A day in the life II » ethics

One last AmazonFail post

Malcolm — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:45:18 +0000

A link roundup and a link especially to a blog called Adventures in Ethics and Science, which I am pleased to say sums up my response to Amazon pretty much completely at this point.

Links:

Aforementioned ethics and science blog post that I agree with.
Clay Shirky apologizes abjectly for jumping on the #amazonfail Twitter bandwagon and apparently forgives Amazon completely (saying that everyone who took the moral outrage route overreacted and should consider apologizing for the whole thing too). Interesting in that it’s a new opinion/perspective on the discussion, not that I agree entirely with it.
Also this post about how “Communication is part of the market.” rules.
I also wanted to link to my comments about closing my Amazon account:

Tao of the Warrior 7: Justice

Malcolm — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:12:53 +0000

I map Justice to the trigram for Mountain. I think that justice builds the foundations of the mountain of your commitment. It helps you be fair, merciful, honorable, wise. It helps you demonstrate that your opponents/allies should take you seriously because they know that if you are just, you will be just with all of them, friend or foe, which means a battle might be worth the effort and discomfort it will certainly engender.

Justice is closely tied with duty, wisdom, honor. It is important to be a just warrior because without a sense of justice, opponents will only engage with you out of revenge. Fighting a vengeful opponent is much more difficult than convincing one who already knows you are just (and honorable and wise).

As an activist, not only are you fighting for your cause and your ultimate goals, but you should also be looking for folks (who may start out alternately as fans of yours or opponents or anywhere in between) who can and will become your allies. You’re much more likely to get allies who are useful at building and recruiting other allies, who are themselves personable, fair, wise, honorable, just, if you yourself demonstrate those qualities. It’s a self-reinforcing feedback loop that will work out well if you lay strong foundations and build a reputation for integrity or justice.
With that in mind, some general aspects of justice:

Do:

Demonstrate consistency
Remain present and accessible
Demonstrate responsibility (to yourself, your opponents, your allies, your duties)
Build and display a strong ethical framework for your actions
Demonstrate affection (to yourself, your opponents (if possible), your allies, your dependents)
Be generous
Be respectful
Be decisive

Do not:

Assume your opponents are stupid or crazy
Assume that your ethics are obvious to or shared by your opponents
Assume that your context/experience is shared by your opponents
Assume your morals are obvious and shared
Assume that even if your opponent understands you, they will switch sides or ally with you
Assume that your needs trump everyone else’s (that your opponent will immediately back down, etc.)
Be inconsistent, waffle or hesitate
Behave differently in private than you do in public

Trolling and real life versus virtual life

Malcolm — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:48:36 +0000

Let me get to the second part first.

Real Live versus “Virtual Life”:
I have been on the Internet since very near the beginning.

I have at least been here since before DNS – when you had to know IP addresses of servers you used by yourself and keep track of them yourself.

I have also been here since before Bitnet. Bitnet was the e-mail addressing/protocol wave of the future that we still use today (i.e. malcolm.gin@gmail.com). When I started, we used UUCP, where you had to know the path your e-mail would take and you had to specify each e-mail host in turn along the path from you to your intended recipient in the address field (i.e. zeppo!harpo!cbosg!!ucbvax!malcolm).

I have also been here since when teleprinter (or TTY) terminals were the kinds that typed out your “screen” on a continuous feed of paper.

I remember when there was gopher, which was before HTTP and was more like endlessly interlinking dmoz directories. I remember Trumpet and other SOCK stacks. I remember the first Mozilla, I remember AOL’s browser, I remember older software and things that made the Internet go than many of you do.

Why do I say all this? I am (almost) 40 years old, and granted I did start early (my preteens), when I came into the Internet, it was already Real Life for me and for most of the other people already there. They used it for business and research and it was a small community of folks who found that posting on the USENET or sending an e-mail was easier to do than phone or write postal mail to someone they needed to talk to.

When I took the Internet and telnetted to MOOs, those were also already Real Life for me. The Internet has always been, for me, Real Life.

Now to trolling.

