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It's time to take Kuro5hin back from the trolls || kuro5hin.org

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[[P]](https://web.archive.org/web/20090519012258/http://www.kuro5hin.org/print/2008/4/15/143539/481)**[It's time to take Kuro5hin back from the trolls](https://web.archive.org/web/20090519012258/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/4/15/143539/481)**

By psychologist in Meta

Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 10:04:52 AM EST

Tags: community ( all tags)

There was a time a long time ago when I would log into Kuro5hin and I'd see that a known name had posted a new diary. I'd go over, read what they had to say, and post some comments. Then I'd go over to the story queue, make some suggestions on spelling on a story or two, vote up a story on Technology, vote down a story on politics, then go to write my passionate reply to a diary I had read the day before. It was fun, it was calming, and it was home.

Today I log into Kuro5hin, and I see that right now, undermyne writes:

Given the length of the baseball season and the number of games required (162), it is not surpising that lazy niggers are opting for a 16 game NFL season or an 82 game NBA season.

This is not how things should be, and we have to change. There is no hand of God that will come down to make things change, each and everyone of us here can create this change that we need.

I have zero respect for the niggers who let themselves to be enslaved. My forefathers lived for hundreds of years under Swedish and Russian rule, but refused to be enslaved despite attempts. Africans still live, act and die like savages, while we have the most advanced fucking society on earth, in some of the most inhospitable climates on earth, lacking in natural resources and with very short summers. Man I'm no racist, but I fucking hate niggers.

signed MotorMachineMercenary

That is not the Kuro5hin I know.

THABO MBEKI IS AN AIDS-RIDDEN, FASCIST COCKSUCKER. I'D CALL HIM A NIGGER BUT THAT WOULD BE AN INSULT TO NIGGERS THE WORLD OVER.

signed LilDebbie

This is not what our community has become!

But when I open the next page and I read that chlorus writes

I MEAN COME ON, WE HAULED THEIR POOR ASSES OUT OF AFRICA AND DID THEM A HUGE FAVOR, THEY LIVE BETTER HERE NOW THAN THEY EVER WOULD HAVE IN AFRICA. AND THEN THEY HAVE THE NERVE TO HOLD RACE RIOTS AFTER WE HAVE GIVEN THEM SO MUCH (PUBLIC HOUSING, FOOD STAMPS, WELFARE). UNGRATEFUL APES.

and Empedocles, bodza and Jobst of Moravia all rate him a 3, and nobody votes against that comment, I fear that indeed, perhaps

this IS what we've become.

These people want to take our internet home from us. The have marched in here with their hate and their derision and their tearing down of everything we have, and all we have done is bent our heads and run away.

Why should I run? Why would a man challenge me and I give up without fighting? I REFUSE TO. This site is mine as much as it is yours, and damn it if you will not treat me with the civility that EVERYONE in the world deserves.

When they came we had nothing to fight them with. The trolls came in slowly and silently, and at the start it seemed like a game. Soon it was impossible to distinguish where trollery stopped and discussion started. And before long, the site was lost to them.

When they came we had nothing to fight them with. We were defenseless against their bitterness, their hate, their spite and their need to destroy. We were, but we no longer are! We have been given a weapon, a little weapon, but as mighty as the stone that brought Goliath down.

Five dollars.

That's what it costs to get in, and that's what you save to stay out. Each and everyone of those trolls who gets thrown out because of our work will have to pay Five Dollars to get back in. And that's our weapon.

The people who refuse to be civil within the community should be made to leave. Calling a man a nigger is not a discussion, it's not an opinion, it's not a name, it is a slur.

Rusty, when enough people recommend a person be thrown out of the community, then please do so. You said you'd give us democracy, then let this place be democratic. We want to clean up, you gave us the guns, now for heavens sake, supply us with the bullets and we're ready to ride and drive those damn fools out.

It's time to change, and sometimes change needs blood slashed up against the city walls.

I admit I'm a Liar. That's why you can trust me.

that the k5 userbase has become so jaded and callous to the run of the mill "u are a faggit!" brand of trolling that the only way for anyone to get noticed anymore is to run around and try to make *shocking* comments about how much they hate niggers, how barack obama is a nigger, etc.

this is obviously also the reason for the all caps posts.

i mean no offense to undermyne, but has anyone ever cared what that guy had to say?

