Traditional methods for protecting community from the effects of scale and poor behavior are now manifestly unfeasible. Raising barriers to entry, relying on the assumption that users will maintain only one registered account, and placing faith in the ability of admins and user moderation to reproduce a forum's organic culture are all easily circumvented, gamed, and/or ineffective when faced with the problems of scale. Moreover, they tend to reinforce self-destructive behaviors, by increasing returns to the most persistent rather than the most constructive, reinforcing groupthink, and providing ample targets for trolling and griefing. This article attempts to fundamentally rethink what constitutes community and society on the web, and what possibilities exist for their maintenance and reconstruction in the face of scale and malicious users. The recommendations reached, after analyzing the weaknesses of the web forums we all know and love
S. Haikola, and S. Jonsson. Libri: International Journal of Libraries & Information Services, 57 (4):
209-218(December 2007)M3: Article; Haikola, Simon 1; Email Address: simonhaikola@gmail.com; Jonsson, Sara 1; Email Address: saraj80@hotmail.com; Affiliations: 1: Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS), Göteborg University and Högskolan i Borås, Sweden.; Issue Info: Dec2007, Vol. 57 Issue 4, p209; Thesaurus Term: PRIVACY, Right of; Thesaurus Term: LIBRARIES & state; Thesaurus Term: LIBRARY surveillance; Thesaurus Term: LIBRARIES & the Internet; Thesaurus Term: INTERNET access for library users -- Law & legislation; Thesaurus Term: COMPUTER security; Subject Term: SWEDEN -- Politics & government -- 1973-; Subject Term: WEB analytics; Subject Term: NATIONAL security; Subject Term: ELECTRONIC surveillance; Subject Term: CIVIL rights; Subject: SWEDEN; NAICS/Industry Codes: 928110 National Security; People: FOUCAULT, Michel, 1926-1984 -- Political & social views; Number of Pages: 10p; Document Type: Article.