As we start to see more users join, it’s inevitable to see trolls (especially low-effort trolls) making more of an appearance and trying to be controversial and noticed.
Best just to scroll past them. They want to spark unwinnable arguments and rack up negative rep. If something seems absurdly ridiculous or inciteful, just move on. It’s not even worth down voting.
So you downvoted because you used it as a disagree button. End of story then?
Anyway, let’s put that aside and discuss. How is it destructive? If there is a troll harassing a user then is ignoring it better than reporting the troll? How so?
Let me give you a concrete example. This guy exists https://kbin.social/u/WorldKnows45Won/comments
Why should the comment he called the other guy “retard” not be reported? Not only that, the same guy made troll posts sprading misinformation like Trump winning the 2020 election, so it’s clear it isn’t just a one time thing either. And in the future when there are more bots and troll accounts running around, why would not reporting them be the better option?
I am of the belief that banning users or deleting posts, even inflammatory ones, harms free speech and hinders open communication. If you feel a user is “harassing” you (insofar as that’s even possible, given you can freely ignore their comments), attempting to have the user banned just pushes the community toward becoming an echo clamber. I say this because people are very, very bad at distinguishing harassment from mere heated disagreement in the first place.
So if someone make a wrong accusation of someone else or if they make a death threat or doxx someone the comment should just stay up. Am I hearing your position correctly?
And I think you missing something. People perceptions are different and they aren’t necessarily “correct”, yours and mine included. Report doesn’t automatically remove someone, but it does allow admins and mods to see it, in other word, get a third party to look at it. Multiple reports also mean more people thinking this is harmful. Just because you don’t agree with other people’s perception doesn’t mean they are wrong and you’re right or vice versa. Not to mention that certain kinds of harassments and hate speeches directly break the ToS.
Furthermore, reporting != banning. Reporting on a comment is the voice in that comment is listened to, and it’s been decided that it’s harmful.
You make some very good points that I hadn’t really thought of, honestly. It seems like I didn’t consider the full implications of my position. I still like to tend toward leaving things up, but I agree with you now that that probably has to have its limits somewhere.
I think it’s nice to have a spectrum of agreement on “this is okay”, as long as we don’t stray into the more universally agreed “this is not okay”. It’s probably one of the more robust ways to decide where to draw the line when in reality a hard line doesn’t exist.