(working title, if you got anything better lmk)

Humein: Fostering a community

One of the biggest questions we need to solve is how to foster a community allows for conflicting viewpoints to coexist and debate each other in good faith. If this community is properly realized, then moderation will be needed minimally as people understand how to moderate themselves.

The Three Posters

In most online debates (especially around politics) there are three main types of posters, The Troll, The Passionist, and The Normie. Below I’ve outlined each group, how to tell who’s who and how to try to keep the toxic groups under control. You (as a normie) should read through each to inform yourself of the folly of online groups.

The Troll

The troll is only here for this debate to get a rise out of people. They don’t really care about the argument they’re pushing, they’re only doing it to make people mad, shocked, upset and angry. Troll’s relish in your harm. They may or may not believe in their stance; all they care about is getting a rise out of you. Often they will bait other, more sensible, people into blowing up against the troll which often looks something like this:

“Troll: Pineapple on pizza is disgusting and anyone who thinks otherwise can go die in a hole.

Normal person: How dare you say pineapples shouldn't grace our beloved pizzas! Have you never experienced the glory of that juicy fruit melting on top of mozzarella before being warmed by the oven heat? It's like receiving a direct message from God himself: "I love you so much that I will bless you with this culinary wonder." The smell of fresh basil combined with the juice of freshly picked pines makes for an unforgettable experience; why would we limit ourselves to only dried herbs and processed meat? When you add all three together on a homemade crust made with care, there's no reason to resist. Trolling people online and ruining others joy should be against the law; until then, enjoy your sad excuse for a pizza while I revel in mine.”

From there the troll will either ignore the conversation, laughing at the outrage he’s caused or will continue arguing and harassing.

Other forms of trolls include the spammer (someone who joins just to spam the community), the bully (someone who joins to harass one or more people in the community), and the reporter (someone who joins to report things that clearly don’t need to be reported, wasting the time of the moderators).

So how do we avoid this when creating Humein? We must foster the normalcy of NOT. ENGAGING. THE. TROLLS. You see, the only thing trolls crave is attention. By not giving them any attention, they will stop and maybe even reform themselves. Having a pinned document explaining what trolls are, how to make them stop (ignoring them), and fostering a culture of ignoring trolls will all greatly help alleviate this. Troll posts could also be moderated but this document is about how to avoid moderation.

Overall though, in most online communities trolls are few and far between

The Passionist ~(yes I invented a word be quiet)~

The passionist is a normal person (normie) who gets way to passionate, angry, or upset about something and can’t see other’s viewpoints. Typically, a passionist is understandably really upset by something and therefore doesn’t see other viewpoints. A passionist differs from a troll in that they don’t have malicious intentions and are instead just upset about something. A passionist’s mindset rarely changes, they don’t like people with differing viewpoints, and they let their emotions control their words. A passionist is actually just a normal person who gets triggered by certain things (some passionists have many triggers). You and I are actually passionists. Here’s what a typical passionist interaction might look like:

Normie: Pineapple on pizza is amazing. Passionist: BS. And anyone who likes it is insane.

Seems a lot like a troll doesn’t it? However, most of the time when a passionist is called out they change their behavior and apologize. The difference lies in this. A passionist can realize when they’re acting like a troll.

How do we keep ourselves from becoming insufferable passionists? I think it comes down to two things: a) Think three times before you post! Does this need to be said? Will it hurt anyone? Is it constructive criticism? Does this person have a point? Can two reasonable people disagree? Do I see why they believe this? Think through questions like this three times before you post that paragraph explaining why they’re wrong. b) If you see a passionist in the wild, call them out. Be kind and just say something like this: “You’re being really passionate about this and it’s a little harmful.” 98% times the passionist will realize and correct their mistakes.

If you get called out for being a passionist accept the feedback and apologize. Everyone makes mistakes, so correct yours. We are all a passionist at some point.

The Normie

This is you 90% of people 90% of the time. All normies are unique, with unique opinions. All normies share their opinions but rarely act like a passionist over them. Normies all make mistakes and sometimes act like a passionist (or even one of the less known archetypes like the Low Effort Poster, The Flooder, The Lurker, etc). As a normie it is important for you to ignore+report trolls, kindly talk to passionists, report offensive content, and correct your own mistakes. A Normies shouldn’t be afraid to post for fear of being called out though. As long as it thinks three times before you post you’re done nothing wrong. We’re here to have fun.

What to do with this?

Okay, so what do we do with this? We know where issues will arise but how do we prevent it? Easy, just be aware of it. By knowing who's a troll, who is overly passionate about something, and knowing who yourself is most issues will be resolved on their own. Knowing who you're talking to (a real person that may be acting like a passionist or troll) taking feedback, and thinking three times before you post is all you need. Be aware of it and minimize the harmful parts. Call those out who need called out and ignore those who won't listen. Report trolls and out of controll passionists.

TL;DR: To foster a community that needs minimal moderation the troll must be ignored, the passionist redirected and the normie aware.

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Bonus groups:

The Low Effort Poster (LEP): Someone who wants to join the discussion that doesn’t have anything meaningful to say. Typically they reply with copypastas, low effort jokes, and “this”. The LEPs are best handled by giving them no attention and perhaps a gentle reminder that it’s not helpful. Do not insult the LEP as it only hurts a person.

