Kathy Sierra: Take back the comments: stop online harassment
Sierra: The SUD, sudden unexplained death. I am at um a much higher risk. I lose consciousness and have convulsions.
[Slide: More people have epilepsy than cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's combined.
Slide: A still photo of a young boy almost in profile, holding a baseball cap. Words fade in: 90,000 US children have seizures that cannot be fully controlled.]
Sierra: I mean, when you know that you’re going to lose consciousness you could be anywhere. When this happens there’s obviously a a fear that you know that you might not wake up. It comes with this sense of dread, this absolutely overwhelmingly powerful sense of dread, that you feel like you’re going to die. I start saying that one thing that I want to say just in case I never get another chance. And this is a physiological um condition.
[A blue monochrome detail of a human brain appears beside Sierra.]
Sierra: We’re not able to to think our way out of this, this is part of the brain’s way of saying “something is going completely wrong”.
[Slide: That was a glimpse of what causing a seizure can mean]
Sierra: The people who do these things, I don’t think we can do anything about that. But what we can do is change the culture and practice right now for what’s reinforced. Because you might say you know “yeah OK that was kind of nasty comment” or “that was really a mean thing to say, that was really a personal attack but you know I deserved it and it was actually pretty funny” but it’s when we’re looking at comments that are against people we don’t like and we don’t support or we don’t approve of, that’s where it matters. So think about what you’re reinforcing. Think about it before you vote up that comment. And that will make a huge difference. But it has to start with all of us.
[Slide: We can do this
Slide: Just pause, think, and moderate comments
Sierra appears again, smiling broadly, with text reading Stop the Assholes beside her. The text is replaced with (keep the pseudonyms) and then If you have epilepsy TalkAboutIt.org]
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Kimadactyl:
September 27th, 2011 at 4:59 am
Whilst I agree totally with the message (seriously, I don’t even… that really happened??), I’m not quite sure what this has to do with anonymity? I mean, would those people have posted what they did if it wasn’t anonymous?
Trish Fraser:
September 27th, 2011 at 10:04 am
Thank you for transcribing this!
Restructure!:
September 27th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Well, it’s better that epileptics on forums can post pseudonymously, over forcing them to use their real names.
Kathy Sierra:
September 27th, 2011 at 9:04 pm
I am concerned that the “real names will fix bad behavior online” meme is a dangerous one and a distraction from where we *should* be focused. And this is separate from my *other* personal reason for not wanting to be forced into using my real name, as in my pseudonyms used to discuss health issues such as epilepsy.
I have already seen people overhear the past several weeks invoke my name as an example of why anonymity is a bad thing, and that is why I felt I needed to say something. It was not clear in the video, but my feeling is that “real names” will not fix this, and that to believe it WILL just postpones discussion around the online culture we have created.
The “bad guys” will always find a way to subvert real names, while those who might be their targets are now even more exposed.
Francesca:
September 27th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Rather, it’s that trolling has nothing to do with real names, they have to do with the internet culture. This in response to various “real names†policies that people claim will prevent such things, but tend only to prevent names that are obviously false. (A person who would want to remain anonymous could easily just name himself John Smith instead, for instance.)
silicon.shaman:
September 28th, 2011 at 3:40 am
The problem with this, specifically in relation to the epilepsy.. is that the trolls wouldn’t care if they knew they were putting peoples lives at risk. They’d still do it and think it funny.
We’ve all heard about suicides being egged on by the trolls after all, even when they have video and can see the person kill themselves, they don’t care.
It’s probably a matter of statistics I think, in any given group there’s always going to be 1 in 1000 [or however many] who are basically undiagnosed sociopaths… online forums give them a chance to act out.
MyNymIsMySkin:
September 28th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Well said, Kathy Sierra.
Trolls and spammers will simply use fake names that *look* real. Considering the time it takes to bust a plausible-looking fake name, a bad actor can easily re-registering under a new fake name whenever they get caught with no significant downtime. Only honest people who value their privacy are denied a voice by real names policies.
The “real names will fix bad behavior online” meme is an invented cover story for an as-yet undisclosed purpose.
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