Trolling:
If you are going to troll me here or in Real Life, keep in mind that here, the Internet, is already Real Life for me.

If I call your boss or your HR department or if I forward your crap you were stupid enough to put in writing and send to me over the Internet (thus violating interstate telecommunications laws), to the FBI or to your ISP, I will have done so because you used a Real Life communications device to send me a threatening or harassing message.

In my experience of the Internet, the Internet is not a playground. It is not a get out of jail free place where you can be a fucking idiot and expect to get off scot-free. There are no grace periods. There are no free shots. My Internet, which I grew up with, is a telecommunications device, just like a phone, just like a written letter, just like a telegram. It’s a communications medium whereby you and I talk to each other.

This blog is a personal diary I share with the public or with selected interested people. The web site that hosts it is like my business card.

My other blog is a place where I put technical stuff I (or my coworkers) need to refer to about the technical stuff we do at work.

The LiveJournal I have is a place where it’s important to be a good representation of who I really am in Real Life (because it is a telecomm extension of Real Life).

My avatar on Second Life is similarly a (more abstract) depiction of me (though it’s easier to wear costumes).

Who am I on the Internet? The same person as who I am in Real Life. That’s because the Internet, to me, is Real Life.

And I will treat it as such even if you may disagree. So consider this your fair warning.

But what do you do about trollers?

Malcolm — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:06:42 +0000

So now that most of us know who the troller from WisCon is, what do we do about her?

My first question to you is, what about “don’t feed the trolls” did you not understand?

Probably the worst way is to respond with hurt and rage. This is what trolls are in the game for. If you do this, the troll can make more fun of you and the cycle continues.

Another poor way is to respond in kind. Again this perpetuates the dynamic and encourages more interaction while simultaneously corrupting your own side and your moral and ethical advantages.

A good general way to respond is in a way they aren’t hoping you will (Angry Black Woman has suggested an approach of spamming the SASS board with cute pictures of kitties and nice, sweet things). Honestly, this would be a good one if we knew none of the cute-spammers would ever get angry and knew no one would ever stoop to anger or revenge on the side of the righteous. Unfortunately, because we’re human and on their battleground, it’s not likely to go well for us if we do carry out this plan – inevitably we’ll get caught up in the bad feelings and stop doing the right thing.

Another possibility, which grants a moral advantage, is the way badgerbag responded, which was deconstructionist and in sympathy. badgerbag responded by saying, “Hey, this person must be pretty fucked up.” (paraphrase), then did research and found evidence that our troller seems to have some eating disorder-related problems, and then exhorted us to instead try to respond to this person with sympathy, and to interpret her trolling as cries for help. The advantage here is that we move from a moral high-ground and the ethics of this approach are pretty sound. Unfortunately, like the cute-spamming strategy, it puts us within reach and should things go south again, builds in us the possibility to resent and to rage about how it went, despite all the good faith effort we put into trying to build bridges.

I think if I were moved to respond in some way, I would probably choose a strictly formal legal route with hired legal representatives. It is a little trollish to respond with legal measures, but it kind of evens the playing field and from the tactical standpoint, any trollish aggression after the first legal move actually digs holes much more deeply and more quickly for the opposing side (actually, until they realize you’re absolutely serious, you’re likely to get more bullshit than less, which will be to your advantage in the long haul, which is one of the reasons I’d choose this route). Legal responses are formal and impersonal, which helps average out any stupidity and cushions us from the corrupting influences of getting too involved. Also, they are generally ethically sound (as long as you’re careful). Morally sound? I’m not quite sure. I think it may depend on your religion.

But I think the absolute best way to respond is very satisfying in a Zen sense, if you can manage it. You simply don’t. You do not give the troller any notice, credit or attention. You just get on with life and act like they aren’t even there (or even better, naturally exhibit complete ignorance of their existence, because you don’t care). Why does this work so well? Because the troll craves attention, the troll craves a reaction, the troll wants to be noticed. Fundamentally, not noticing, not caring, not responding is the best reaction because they get absolutely no feedback at all, and will eventually go elsewhere for their trollish pleasure.