently because the previous account has been dealt with.
We understand that it can feel like nothing is being done on the staff side of things to address this ongoing issue, so we wanted to go a little more in depth about what we've tried, what's been implemented, and what's in various stages of discussion.
We've tried these options to various extents that have been fully or mostly discontinued:
- IP bans: This refers to blocking anyone using a specific IP from activities such as accessing a specific feature while using a specific IP, registering or logging into accounts while using a specific IP, or even visiting the site in general from a specific IP. Googling (or your choice of search engine) "pros and cons of IP banning" gives you all sorts of articles that discuss the good and the bad of this option, and balancing how provably easy it is to circumvent with the impact to Gaians who may later rotate onto those blocked IPs, it's not a feasible solution for Gaia and not an option we'll revisit.
These options are among what we've already implemented that are still active:
- Requiring accounts to verify their email before they can post: We already do. This is what it looks like when an account tries to post before responding to the confirmation email. If there was a time that we didn't, it was a long time ago. Throwaway email domains are like hydras, and for every one we add to the blacklist, two more pop up to take their place. Similarly, restricting accounts to using specific domains would be problematic, as we have many users who use an address under their personal or business domain as their primary email.
- Restricting posting rates for brand new accounts: When this was first released, we had many users who were returning, who had invited a friend that was having trouble posting, or who were starting over on a new account, that expressed their frustrations with how restrictive this was. Meanwhile, those who were coming back to Gaia to cause problems were already discovering and taking advantage of workarounds. We dialed back the restrictions from where they were at initial release so they weren't as impactful to well-meaning Gaians, but this is still otherwise in place.
- The ability to lock your own threads: If you have threads that you want to close to any further further discussion/activity that are at least 24 hours old, there is a lock button in your thread.
- The ability to delete multiple posts at time from your post history: You can do so from this page.
- The ability to wipe your forum thread/post history: This can be done from your Account Preferences page.
These changes are among what are currently in various stages of discussion, and
may or may not be implemented, or may not be able to be implemented immediately due to the amount of back-end work that would be required to introduce those changes:
- A setting that lets a person lock all of their threads that are older than ___ days, or hasn't been posted in ___ days
- A setting that necrolocks individual's threads after ___ days/weeks/months in any forum.
- Locking/necrolocking all threads created by accounts who have been inactive for 90 or more days
- Re-increasing the new account post restrictions and being harsher about how these restrictions are applied/resolved.
- Including the ability to post images in new account post restrictions.
- Shadow bans
- Using a service that requires people to prove their identity before registering or continuing to use any of their accounts: Even if you would comply to continue using your account(s), would all of your friends?
- Requiring the attachment of a verified phone number to register or continue using any account: Again, would you/all of your friends comply? How easily could this be circumvented by bad actors/result in minor collateral damage?
- We're in talks on a more comprehensive approach in dealing with these types of issues. Not just defensive measures but for the community to help highlight posts that need attention. This would involve restoring and updating a measure that was largely discontinued so it functions as it was intended; the community assistance would actually require no additional time or activity from Gaians.
In the works:
- User-based moderation tools: We are proactively working on user based moderation tools to help hide problematic posts for other users before our moderators can delete them permanently.
Suggestions/ideas that were considered, discussed, but will not be implemented include:
- Blocking VPNS: There may have been a time where doing so was more realistic. Today, people are more privacy-conscious, and both bad actors and community members are using VPNs. Blocking the use of these from our site would negatively impact our community at large.
- IP Banning: We've detailed above that this is something we've looked into and even tested, and why it's not a viable solution.
The above isn't an all-inclusive list, but covers some of the most frequent suggestions or options frequently under discussion internally. If you have suggestions for fair restrictions on new accounts or other forms of spam control that you believe we haven't considered, we'd love for these to be shared, and civilly discussed, in
Site Feedback.
We understand that it can feel like reporting "does nothing," but we do see these reports and we do deal with the content and accounts as swiftly as we can. If a matter is urgent, and we detail some examples of what urgent is
here, please alert a
moderator so we can prioritize that situation.
If you are the target of online harassment, we recommend that you go to law enforcement. This isn't us shirking responsibility, but recognizing both that these people are persistent and will continue to find workarounds to whatever obstacles we throw at them as long as it pays off for them in the end, and knowing through experience that
many law enforcement agencies require that the victim (or their lawyer, parent, guardian, etc.) is the one to file the police report. We don't have all of the details of what you're experiencing, just what's happened on our platform, and this is information we're eager to give to those investigating teams once they're at that stage of the investigation. The reports you file are a large part of what would be included in what's sent, as these are specific examples of their harassment toward you that you've identified. Whether you choose to go to law enforcement or not, please use/continue to use the report system to document these matters. We'd rather this information be readily available and you decide not to use it to the alternative. This
guide is a good reference for what can be involved in this process.
We also ask that the community stops engaging with these abusive parties. This isn't to blame their behavior on the impacted community or targeted Gaians, or to offload the work or responsibility from us to you. We're asking you to help us help you. These people continue to return to Gaia despite the obstacles that are thrown their way because there's still a "prize" for them at the end. While some people may like grinding through obstacles for zero reward at the finish line, most people don't, including trolls and harassers, and will move on to something else if the current plan of action no longer gives them what they're looking for. They want topics being made about them, and they want the confirmation that their actions are negatively impacting you. They want you to get down in the mud with them, insult them, and even throw their own methods back at them; they don't care about their accounts
but they know that you do.
We know how our previous response to this was understood and received by the community; it certainly wasn't to dismiss anyone's concerns. We truly believe that all of the suggestions that people make to combat this ongoing problem are well intended; the suggestions that are frequently made by are community are already under discussion, or in the works, have already been implemented to some extent, or an informed decision was made not to implement that specific option due to how significantly the cons outweigh the pros.
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