Re:Reddit makes me hate atheists
by maeon3 on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @02:37PM
(#3401027)
I am not at all disturbed by this toxic decline of a once thoughtful place because I understand why exactly it has taken place.
Gresham's law of trolls.
Trolls want to get their jollies joining thoughtful polite forums of high intellectual discourse. Trolls do not want to spend time in forums full of other trolls because the troll gets trolled. Non trolls do not want to spend time in troll infested forums.
It causes a curious cycle: Forum starts, thoughtful people join, it grows mightily, trolls join, thoughtful people decline, trolls increase, forum saturates with trolls, forum loses 90% of it's former size. A predictable cycle that happens in all forums that don't take huge efforts to stop it.
Gresham's law of trolls.
Trolls want to get their jollies joining thoughtful polite forums of high intellectual discourse. Trolls do not want to spend time in forums full of other trolls because the troll gets trolled. Non trolls do not want to spend time in troll infested forums.
It causes a curious cycle: Forum starts, thoughtful people join, it grows mightily, trolls join, thoughtful people decline, trolls increase, forum saturates with trolls, forum loses 90% of it's former size. A predictable cycle that happens in all forums that don't take huge efforts to stop it.