Attack of the Nazi Trolls: A Lesson for Message Board Moderators

Richardpoe.com ^ | 10-27-03 | Richard Poe

[SJackson]

Wednesday, August 13, 2003 at 13:41

Attack of the Nazi Trolls: A Lesson for Message Board Moderators

In a recent blog entry titled, "I've Been Red-Baited!", I wrote, "I'm not familiar with LibertyForum.org, but it appears to be an anti-Bush, anti-war message board with a distinctly anti-Jewish undertone."

A member of LibertyForum.org named Max Soldo (aka "thoughtcriminal") has responded by e-mail and provided further clarification of LibertyForum's political orientation. He writes:

This forum is a libertarian forum, and is devoted to the libertarian concept of unabashed free speech. With that principle in mind, most posters aren't libertarian as many fringe types have taken advantage of this policy (which includes a no-banning policy) to run amok...hence the preponderance of anti-Jewish posts on this forum.

All of this raises interesting questions for any message board moderator -- such as myself -- who has tried his best to allow a relatively high level of free expression. Inevitably, Nazi trolls find your forum and begin probing your defenses. If you allow them to post messages, they immediately spread the word to other Nazi trolls and soon your message board is infested.

At that point, all the normal people stop posting. It's a bit like when a fight breaks out in a bar and everyone stops talking and turns to watch the fight, transfixed. Suddenly, your message board becomes an arena for Nazi trolls and people arguing with Nazi trolls.

This is called "free speech."

I decided long ago that allowing Nazi trolls to occupy my message board and drive off everyone who does not share their idiosyncratic obsessions is a very poor method for encouraging "free speech." Therefore, I make frequent and forceful use of such allegedly un-libertarian methods as censoring and, when necessary, banning troublemakers, brownshirted or otherwise.

Apparently, the decision-makers at LibertyForum.org have adopted a different approach. As a result, their self-styled "libertarian" message board has become, by Mr. Soldo's description, a playground for non-libertarian "fringe types" to "run amok."

"It does get quite ugly at times, but that's the price one pays for sticking to one's principles," writes Mr. Soldo in a subsequent e-mail.

Well, if that's the price, I don't think I'm willing to pay it. I will add the sad fate of LibertyForum.org to my growing list of reasons for rethinking whether or not I wish to continue calling myself a "libertarian."

 

[rmlew]

I'm on LP. It has its fair share of trolls.
One of them, David Paul, is nice enough top ping all the anti-Semites.

[AppyPappy]

ParrotsUp

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Our mistake was to depend on the french.

[Chad Fairbanks]

That's a mistake everyone makes...

[rmlew]

A persistant anti-Zionist who talks about Jewish conspiracies defending agains the charge of anti-Semitism?

[truthandjustice1]

"ParrotsUp"

Wasn't he a former poster? I believe he was known as asher, if I'm not mistaken.

[Catspaw]

The main Tionontati village was overrun, and less than 1,000 Tionontati and Huron managed to escape to a temporary refuge on Mackinac Island near Sault Ste. Marie (Upper Michigan). The Iroquois followed, and by 1651 the Huron and Tionontati refugees (who together would become the Wyandot) were forced to relocate farther west to Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Wow, Chad! Homeboys!! I bet they got first dibs on Packers season tickets, too.

I'm comin' down on your side, Chad.

[AppyPappy]

Look at my profile

[Chad Fairbanks]

The empire extended west from the north shore of Chesapeake Bay through Kentucky to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; then north following the Illinois River to the south end of Lake Michigan; east across all of lower Michigan, southern Ontario and adjacent parts of southwestern Quebec; and finally south through northern New England west of the Connecticut River through the Hudson and upper Delaware Valleys across Pennsylvania back to the Chesapeake.

There is still, to this day, an Iroquois presence in Wisconsin - a large group of Oneida ended up there at some point. My great grandfather, a Mohawk, actually lived there for a period as well... Our people waged war in every state east of the Mississippi river, in fact ;0)

[hope]

You have to consider the source. This nitwit's account has been on and off again even more than Britney Spears pants....and don't forget the famous opus.

[truthandjustice1]

I know you already, without your profile.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Should have been a lesson for the rest of the world.

NEVER TRUST THE FRENCH.

(and keep an eye on the Iroquois)

[Chad Fairbanks]

and keep an eye on the Iroquois

Hey, we were nice. We tried diplomacy first, and if we were rebuffed, we kicked some serious heiny... Civilized, I guess you could call it ;0)

[zacyak]

I guess Jim just doesn't want his website to become a "Free Ernst Zundel from jail" outpost.

Actually the Canadian hate crime laws being used to prosecute Zundel are the very same ones that they are now using against Christians when reciting anti-homosexual passages from the Bible. Are you trying to say that you support these sorts of laws?

[Bob J]

Nope.

[Bob J]

I don't see them complaining...wait...now I do.

[Chad Fairbanks]

There is a difference between private property/private business and a government - but, then, you knew that already...

[Catspaw]

There is still, to this day, an Iroquois presence in Wisconsin - a large group of Oneida ended up there at some point. My great grandfather, a Mohawk, actually lived there for a period as well... Our people waged war in every state east of the Mississippi river, in fact ;0)

Actually, I do know :-)) How? Well, I'm in Green Bay, and if you look at a map of the area and trace Hwy. 54 west out of Green Bay, you'll see a small dot--that dot is (ta da!) Oneida--which also is the HQ for the Oneida Tribe of Indians. The reservation boundaries actually encompass most of the west side of Green Bay, goes far west to almost the border of the next county west and south into the next county south, but there's the usual fight about where the boundaries actually are.

The Oneida Tribe of Indians is a force in this area--they own a casino, a Radisson hotel and conference center, a bank, restaurants, and a number of other holdings. If you see pictures of the new Lambeau Field, the Oneidas have a gate named after them (a fairly pricey deal, from what I understand, but not in the $100 mil naming rights price). And I have a number of friends and neighbors who work at the various Oneida Enterprises, some Oneida, others members of other tribes, and some non-Indian. A few of my college classmates are now higher-ups in the Tribal government. They're a very successful tribe. And if you ever get up this way, I know they'd love a visit.

[truthandjustice1]

"My great grandfather, a Mohawk, actually lived there for a period as well... Our people waged war in every state east of the Mississippi river, in fact ;0)"

Holy cow, my Grand Parents (great great, were Mohawk, hailing from up state New York. Lot's of Indian blood flowing in these veins.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I'd love to visit there, if only to find out what my great-grandfather was up to ;0)