Summary
In the paper “Antisocial Behavior in Online Discussions Communities” the focus was on the behavior patterns of users that eventually get banned from communities for posting inappropriate comments, irrelevant issues, and other behavior patterns that do not comply with standard online community conversation norms. The three main questions they were asking were:
(1) When does a user become antisocial – later in community life or from the start?
(2) What role does the community play in encouraging or discouraging antisocial behavior?
(3) Is it possible to identify antisocial users before they are banned?
These questions were imperative for their analysis because these are the fundamental concepts of understanding who a banned user is and how to prevent/identify trolls before they terrorize a community. They focused on three major websites: CNN.com, Breitbart.com, IGN.com in order to gather information that would provide them with enough data to make accurate claims about banned users. Additionally, these sites have the ability to report users, comment and down like posts. They created two groups of users within the community, Future Banned Users (FBUs) and the Never Banned Users (NBUs). These groups emerged not only because this was their focus, but also because language patterns were similar between FBUs and NBUs, this language that FBU’s used were more controversial and words that provoke users. Additionally, the difference between these two groups, their posting habits were also significantly different, with FBU’s there are more posts and more concentrated on a few threads instead of more spread out as a NBU’s post would be. Additionally, there was a trend that FBUs behaviors worsen the more time spent in that community. Furthermore, they indicated that post deletion and post reports were a high indicator of FBU’s, while number of comments and down likes didn’t have such a strong correlation because they serve other purposes. They have determined that within the first 10 post, they can pretty certainly determine what type of user this is.
Personal Reflection
Most of what this article confirms, does not surprise me, it just simply confirms suspects I had about members of on online community. What does surprise me is that there were some trends found with individuals where isolation in the community made the behavior worse. I find this interesting because this makes sense, but also, I am curious how many users get off to the wrong foot, feel isolated, and then lash out. Additionally, I am curious about if banned users are already isolated from society or if they are functioning, just not online. If they aren’t function or are, is there a way we can help them to function online?
Questions
Are all FBUs acting in a malicious intent or just simply lacking the social skills that NBU’s have or have learned to have? I know they clearly lack the social skills to function in an online community, but does that mean that some who maybe as a mental disorder that affects their social skills can’t use a community because they don’t understand the norms? That isolates them from participating in online communities and probably other social communities to. Which raises the question: Is social media only simply connecting they already connected within society? Those who have learned the norms and know how to participate in a receptive manner to others? Additionally, could that possibly perpetuate more isolation?
For example, an individual with autism, enough to function within society, but still noticeable autism. If all of his friends are participating on online communities, do these studies see him as a FBU? Do they get banned for saying inappropriate things? Does that further isolate them from their social community they may have?