The Flooder: The flooder is someone who posts a ton of content relating to one thing in a short time. They differ from a spam troll in that they have no ill will and are just posting about their interests. There is nothing inherently wrong with them but if you feel yourself acting like a flooder perhaps it would be best to post your meme collection more slowly and spread out. :)

The Lurker: The lurker probably just read this, but will never post so not too much applies to them. They are always watching.

This (and all other documents) should be changed and updated with discussion from the community. All is subject to change, start a discussion on what you think should be changed

Goal: **Create a self governing, safe, and diverse online community that fosters discussion over both original content and shared links. **

Execution:

Before delving deeper into our primary objective, let me first provide some context about how I define "community" in this context. Imagine a thriving farm as an analogy for an effective community. In such a farm, decisions regarding crop selection, planting, harvesting, and pest control are made by the people who use the land and eat the crops - the farmers themselves. Large corporations do not dictate which crops are grown or when to sell them; rather, the farmers cultivate what they believe is tasteful, practical, and enjoyable. Similarly, undesirable growths are removed from the soil, but non-invasive unintended vegetation is tolerated if they pose no detrimental impact on other species.

A healthy community functions similarly. Its residents participate actively in shaping its destiny through mutual decision-making, conflict resolution, and shared responsibility. Even though individuals might disagree on certain matters, they collaborate to reach agreements and accommodate diverse perspectives to ensure overall satisfaction for everyone concerned. In essence, the key difference between a realm managed by external entities versus one self-governed lies in who wields power over planning and implementation processes and whether there exists scope for individual preferences within the framework of communal values.

With that out of the way I'm now going to dive into my vision for the rest of the community. However, these are just my ideas. As explained a good community must come to descsions themselves without one person dictating too much.

Okay. I’ve previously mentioned self-government where decisions are made by the community. Now, let me delve deeper into the specifics. While others might have varying perspectives on this matter, here are my thoughts regarding how our growing community can be governed effectively:

Two methods we can use for community administration are consensus voting and sortition.

For our community, consensus voting could address various topics, including moderation policies, technical improvements, content development, admission criteria, objectives, finances, dispute resolution, etc. Everyone has a say through their participation. To prevent misuse, requirements like minimal involvement duration might be implemented. Attempting full agreement is ideal, but if unattainable, a small margin of error could be accepted. Regular “meta” discussions enable members to voice concerns and find solutions.

Moderation presents a challenge. Unacceptable material shouldn’t remain accessible without intervention. With that said, traditional election or appointment by admin systems aren’t great either. Instead of relying solely on voting, we could practice sortition – selecting individuals at regular intervals (e.g., two months to avoid supermos) via a random process to oversee the community. These randomly chosen moderators would follow predetermined regulations decided upon by the whole group. The new team prepares its successors before rotating out of service. Any disputes are settled by seeking consensus from the entire community.

These suggestions serve only as a starting point for discussion.

Creating a online community is one of the most difficult tasks. There are several ways to approach this challenge. Firstly, all rules should be formulated by the community itself through discussions. Some options for creating these guidelines include implementing an overarching rusafele such as beehaw's "be(e) nice," establishing a detailed set of regulations that are harder to circumvent, or finding a balance between the two approaches. Furthermore, apart from moderators enforcing these rules, the community must foster a culture of kindness where unacceptable behavior is discouraged. New members should be made aware of this policy upon joining. One more method to prevent the presence of haters and trolls is requiring membership applications, though this idea requires further deliberation due to its potential impact on growth. Defederating with toxic instances and disabling upvotes should also be thought about. Overall, building a safe virtual space necessitates collaboration and thoughtful planning.

When it comes to the content discussed on the platform, the specifics should ultimately be determined by the users themselves. Nonetheless, promoting varied conversation topics seems desirable. Content filtering may legal challenges when attempting to manage adult material, that should probably not be allowed. To encourage individuals to contribute without reservations, there needs to be assurances that their posts won't receive unfair downvotes solely based on controversy or originality. Additionally, deciding whether user-generated communities should be established freely or regulated by administrators warrants consideration.

Well, I think that is (currently) the end of my explanation. Now we need to actually build the site. If you are at all moved by this vision please consider helping out by joining. You don't need any skills at all just the ability to participate in a community. There will be a lot that needs to be decided as the community is started (with one of most minor being the name) but once it's going I believe it will be quite simple to manage.

Please note that the most important part of this community is the fact that it's self governed. Therefore, it should be noted that all ideas here are mine and are not final.

Written by Henry 6/2023

Hello stranger. If you've stumbled across this and would like to join we'd love if you were to introduce yourself.

I'm Henry (he/they/it) and I thought this project up. I love all sorts of nerdy things from worldbuilding, to languages, to tech. My main account is @metaltoilet@beehaw.org and my matrix is @metaltoilet:converser.eu. Feel free to reach out to me at either of those.

This space contains instant messaging if that's needed and a place to have more fun and talk more generally. If you're interested in Humein it's highly recommended you join here.

All documents explaining this project and brainstorming new ideas will be moved to this codeberg repository. Eventually, we hope that we can move this to a static site.

Our name is currently Humein. That may change because we didn't really have enough people at the time to properly choose a name (other options were coop as in chickens, sei as in whales, and a few more). However, here's where this name comes from:

Humile ant: Is a type of ant that has large colonies of which the worker ants reconize the queens of other colonies. IDK why but we thought this felt sorta like how a self governed instance would work and ants are cool.

We then added -ein as in humane because it sounds and looks cooler and we're on a pretty humane mission.

🎉 Tada! We have a name!