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The issue isn't discord, discord is in essence just IRC again. IRC wasn't exactly a bastion of intelligent conversation in all corners, but one of the biggest issues I think the internet currently faces is that everyone is here now. Every brain with a thought no matter how vapid or vile is now joining the conversation.

But just like with IRC, it's all about the specific community you've joined, not the platform. You can definitely find good communities on discord.




In the real world we have a natural protection from these idiotic or demeaning posts: shame. It is a very important component and mechanism in social connections that is completely missing online (unless your handle is tied to your real identity like VIP Twitter).

How could it translate online where anonymity is like a shell protecting you from shame?


In small online communities that is still how it works, people don't want to disappoint their peers and their handle is their identity with built up socia capital to lose, so they behave or get excluded in some fashion.

The internet really enables large groups and strangers to join those without any kind of social capital buy in to the community. I think one of our biggest mistakes in online communities was thinking you could just open the doors, invite thousands of people in, and expect that to go well. That doesn't go well in the real world when there are real world consequences. Any concert or protest or big sporting event always has bad eggs in it. Think soccer fan riots or protests turned sour or concerts with heaps of assault going on.

I think you're right in some sense it's just that the influences of social mechanisms are different online. Anonymity is often just psuedo-anonymity inside small online communities. People still don't want their online handle tarnished as they use that persona to be part of communities, and they would lose their social capital with that handle if it went south. But it's also possible for strangers with worthless handles to show up and be horrible with zero consequences.


> everyone is here now

Maybe we need a communication medium that requires technical skills to operate again.




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