"I have a raging and unquenchable thirst [for turgid gay penis], and have had it for most of my life." - Michael fucking Crawford

You mean they are stealing our internets? And we should get revenge by stealing their five dollars? Or maybe we should sue? Srsly though, if I wanted a kinder, gentler K5 I'd go to husi. K5 is a high school locker room. If you cleaned it up, it just wouldn't be right. That smell is supposed to be there. It's part of the experience.

Also, "splashed", not "slashed" and you left part of MMM's quote out of the quote block.

There is a reason for everything. Sometimes, that reason just sucks.

Writing about these things is ok apparently ( 3.00 / 10) ( #8)

by sausalito on Tue Apr 15, 2008 at 03:20:59 PM EST

whereas writing about bugs and problems buying an account is not.

"Natural selection" for you.

\\\___________ ``

CTS - "I speak on behalf of humanity and the vast majority of international governments"

if i call you psycho, will that be a SLUR or a BLUR?

xoxo gossip gogogirl spend your clicks generously and deeply

racism and racist words are toxic to anyone remotely socialized or with an iq above 80

so yes, k5 is dead if socially isolated low iq racist twits come to dominate

you can't really censor racist morons though. the best way to defeat racism is let it be freely spoken. then everyone remotely socially better adjusted or remotely more intelligent will instantly recognize the ignorant blather for what it is, and then the racist moron serves a function in society after all: a cautionary tale about how fucked up someone can become. kind of like bums sleeping on the street: we walk by and shudder that we never become like that. so it is when you see racist bs writing: you shudder that your mind should become so stupid and your social skills should be so stunted

once when baldrson lobbed his EMPTY DA CITIES crap at k5, there was a spirited offense against him. and he went away

but now it seems k5 is so empty, the truly bottom of the barrel dregs remain, and they are of course the dumbest and most socially idiotic

i do not wish to be in the company of low iq socially isolated racist morons

i wish to be in the company of my fellow insane morons, like sye and michael crawford

so maybe its time for a gang fight: racist morons versus insane morons

BATTLE FOR THE HEART OF K5

i mean uh

BATTLE FOR THE COLON OF K5

I'm making a Low Budget HDV Filipino Horror Movie in NYC

You had the gall to quote the whole paragraph in my post. If you only quoted the last sentence, it would be much more effective in conveying your (stilted) message. Now it looks like I actually have an argument, thus it doesn't fit with your "OMG STOP OPPRESSING ME, HALP!" message.

If you want to be truly impartial (like you imply), quote me saying there's a difference between niggers and blacks later on in the thread.

Or try to actually shoot holes in what I wrote in the comment. But I guess that's too much to ask from... a psychologist (hint: it's as pseudo as a science can be).

--

It's hard to be humble when even Mr Bigballs rates me as #1 Kuro5hit.

We need to clean this place up. I have a few suggestions:

First of all, some changes to the site policy:

  1. No dupe accounts

  2. No ethnic slurs or real hate speech

  3. Diaries with just one word or sentences are not allowed.

  4. Comments with no real meaning are not allowed

Then make some other changes:

  1. Actually hide comments when they are voted down. Right now I can see hidden comments, and I believe this is by default. Remove this option. Put the hidden comments back in the sidebar link only. Otherwise the trolls know they have an audience
  2. When a user has many hidden comments then put this user up for ban consideration. As in, a public warning. If user continues to act bad, then let the community lynch him. Kick him out.
  3. Set a daily diary limit of 2
  4. Encourage the users to flag people who are behaving badly. If someone is flagging wrongly, or if someone gets flagged too often, then send 2 warnings, followed by ban.

There has to be this period of bannings to get this site back in order. We, your users, are tired of this.

We are willing to tolerate some facism to bring back our democracy.

Why don't you start some touchy feely site with a cow mascot or something where the women can go and have emotional wankfests to feel good about themselves. You could call it warmfuzzy.com or wufi for short.

YFI - whoever heard of someone distilling beer, FFS? - Nimey

its not time to take kuro5hin back from the trolls ( 2.58 / 12) ( #59)

by loteck on Tue Apr 15, 2008 at 05:54:39 PM EST

can we reschedule this for maybe q3? im kind of busy.

