I will often put up a commenting note like “no discussion of [TOPIC],” which nips that in the bud.
Yeah—proactive explicit moderation is a pretty useful tool.
Another reason demon threads sometimes escalate is that there are antisocial persons like myself who really enjoy participating in demon threads.
Worth noting that I enjoy participating in demon threads, but I try to be deliberate about when and where I’m doing it, and to try to do it for things that don’t actually matter that much when I want to blow off steam on the internet. (I also try to do them in spaces that are already Basically Hell, so additional demon threads aren’t making things worse)
(Facebook and tumblr occupy a space where they contain people with varying degrees of “bothering at this present moment to have a serious conversation”, so you can sometimes have real conversation and sometimes have Suddenly Demons Everywhere. I don’t know tumblr that well, but on FB there’s usually some subtle clues about whether the particular space you’re in is a “let’s have a cathartic demon thread” place, or a “guys we’re trying to have a real conversation” place.)
Yeah—proactive explicit moderation is a pretty useful tool.
Worth noting that I enjoy participating in demon threads, but I try to be deliberate about when and where I’m doing it, and to try to do it for things that don’t actually matter that much when I want to blow off steam on the internet. (I also try to do them in spaces that are already Basically Hell, so additional demon threads aren’t making things worse)
(Facebook and tumblr occupy a space where they contain people with varying degrees of “bothering at this present moment to have a serious conversation”, so you can sometimes have real conversation and sometimes have Suddenly Demons Everywhere. I don’t know tumblr that well, but on FB there’s usually some subtle clues about whether the particular space you’re in is a “let’s have a cathartic demon thread” place, or a “guys we’re trying to have a real conversation” place.)