
Designing for evil - kenrick95
http://www.gaijin.com/2015/04/designing-for-evil/
======
striking
Fairly competent article, but it gets bogged down in the Anita
Sarkeesian/GG/my face is a pedophile thing. The article could have flowed
better if written with the rules for "designing for evil" first and then
presenting Sarkeesian as a case study as to why the rules are relevant.

Your strategies for mitigating "evil" can be very effective, and on the whole
they look very good. It's worth noting to be careful with concepts like
shadowbanning and limiting features as they can disenfranchise your userbase
(especially the downright Orwellian "If a new user joins your site and then
their first several actions are to browse exclusively female profiles...").
The designer must be careful to avoid implementing authoritarianism.

And I feel I must provide a counterpoint. 4chan has been one of the most
creative places on the Internet. Although people are harsh and obtuse, these
were often just the appearances they give themselves (considered by most to be
a defense mechanism). Furthermore, they have an lgbt board and plenty of women
visit the site.[1] The culture and togetherness promoted by the anonymity and
freedom of speech are also a powerful force. Not all of your users are evil,
not even close; so why must you presume the worst?

The author provides a fairly decent (although somewhat incomplete) guide to
designing social systems to allow users to defend themselves. The guide is
there, although the reader must avoid the ranting to learn anything of
consequence. 7/10, it wasn't a waste of time.

[1]:
[http://tenaflyviper.tumblr.com/post/91205424710/pokemoneggs-...](http://tenaflyviper.tumblr.com/post/91205424710/pokemoneggs-
people-are-like-lolol-4chan-vs)

~~~
brudgers
My take is that part of reason the article comes off as more than a rehash of
someone else's thoughts is that the author uses their story to establish
credible experience with the subject and for the reader to evaluate their own
experience relative to the author's. That scale provides some readers insight
into Sarkeesian's experience that would not have been possible with a simple
binary representation.

Creating a better understanding the potential scale of the problem is, in my
opinion, a key supporting element for the author's argument that developers
should treat the potential for "evil" very seriously. It makes the list of
strategies, not just another list of strategies on the internet. It anchors
them viscerally.

YMMV.

------
laarc
A conversation with a friend a few months ago:

"So-and-so is coming to speak at my university, but there was a bomb threat."

"What?"

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I think her talk is going to go on anyway, though."

"Can't the FBI do something?"

"Not really."

Apparently stuff like this happens a lot. It wasn't till then that it sunk in
how pervasive the problem is. The bomb threat was apparently due to the
speaker's public remarks about gamergate.

I don't know. Bad situation all around.

------
trav4225
I truly have no intention of sounding callous here, but aren't the words of
trolls just... words?

The concern about trolling doesn't make any sense to me... is this simply
because I predate the social justice generation? Why would I care what some
random troll says or thinks?

Sticks and stones may break my bones?

Again, I intend no offense.

~~~
kenrick95
I also used to think like this. But some people can take those trolls
personally.

------
LForLambda
Aaaaaand downtime