--

"You're in tune to the musical sound of loteck hi-fi, the musical sound that moves right round. Keep on moving ya'll." - Mylakovich

"WHAT AN ETERNAL MOBIUS STRIP OF FELLATIATIC BANALITY THIS IS." - Harry B Otch

After all, it couldn't possibly make things any worse. A little revolution might be a good thing. Time for a putsch.

AS A WHITE BOY BORN IN A NIGGER FAMILY... ( 1.22 / 9) ( #80)

by thekubrix on Tue Apr 15, 2008 at 07:42:27 PM EST

and fucking retarded.  talk some more about how you're a male prostitute in africa or whatever the fuck it is you go on about that noone gives a shit about.

Pull your head out of your ass.

Please direct your attention to the little circular logo at the top of the page, on the left. I know, you probably have to scroll up to do it. I'll wait.

That is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

That is kuro5hin's logo. You know, the site whose name is pronounced CORROSION. Not that corrosion took out Gallopin' Gertie, but it's just a different kind of major engineering failure.

THAT IS THE SITE LOGO.

If your google-fu is sufficient you will find a video (originally shot in those pre-video days on 8 mm film) of the bridge in the minutes before its final collapse. And there is a dog out there, stranded between the oscillating waves of asphalt, not quite as smart as a human in the manner of plotting his departure.

WE ARE THE DOG ON THE BRIDGE.

And that is what is so great about the internet. It enables pompous blowhards to connect with other pompous blowhards in a vast circle jerk of pomposity. -- Bill Maher

i liked lildebbie's comment the best but it was all pretty funny

--------------

I also saw a madman crazily pumping this polygon thing to roughly the same timing as a functional wank. -

A Trolled An Anonymised Englishman

but a majority of trolls, and not just at k5, have one purpose and that is to run off users and eventually destroy a site. It's an old technique and for the most part it is quite successful. A good example is NIWS and all his dupes.

In that regard, the trolls here have been largely successful. Intelligent, snarky comments are clever and can be intelligent. For the most part at K5 they are all too often just plain stupid and lacking anything creative or are worth even reading.

$NormalPerson + $Anonymity + $Audience($K5) = $TotalFucktard

And the main reason is that you don't seem to know if you're addressing us kurons or rusty personally--i.e., unclear whether this is an appeal to our better sensibilities or to rusty for a more strict enforcement of ToS. Summary: muddled, wrong, moralistic, and poorly written.

-1, discourage, YHBT; also, I'd gladly give you $5 to leave or stfu.

"Depending on your perspective you are an optimist or a pessimist[,] and a hopeless one too." --trhurler

errr... umm.

well ok, i don't know if this story is a troll. if it is a troll, it's a pretty good one in that it got discussion rolling.

but i'd like to imagine for a moment that it isn't. and "work" from there.

i've told you people before that i don't feel i truly belong here; i know next to nothing about technology, i'm older than most all of you if not all of you, i'm the opposite sex from most of you, i wouldn't even pretend to be as smart or as knowledgeable as most of you about anything at all (except i know i know more about the public school system in the us than lil debbie,) i'm not as articulate as most of you.  BUT...

i enjoy this site. it makes me laugh and it makes me think,  honest to pete- sometimes it keeps me informed and educated about stuff i'd never even think to look up, and very often it distracts me from the dullness of my real life, and it gives me people to communicate with when i'm feeling lonely. in addition, i've read some really outstanding writing on here. really outstanding. i also like that i've talked to people on here that live all the way around the world from me (hi livus!)  and well, i just like some of you.

at the same time, very often when i come on here, my sensibilities are offended. i don't like the racist banter or the sexist banter in particular.

but i do wonder what would happen if we were censored. if we had to live with the rules of the real world?  what would we become then?  would we lose the humor and irreverence? i don't know.

i also have worried about the 5 dollar admittance fee- if that hasn't stopped some really interesting people from stopping by and commenting or contributing.  i know that if i weren't already "in" i'd have said "meh" and passed it by, not wanting to send money to people i don't really know.  but i have to be honest and say that i'm glad that certain people are kept out by this.

i also believe that it's ridiculous to ask rusty to be here all the time.  i think sometimes he must think "my god, what have i done?"  and has to be looking for the nearest exit.

so, as per usual, i don't really have any answers, but i just wanted to weigh in.  all 105 lbs of me.

i don't want this site to devolve any further i guess.  but i don't want to lose the spirit of it either.  hopefully all you smart kurons can come up with something to help improve things.

the artist formerly known as wamps

You can't force the discourse you want, ( 2.88 / 9) ( #115)

by eavier on Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 12:22:46 AM EST

to miraculously appear. It doesn't work like that.

