How does one protest a decision on a moderated forum?
I’ve been thinking about protests recently. We just had one over at NYU.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/nyregion/21nyu.html
And one of the spokespeople made an interesting point. If I recall correctly from the radio, it was to the order of, “We welcome protest, we think it’s healthy and good, but there is a proper time and place for it, and this is not it, because it inconveniences other people.”
And I thought, as I drove in, “Well… isn’t it supposed to inconvenience people when you protest?” Specifically, it’s supposed to inconvenience the people you’re protesting against. That’s where Critical Mass gets it wrong, as well as those people who block the bridges. There, you inconvenience people who might agree with you, as well as people who have no opinion or power either way.
Now, there are two kind of protests. Violent protest and civil disobedience. Civil disobedience operates properly when, like here, we have moderators who follow their own rules. On someplace like Something Awful, it does not.
Violent protest would include, generally, things that will get you instabanned. For example, calling board wars, hacking the server, and finding the moderator’s homes and lurking outside them. Mostly illegal, certainly unhealthy, and definitely unwise. (I suspect welcoming a goonswarm invasion, while technically not a board war, would also qualify due to the effective DDoS.)
So, what is nonviolent protest on a honest moderated forum?
A: Long, involved posts about the matter. That’s what we have here, in ATMB, but there are disadvantages. Certainly, the powers involved are aware of the discontent, but they are also completely able to ignore the matter and wander off. Thus, it’s not especially effective as a matter of showing displeasure.
B: Resigning in protest. Well, that works. The thing is, it only works in two ways. First, if you’re important to the running of the board. Thus, the resignation of Giraffe and fluiddruid has weight. Me leaving does not. Even if Scylla, Fenris, Bricker, and, say, Polycarp were to all quit at once… it wouldn’t matter. Now, if you can imagine fifty people a day, I mean, fifty people a day, walking in, singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant, and leaving… er, sorry. If you can get a statistically significant amount of people to sod off, you’ll make an impact. But… how can you be sure?
C: Descriptive protest. Fifty people a day walking into a thread, singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant, and leaving. It kicks up the noise value of the board significantly, makes more work for the staff, but it’s also spamming. Good way to make the point clear, good way to get banned. Still, a viable technique.
D: “White mutiny”
Clearly, this is effective at showing displeasure, but it requires the moderators and administrators to be displeased. See B: above. Not effective at a user level.
E: “Black mutiny” Combine C and D, for a Black Monday like effect. Report everything that’s even tangentally reportable. Cause as much legitimate work for the staff as possible. Behave like a spam filter set to sensitive. Effective? Yeah, I’d say so. Less effectively clear that it is a protest than C, but on an individual level more secure from banning. Probably. Unless you overdo it. Possibly may lead to overkill bans from the staff.
F: Contacting advertisers. This is the classic form of boycott, as used by Focus on the Family. Problem is, on the internet, ads are sponsored by a server, not directly. Protesting to the server may or may not have an effect. Anyone know anything about this?
G: Contacting ‘higher-ups’. Often suggested… but do they really care about what random users on a forum think? Probably not.
H: Nondescriptive protest. Putting a significant quote in your signature to show why you are upset over something. This does show you’re upset, and that you’re protesting, but it won’t actually disturb the moderators in any way, making it fairly ineffective. I’m experimenting with it here, partially as an example.
So… anyone have any observations, further opinions on what is an appropriate protest, thoughts on any of the above methods I’m missing?
Now, I want to make this clear, while I am upset over the change in the Pit, and that is one of the reasons I’m posting this thread, it’s not the sole reason. We’ve had threads about Critical Mass in the last month, I’ve seen the NYU protest, and I’ve seen rules changes about calling out Mods. I’ve seen upset people in the thread calling out for all sorts of action, and I’m wondering… what is effective? What is useful, in this sort of location?
What about less honest or caring forums, like, say, the forum of a manufacturer of a product that is… not so good?
