Posted on 09/11/2022 11:57:13 AM PDT by for-q-clinton
As I've tried to make clear, I am open to any and all opinions and ideas. But there is a way to discuss even distasteful or vulgar ideas without being vulgar, distasteful, and abusive in doing it. Some people seem to be incapable of that or even purposely not do it.
I've come to the conclusion that most of them are trolls trying to turn people off of Gab. I just block them and ignore it. If you're gonna have actual freedom of speech, there's gonna be speech there you don't care for. Fortunately, there are tools available to filter that garbage out.
Thanks for sharing that. I had not realized it was possible though come to think of it, totally sensible. I signed up 4 1/2 years ago. Name is Ray Dix.
I don’t understand how people sign on and instantly have thousands of followers. Seems like cheating to me.
On some socials you can purchase followers and positive comments for money. From people who run automated software bots.
InstaSpam is famous for this.
Somebody will make a post and one minute later it’s got 5000 “likes”.
I believe in freedom of speech in the same way I believe in democracy. If you are only using the system to destroy the system, you don't belong in the system.
Can a company that promises total freedom of expression walk back that promise? Yes, the trolls (if they are trolls) are a threat to the business model, or at least they are limiting the growth of the company. They are probably gleeful that they are allowed to do it, have co-opted a social media platform, and love the hateful attention.
Try supporting Joe Biden and see what happens. Try supporting abortion...
During the Trump campaign we kicked out a lot of moderates.
Why do I want to support either of those?
You asked what speech we limit...I just showed you that’s all.
I find it hard to find news links like are found here.
Same for Truth Social.
On this planet "civil" has come to mean "good for leftism" and "uncivil" means "bad for leftism."
That's the way it is on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere.
In 2012 here on FR I was swarmed and then kicked off for supporting the GOP nominee once the Convention was over.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that most of them are trolls trying to turn people off of Gab. I just block them and ignore it. If you’re gonna have actual freedom of speech, there’s gonna be speech there you don’t care for. Fortunately, there are tools available to filter that garbage out.”
+++++
Agreed. I suspect half of the trolls are employed by Twitter and the other half are leftist government officials. For both are quick to highlight the trolls’ remarks and run to GAB’s founder for a response.
I simply filter them out and have found some great resources and information there. The site is actually very user friendly when it comes to blocking the trolls. A lot better than Twitter.
Join the fr group. Link in post above.
Thanks.
“Can a company that promises total freedom of expression walk back that promise?”
I visit one web site (not social media) where they control the crazies with a limit of three posts per hour.
That works really well—brush fires can’t become flame wars and the bots do not overwhelm the site.
If you know you can only make three points in an hour it encourages you to make them count.
;-)
Probably not. It would be extremely difficult to stay true to the idea of supporting the first amendment without allowing trolls. You basically have to have a bit of faith of the normal folks on the site. I think John R found pretty darn early on that being even marginally absolutist on the 1st amendment is a relatively easy way to get completely run over by trolls. I respect his point of view as is obvious since I've been on this site for an insanely long time. Sometimes it chafes because legitimate points of inquiry (IMO) are cut off, but really, in the big scheme of things, the things that can't be discussed is really fairly small here.
Andrew has decided to live with the garbage, to facilitate the conversation. I support both approaches with my money. I'd love to see Andrew do some serious analysis of server logs to identify trolls. I suspect a lot of that goes on in the background that we would never see, mainly because he prefers the lighter approach in moderation. If I'm still around on Gab 20 years from now, it will be interesting to see how it evolves.
interesting idea
Tom in SFCA said: There is no porn on Gab. Something is compelling you to tell preposterous lies. You should go to God for help.
If gab no longer has pr0n, that’s news to me. But I bet if I went back and made an account on gab again, pr0n or not, the death threats would start back up immediately. Gab is nothing but a bunch of lying, self-serving, globalist criminals. Also I’m betting that a nice little program to embarrass and exploit the Trump family started on gab and is still going on.
If that’s what you like, go for it. They talk about hacking people’s machines, faking passports, and stealing personal info right in front of the whole world.
They used to talk about what I was doing in my house while I was doing it - “she’s wearing this, she’s doing this.” They could see me and I could not see them. They’re probably still doing it.
The thing is, I try never to block anyone online. I don’t filter stuff out. They tell you to “filter out” the nastiness on gab and block people who talk about committing crimes or if they make threats. But if you don’t filter or block, you can see how filthy the pond is that you’re swimming in.
And then there’s the moral high ground they like to take: We’re GOOD CATHOLICS and you should be a good woman and stay indoors and stop paying attention to what the men are doing.
That’s what gangsters always say. They act like Gd is on their side. That’s a typical gangster go-to maneuver: I’m a godly, manly man and you shouldn’t pay attention to what I’m doing. Get back in the house.
Gab was full of pr0n when I was a member of gab. If you weren’t a member then, why make an a$$ out of yourself by saying there’s “no porn” on gab? If it’s changed, that’s great. But it’s still a bunch of gangsters who act like they own the internet while they mouth platitudes about J3sus and so on.
And: Ru$$ians. You’re not going to tell me there aren’t any Ru$$ians on gab, are you? LOL
Your pr0n is calling. Better go see what it wants.
I hope that God blesses you.
>I seem to spend most of my limited time there blocking anti-Semitic and vulgar posters.
There are a number of people who appear to make their life work to “David Duke” anything that doesn’t follow leftist censorship standards.
A new platform emerges and here come a flood of “name the jew” people with the scraggly cartoon figures and every variation of vile screed.
They have one goal with two prongs: either a) as these get reported to mainstream media the site is either forced to censor ‘hate’ or gets blacklisted; or b) conservative people are unable to get through the waves of garbage and chaff to find any real content. In either scenario they win — the leftist stranglehold on content remains and no challengers emerge (which IMO is what those people are *paid* to do).
Torba seems to have been able to keep Gab up through all this and my experience is that if you ‘follow’ people you already know first and expand from there, you can easily avoid nonsense.
There are still some thorns to be accepted as people can write whatever they want that isn’t overtly illegal or smut, so some discretion is needed as well as the ability to dismiss and scroll by things without flipping out.
Same here, right? I don’t enter every link-to-YouTube post and on the controversial topics try not to get worked up when (for instance) people call each other the same names on the same Ukraine threads every day. Or you could be one of the people whose blood pressure goes up when a blog-link post is exerpted or whatever.
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