The people that are still here, are the core of who K5 is. If you think everyone here are rascist trolls, then thats your opinion. But as a heads up, you're the only one who's taking the site as something far more serious that what it actually is.

I don't like rascism, but taking away that diatribe would be censorship. If something offends you, stop reading it. Go elsewhere. Evicting people because they don't conform to your idea of what a community is frankly, bordering on bigotry.

Yes its now small and packed with a tightly knit bunch of completely obnoxious people, but thats not a bad thing. At least you know where to go if you feel like being textually raped. And to be honest, the conversation is still probably intellectually above what your idiot work mates are discussing right now anyway.

Taking all the trolls out of the equation would empty this city. And ultimately close K5 down. Is that what you want?

Kuro5hin as a product and its following the innovation adoption curve to the letter. It started small in 1999, peaked user wise in 2003/4, started dropping off around about the time I got here in late 2005, leaving us where we are today.

A sandbox. Throw some sand or please, STFU.

Whatever you do, don't take it into your house. It's probably full of Greeks. - Vampire Zombie Abu Musab al Zarqawi

Ufology Doktor in da house

When K5 will have neat and interesting content it once had. I remember that before, k5 was the "dark side" of the internet posting howtos on taboo topics cause that was the thing to do.

No matter how disgusting things might have become, they were allowed because rusty supported letting the community vet the works. For quite a while (around 04) it worked.

Now, k5 is a cesspool of racist hatred and spite. I sort of expected this but not that soon.I guess I might as well klerck my account but I have this hope that rusty will find some way to turn this around.. I hope.

‮

  • post your pw by ray eckson, 04/16/2008 01:48:31 AM EST ( none / 0)

    • Oh, I see. by The Amazing Idiot, 04/16/2008 12:20:59 PM EST ( none / 1)

If Rusty refuses to do anything at all about this site, I suggest we do the following:

We independently create a greasemonkey script where we collaboratively agree on the features that we can add that will help us recreate this site.

Or if we need changes to scoop to help K5, we do this with javascript patches, so we don't have to hack through old crusty perl.

Things like Bans can easily be attained in greasemonkey. What else?

where does wounding and raping the wounds of minorities fall?

---               __    .,-;-;-,. /'_\ ---Did this Negro say "Street Moor"? _/_/_/_|_\_\) / '-<_><_><_><_>=\ `/_/====/_/-'\_\ ""     ""    ""

  • HAWT by ray eckson, 04/16/2008 01:50:13 AM EST ( 3.00 / 1)

+1FP: document the newbie cycle ( 1.20 / 5) ( #138)

by loteck on Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 02:33:59 AM EST

when this gets front page and the author and his supporters realize that exactly fuck all will ever come of any suggestion that is made for sweeping changes to the way this site runs or is administered, they will that much more quickly join the exact group that they are raging against.

this is how it has been. this is how it is. this is how it will always be. it doesn't say so in the site logo, but it is invisibly there in that thin line between the blue and the text.

rage, motherfuckers, and learn. as is noted above, nobody mistakes this kind of shit for anything except for the dictatorial powergrab that it is. hopefully all you faggots fuck off to husi, pronto. i prefer my k5 as raw as possible, and i already have one admin who has shown a penchant for doing whatever the fuck he wants despite community opinion.

--

"You're in tune to the musical sound of loteck hi-fi, the musical sound that moves right round. Keep on moving ya'll." - Mylakovich

"WHAT AN ETERNAL MOBIUS STRIP OF FELLATIATIC BANALITY THIS IS." - Harry B Otch

...the decline of this site, I'm afraid I agree with psychologist. The diary section seems to resemble Stormfront.org more and more lately.

The problem is, where do we draw the line at politically incorrect discourse (which I encourage) vs. stuff that is just noxious and hateful. I remember there was a poll on whether Baldrson should  be anonymized because he name checked Mein Kampf (the measure didn't pass and Mr. Bowery eventually just drifted off on his own accord). Nowadays, he's probably be considered one of the more intelligent posters here.

