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0 pointslmm4y ago0 comments

> Is that really specific to IRC? I'm sure there's at least as much drama on Discord or large Whatsapp/telegram groups today.

The fact that anyone can start their own group limits tin god syndrome on those networks. IRC requires moderate technical skill and either running or paying for servers, which is enough of a hurdle that admins can get away with quite a lot of bad behaviour before being ousted.

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colllectorof4y ago

Yes. Communication software that can be set up by anyone with some technical skill is bad. Communication software run by centralized corporations is good. No drama possible when your entire chat system can be nuked with a press of a button from some anonymous "moderator".

simcop23874y ago

It's more that ease of setting up a new community makes the network effect nearly negligible which mitigates a large amount of the personnel issues that usually crop up when it takes more capital to get something going. It's really got very little to do with the centralization or corporation backing it directly.

simias4y ago

We'll see about that whenever Discord wants to cleanup their act for a buyout/IPO/advertiser/whatever and they start banning things that are not corporate-friendly.

Many internet users sure love complaining about "muh free speech" post-facto when they're more than happy to buy into closed ecosystems in the first place.

This is not aimed at you personally by the way, I'm just always frustrated to see this pattern repeating itself year after year and yet users keep hoping to new proprietary platforms. "No but we swear it's different this time you guys!!".

lmmOP4y ago

Well, there really isn't, because the moderators are so far away from the day-to-day conflicts. Rather like how living under a distant emperor and his unaccountable mandarins tends to mean less day-to-day drama than living in the wild west, where it's easy to attract the attention of the local big man.

alisonkisk4y ago

You missed the point completely. The issue is that it requires tech skills instead of being accessible to everyone, so those techies can, as you say "nuke" people.

emteycz4y ago

I don't think ISPs care at all about this. They care about the health of their networks.

simias4y ago

That's for network-level drama, sure, but in my experience most of the day-to-day drama was at the channel level and anybody can start a new channel.

And back in its heydays there were enough big IRC networks that you could just hop from one to the other if the admins became a nuisance. Then you had an eggdrop bot synchronize both channels during the migration, good times.

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colllectorof4y ago

simcop23874y ago

simias4y ago

We'll see about that whenever Discord wants to cleanup their act for a buyout/IPO/advertiser/whatever and they start banning things that are not corporate-friendly.

Many internet users sure love complaining about "muh free speech" post-facto when they're more than happy to buy into closed ecosystems in the first place.

lmmOP4y ago

alisonkisk4y ago

You missed the point completely. The issue is that it requires tech skills instead of being accessible to everyone, so those techies can, as you say "nuke" people.

emteycz4y ago

I don't think ISPs care at all about this. They care about the health of their networks.

simias4y ago

That's for network-level drama, sure, but in my experience most of the day-to-day drama was at the channel level and anybody can start a new channel.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse