Grants:IdeaLab/Stop feeding the trolls
gmail.com
Project idea[edit]
What is the problem you're trying to solve?[edit]
Let me start, English Wikipedia has suffered a lot from ongoing trolling which over the years has become a major issue, It has created an anti-friendly atmosphere and has also led to Personal attacks, outing and obviously, harassment...Wikipedia likes to keep a list of "trolls" or as they say "sockpuppets" which is a problem on its own.
What is your solution?[edit]
Most trolls come to wikipedia seeking fame, they can easily gain that by pissing of vandal fighters and admins..They know how to push the right buttons..I know this because I have been on the project for nearly a decade and over that time have been significantly involved in fighting these "trolls" across wikimedia where these trolls are less likely to be caught and blocked. My solution was to delete all categories/list related to "socks" whose sole intention is to destabilize the wiki, create drama, use the wiki as their playground and make a mockery of our set policies, especially the one I listed above. I'm not saying that we ignore them, No, that would be silly, I'm saying we create a new policy or update the one i listed above whereby an admin, after realizing which troll they are dealing with blocks the accounts but does not "tag" the userpage relating to the troll in question but instead just blocks the user, list the name down on a private mailing-list and revdeletes their edits and with the help of stewards (if the username is derogatory or obscene), get it locked and hidden. This is the only logical way to get rid of trolls like these, as i said, we had a similar issue with another troll who did this and this idea worked and now that troll is gone, The main reason why they do this is for fame and recognition, once you take that away, they have nothing, they can keep trying for a while but eventually they will give up..lets stop giving them a "badge" (their own sock categories and tags) because by doing that, you are enabling them, you are tempting them to do more damage which will only hurt other users (collateral damage), new contributors who may leave the project if they get threatened by this...Why do we have a policy we refuse to enforce? Why do we allow vandals/trolls to use the wiki as their playground and then blast those who try to do something about it?
Project goals[edit]
We have so many people posting about "Harassment" and "Gender-inequality" in the "Grants:IdeaLab" sub-topics section but no one is actually giving a real solution..My solution is not that good, but its a start..90% of all harassment on wikis is related to trolls targeting certain individuals whom they deem "weak" or unable to 'defend' themselves and then use them for their personal game... My goal is to ensure people like these are automatically denied any form of recognition, they are blocked, their contributions deleted...but unfortunately I did try to bring this up on the English Wikipedia, but instead of coming up with solutions or ideas, it was somehow turned into a "gender-issue" (I have no idea how that happened) but its obvious enwiki is broken and its actually the ONLY wiki where this is a major problem, other wikis have had a good control over their "trolls", but enwiki admins refuse to take action and instead give trolls the "Medal of Honour" by giving them personalized categories and tags. My goal obviously is to ensure this is no longer an issue on enwiki, Long term vandals are removed from the wiki for good, but enwiki refuses to make a start, this is A START, infact it is the Only thing that will work. Obviously people will ask how we can enforce this, its simple, make it part of Wikimedia's ToU, we start taking it seriously, the major issue on all projects has never been Gender-inequality, it has always been harassment which is not limited to one gender so why not enforce a policy which deals with this as a whole?
Get involved[edit]
See also[edit]
Expand your idea[edit]
Would a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation help make your idea happen? You can expand this idea into a grant proposal.
Endorsements[edit]
- Denying recognition is the way to go. If we tag the sock, essentially we give the troll a badge of honour. TheCoffeeAddict talk|contribs 06:47, 11 June 2016 (UTC)
Participants[edit]
- Advisor I want to provide my insight on this idea. TheCoffeeAddict talk|contribs 07:04, 11 June 2016 (UTC)