I'm surprised the trolls haven't adapted their tactics, since trolling used to be a glorious thing here. In the pre-5bux era, I had plenty of folks calling for me to be hung/shot/arrested for my posts. Now, everybody is just playing to the peanut gallery.

Not that I think K5 should ever completely get rid of trolling, but it should be balanced with interesting, legitimate content. Not only could that draw more bites for the trolls, but it might encourage me to spend more than ten minutes a day perusing this site.

been ages since i last came back here and everything and everyone's still so homely and chumly and the trolls are still being discussed, rusty is still experimenting on stuff and k5 is still trying to figure itself out. love this place.

the only thing missing so far seems to be localroger and some fic+1on in the queue. hmm

How can we be sure about you? ( 1.50 / 2) ( #146)

by mirleid on Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 06:52:21 AM EST

Soon it was impossible to distinguish where trollery stopped and discussion started.

Voting for this story is easy. This is either

  • An elaborate, self-referential troll, in the best K5 tradition.

  • A heartfelt, well meaning plea for the return of a site where you can read interesting stuff, mixed with the occasional vitriolic flamewar.

In either case, +1FP.

Chickens don't give milk

+1FP: MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ( 2.50 / 4) ( #147)

by bodza on Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 07:27:44 AM EST

I 3'ed Chlorus because he showed your sanctimonious travel log for what it was. Thinking you understand a situation because you visited it once. loteck owned you as well Your diary reminded me of people I knew who used to visit South Africa during the apartheid years and come back spouting about how "apartheid was really the best thing for the blacks" and how ungrateful they were for all that was being done for them.

But congratulations on the 140+ comment meta-wank. Good luck with your GreaseMonkey script. You should call it Husi.js

Ask not for whom the troll trolls. He trolls for you

--

"Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest." - Émile Zola

Rid the site of free thought, even when I despise the ideas? Never. I'm voting your lame story up, for instance!

\\\_______________

I'm In LOVE!

I think we need a court. Basically, we create an account called "Judge", and give this account to one of the well known users like localroger or MichaelCrawford or any other person who has been posting here for a long time, and has posted halfway reasonable shit.

The judge creates a diary where abuses of the current week can be posted into. The abuses by users are posted and are discussed. On friday, a front page meta "court case" is posted to the sidebar by the judge where he brings up any users who are misbehaving in front of the community. These users can then be defended or attacked by the community, and at the end of the day, a consensus by all users is reached as to if this user is to be removed from the site or not. If so, then the Judge flags this user to Rusty for deletion, making a list of why this user should be deleted. Rusty can veto this, but in most cases, he should then proceed to delete the user.

The judge then has to pick a volunteer and send him the password of the account. This new user will then be judge in the following week. No user can ever be judge twice.

Yes, it's an experiment. Yes, it may go wrong. But you know what rusty - this site is a playground! This site has always been a progressive experiment, and do not let it stagnate. Let's try something like that - all that needs to be done is create a new account - the users will organise the rest. Give us this possibility of policing ourselves. This way, people will not get hidden because they post unpopular opinions as would happen if an algorithm decides that the user should be deleted. Deletion will only happen when people are loud enough to actually rile up enough people who want them out of the site.

Also, this new approach to community policing would gather attention from outside. What is there to lose? If it goes wrong, you just delete the judge account and declare the experiment done.

so yeah this shit was over a long time ago

Kill some idiots ( 2.50 / 4) ( #192)

by onix on Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 03:57:11 PM EST

There was a reason why in the past the most intelligent contributors to this site generally argued in defense of trolls. It's because the noise was worth putting up with for the entertainment.

Where are those people today? I don't see a single creative or amusing argument for trolls in any of the responses posted here so far. Even MotorMachineMercenary sounds like someone who's come to see this place as just another wall to piss up: "I write my intellectual shit elsewhere, as this cesspool is not worth it." Says it all, really.

The reason you don't see any interesting arguments for trolls anymore is because all the interesting trolls left. What's here today isn't even offensive. It's just boring. Motherfuckingcuntcockpissniggerassfistmonkeytits. I'm mean, jesus, it's not rocket science.

Charging for accounts isn't pointless. Scarcity can change behavior. But there's no scarcity until it costs something. Charging for accounts is pointless only if you never make people pay. Rusty, if you're not willing to implement the policy then why did you introduce it? Either start killing idiots or do the patient a favor and turn the life-support off.

---

I'm interested in certain of your thoughts. - medham

...and he is us.

a troll is a deliberate stance that has less to do with intelligence and character than one might imagine.

it was explained that stories and comments should be changed to approval voting and time out. common sense was ignored. digg did it instead and made billions of dollars. everyone's gone but the people who have nowhere else to go.

don't get me wrong, it's fun to keep an eye open, point and laugh. but it's a graveyard now. let it go.

--

Warning: On Lawn is a documented liar.

I BLAME THE OUSTER OF TEX  BIGBALLS!

^for serious.

That's democracy for ya ( none / 1) ( #223)

by buford on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:52:54 AM EST

You said you'd give us democracy, then let this place be democratic. We want to clean up, you gave us the guns, now for heavens sake, supply us with the bullets and we're ready to ride and drive those damn fools out.

Largest group decides it doesn't like some minority, votes to kill it.

Everyone's opinion is equally valid, even those you call trolls.

if a man zeros you, he is a spastic with the scroll wheel, and should be pitied.

At least you don't have to worry about chlorus now ( 3.00 / 2) ( #224)

by BJH on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 07:04:19 AM EST

--

Roses are red, violets are blue.

I'm schizophrenic, and so am I. -- Oscar Levant ‮

It's interesting because psychologist is a troll and is trolling with this story for the most part.  But he is an infinitely higher class of troll than the ones he has cited in this article.

The point is that I miss the K5.  I don't come here that much anymore, because there's nothing to see.  As far as I know psychologist doesn't come around much anymore.  Most of the classic K5 trolls who wrote funny or interesting stuff are gone.  All the classic posters who weren't even trolls are certainly gone.

Is it possible to recreate the old K5 and keep it from devolving into the new K5?  I don't know.  Most sites have much stricter anti-trolling policies.  I always found this annoying, but maybe they are right.

Maybe we need to start a new K5 somewhere and understand that it will jump the shark after a few years and then start yet another one.

I'm like Jesus, only better.

Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free grassroots news hour

FP AND SECTIONS ARE FOR SERIOUS STUFF ( 1.50 / 2) ( #230)

by CAPS LOCK on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 09:13:26 AM EST

DIARIES ARE FOR FOOLING ABOUT AND TROLLING. I TRY TO RESPECT THAT.

God I look like a stud in a jumpsuit.

\\\_

I'm a pompous windbag, I take myself far too seriously, and I single-handedly messed up K5 by causing the fiction section to be created. --localroger

It is fairly easy to sort hate speech out from discussion. I have not been paying attention to postings here for some time, but will start reading again. The power to vote down abuse only requires we pay attention and exercise our own judgement in a prompt manner.

This site has already been trolled into obscurity. 4chan has more insightful comments.

  • SAGE by circletimessquare, 04/21/2008 07:09:50 PM EST ( none / 0)

Didn't you, like, kill some chick? ( 1.50 / 2) ( #353)

by fn0rd on Fri Apr 18, 2008 at 05:48:46 PM EST

Seriously. Trolls are the least of your worries.

This fatwa brought to you by the Agnostic Jihad

fix a problem with a problem.

I'm just trying to decide if I'm for and against both.

Like lotech said, slow down if there's a hurry

(well not exactly like that)

~/index2

  • What ? by levesque, 04/21/2008 10:38:16 PM EST ( none / 0)

I couldn't agree more.

Now bend over.

They're fucken boring. I haven't been here in a while and it's mainly for this reason. Going into the diary section and seeing "nigger" etc. all the time makes me wonder why I even bother with the site anymore. It used to be different when the trolls were funny, clever, offensive, or at least something. Now I just see a bunch of morons who never grew up, and it's boring. As much as I like to laugh at some of them (MMM), even that got boring, and I shouldn't be doing that anyway. It's like listening to a commercial pop radio station: No redeeming qualities whatsoever. It's about as pragmatic as sniffing glue. If it wasn't for some of the other users here, I simply wouldn't bother.

We approve of this message and exhort all of our loyal subjects to heed its words.

--------------------------------

Rusty I, Emperor of Kuro5hin, Protector of Scoop

  • hello by ray eckson, 04/22/2008 08:35:01 PM EST ( none / 1)

TO GET ANOTHER 5$ FROM THE ROFL KING?

WWW.ROFLKING.COM The King of wierd pictures.

The trolls come out for sure in this story, I mean, pretty much everyone who thinks this is a bad idea is the source of the problem. It's sad that a place I used to come to for at least a little interesting conversation has turned basically into AOL.

I'm not going to stop visiting K5, but I just think a large chunk of the users are immature, racist idiots who should be removed. The Internet allows for easy, free speech-- some people are just morons and can only express hate or biggotry.. so.. well, fuck you, we don't want to scream in caps about niggers or talk about buttsecks, you're 12, deal with it.

Fighting The War, On Drugs

Smokedot.org

Drug Info, Rights, Laws, and Discussion.

Damn, I can't decide whether you're trolling or serious...fuck me.

Oh well, just in case, the rest of my comment was as follows:

Another "LET'S GET RID OF THE TROLLS" diatribe...tl;dr

You do realize this is one of the longest running cliches of K5 yes?

Okay, here's the deal...

The problem with K5 isn't the trolls, it's the lack of content.  Now, some would argue that the trolls are the reason the main content providers left. This conveniently ignores the fact that the places they left to are all "newer and more exciting" places, with a completely different experience than K5.  While K5 has been left to stagnate.

Do trolls contribute to people not being around here?  Yes, absolutely...at the same time the trolling attracts members as well, several of which are content providers in their spare-time (it IS possible to be both).

Driving out the remaining trolls because their quality of post "isn't up to snuff" compared to the classic K5 users of the golden age will just eliminate two-thirds of the userbase and leave K5 a place a completely empty shell of a website.

K5 has been a bastion for freedom at times, and there is no reason why it cannot or should not continue to be.

If you want there to be decent content, and you want people to return to K5 and start reading and posting creative, intellectual things, then maybe you should actually post something worth reading for once instead of going on and on and on and on about how you're a badass special-ops murderer for hire who can't re-enter america because you wound-fucked a girl you later murdered and how you refuse to vote for Obama (without even acknowledging that you're not even an American), and spouting ill-conceived vitriol about how black people get the short end of the stick in this world but you've been rich before and will be again and then you'll get all the pussy you want because you're practically a fucking god and know everything about women, people, and humanity and nobody will ever dare fuck with you cause your an ex-mercenary.

Srsly, your posts are egomaniacal garbage, questionable in their truthfulness, and spew as much hatred and condemnation as those of us yelling "nigger nigger nigger" and hence, nobody reads them...and that's why nobody comes to K5 anymore.

Do you even realize how many people came to K5 for the occasional beeguy post?

Getting rid of the trolls isn't the solution, getting rid of the trolls will just kill what's left of K5.  The solution is to post something worth reading.  Remember peoples attitudes regarding trolls around here used to typically be one of two mindsets either that a) the content on here was worth putting up with them, or b) people liked coming here because you'd find any/every type of response possible(trolls included)...this is the freedom that came with K5, and it worked well so long as the system in place actually tried to keep itself looking fresh and new.

I've seen a few comments along these lines, and here is mine.

I really like Kuro5hin.  I don't come often, and I don't usually post, but I like it here.  It's (mostly) adult and honorable.

Here is something I came up with for bad drivers.  Everyone is given a paintball gun.  If a driver is being a jerk, you can tag his car.  Cars with too many hits are pulled over by the cops.  Impractical but fun.

Here though it could work well - though it would take some programming work.

Everyone gets a set number of 'paintballs' per day/week/month/whatever.  If someone is being a racist or whatever, you can tag them.  If someone has been tagged enough, they get suspended for a time.

Of course this only works with some reasonable control over multiple accounts, and it is by no means perfect.

The best part here of course is that Rusty can also see who is throwing the paintballs around.

I dunno, maybe it'll help, maybe it won't.

Santih,

Euan

400+ comments is pretty fucking good nowadays.

This site is still running?  A few years ago some active member here IM'd me and got upset when I didn't recognize him as someone who is well known here.