Making the Internet a little more friendlier [tech]

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Hi, I don't know if this is really the correct section, so forgive me. I suppose it may be more technology related, but I really wanted to post this in the general section so more people could provide any nessecary input.

So the Internet can be a hateful place, full of very judgemental people and very nasty ones, at that. As a matter of fact, some could say that "autism awareness" has backfired, and now anonymous people Online are making fun of it, everywhere you look in certain communities, even YouTube. Don't you just wish you could get rid of them, everything that they say, and just listen to all the people on the Internet that really matter?

Do you remember the internet back in the late 1990's. It was an enjoyable experiance to be Online for the first time, communicate and interact with people. Most of the things people said back then were appreciative, kind words. Nowadays, especailly as many people grow older, and I assume this applies to many young adults with ASD. They are being trolled, bullied, harassed, or even threatened Online by anonymous users of the Internet, simply because they have the majority viewpoint. Or there could be a situation where you really don't like someone's opinion, viewpoint, or something they said entirely. It's worthless to you, and it's useless and thoughtless information, and it doesn't need to exist in our world. But it does, and that's the saddest thing.

I really want to make a project for people, that will filter out social situations. The infamous 4Chan-X plugin, includes JavaScript code, which can allow people to input regular expressions to filter out comments or keywords that people say. Now regex is hard at first to learn, but it is very useful once you do learn it. It doesn't ahve ot be regex, it could be something simpler, too. I want to apply the ideas of 4Chan-X and the filtering capabilities with the whole Internet. Heck, even make it an open standard. Let's bring back the old Internet, full of all those nice and thoughtful people. Let's ignore and cast away people with highly judgemental and inane opinions; cast them out the door. They don't deserve to have their shameless opinions, and you don't deserve to hear them. Freedom of speech still comes with a social responability. And this is exactly what people lack when they are Online. It's stupid! Once you understand this, you realize that there's no true freedom, without the freedom ot take away freedom. because of this, you can only truly be free if you can live in a world that is... only to you though.

To make ourselves more free, even free to express ourselves Online, we need a logical defense against trolling and defamation. What better way to achieve this than with an open standard for Internet filtering? This is what the world needs in 2015, and many years to come. I mean, we can already filter ads that we don't want to see with ad blocking software, so why not user comments and text?? Until people are able to start more ASD-related communities with like-minded people, there has to be a way to share what we want from people who care. I care about my self conscious, just as anyone else does.

So eventually, not only should we apply filtering to people's comments online, there should also be a way to detect trolling behavior, with advanced heuristics, and report them, much like a virus scanner reports a file that could be dangerous. It's a nearly perfect idea. In my life, I've always wanted to be a computer engineer, and make the use of computers a lot more enjoyable for everyone in the world. There's a whole world of options on the Internet, and designing this, and giving this choice for people is exactly what the world needs. There should even be a market for it! However, I would personally make it an open standard/FOSS myself, firstly.

If anyone agrees with me. You know... about the Internet and the world not being the way it used ot be.... when we were kids... I say, let's bring back the enjoyment and pleasure of using the Online world without having to deal with all the BS. My solution should be foolproof and workable. I only wish.... it could exist.

The world can be a hateful place, full of nasty people saying mean things to each other. How should we censor those people we disagree with or who we find offensive?

I find this whole idea offensive, regressive and fundamentally ill-concieved but you have the right to express your opinion and I have the right to disagree. We could be rude about it but we won't. Perhaps?

If you get constantly offended and upset by what people write on the internet, maybe you should try harder not to be offended. I find it useful to laugh at the absurb and ridiculous things people say and do on the internet and in real life. Words have no innate power to disturb you unless you allow them to.

@ corroonb: GOOD post!!

Huh? It's not really a good post.
I mean, yeah. It's kind of selfish to ignore other people all the time, but that seems to be the way it works, anyway.
Okay, so after a month I came back here. I usually don't like reading my own rants or ideas again though.
I just want a nicer Internet, that's all. You know.
Or at least I can still keep searching for decent communities like this one.

If words had no power to harm, there would be no need for slander and libel laws, most counsellors and psychologists would be out of business, stress-related illness would be minimal, bullies would be denied their favourite weapon, spousal psychological and verbal abuse would not cause any negative outcomes, and innocent victims of defamation would not have to face the risk of their livelihoods being ruined by liars.

Words have immense power, and that is why we have laws regarding their use. To glibly say "just don't let it affect you" is easy to do, but you could also say "let's just sweep the nasty stuff under the carpet, if we can't see it then it doesn't matter". How people behave does matter. Hate speech matters - it's not just personal, it's political. And what is political affects huge groups of people.

If words had no power, there would be no words that were unacceptable in polite company. The bullying on the net is an abuse of the positive opportunities that it has for everyone; the OP is right in that, and freedom without responsibility is a recipe for abusive behaviour, particularly when it can be done anonymously by hostile cowards.

I hate free speech also! I want to ban everything that disagrees with me too!

I stopped reading when I got to the part about heuristically detecting trolling. The thing is, such a filter would be impossible to write, because different people write different ways, and if someone really wanted to troll, they would just find a way around the existing filters. You couldn't make the filters too comprehensive, because you don't know who is going to be using them, or what their circumstances are. What may be construed as trolling to one person, may not be trolling to another, and there is no computer out there powerful enough to "know" what trolling is, and especially not what could be considered trolling to only a specific individual. The only way to completely block trolling would be to block text entirely, which sort of defeats the purpose of the internet.

Another thing, the Internet has always been a hive of scum and villiany. There was never a halcyon time where the Internet wasn't such, except maybe back when access was still restricted to scientists and the military. Even so, the "common people" have had access to BBSs since the 80s, which were the main way of getting "online" before Internet access was widespread, and I am sure plenty of trolling happened on those. It certainly became a big thing when Usenet started achieving popularity, and that still predates the World Wide Web.

Even if it were possible to make an anti-trolling filter, I wouldn't use it. For the most part, I just find trolls to be hilarious, though I do think it goes a bit far when they start to outright harrass people. I've been called plenty of names and such online, and I just ignore it, because it really has no bearing on real life for me, though for people who are legitimately recieving death threats and such, they CAN, and SHOULD pursue legal action.

Just my two cents.

Internet was never a friendly place in the first place ? It was just a lesser part of our society.
Now I think the idea of blocking and detecting troll behaviour is ridiculous. Not because of "ugh it's just words/it's just how it is get over it" (this is ridiculous too, everyone have their own sensibility and not everyone is dealing with the same amount of harassement. Get a death threat once, easy to ignore. Get 100 a day every day.. see if that won't affect you after some time.)

However, I find the idea of a tool blocking some trigger words interesting. It would allow for a safer browsing for those with PTSD, or those facing a high rate of harassement, for example.

I think a good solution to make a "nicer internet" would be to create more safe places online. Social Media where you can't be harassed for example. Strenghtened moderation in some forums (I don't mean delete any debate/opposing opinion. I mean zero tolerance for insults for example.)
I know some places are already more or less like this. But I think it's the best solution when it comes to providing a better experience.

If it were possible to make a trolling filter, I for one would use it non-stop to it's fullest capacity.

Why? Because of the one thing that trolling causes that I loathe so much: It wastes my time.

If I go to read a paragraph that someone wrote, I dont know just what's in it when I start reading it, and wont know until I've gotten into it. Once I've read enough to see that it is, in fact, either a pure trolling post, or someone being an insulting jackass, well, that's time completely and utterly wasted, which could be prevented by something pointing out it's a troll post to begin with.

It's even worse with a forum topic that I have an interest in. Often, I'll want to read through the responses to the OP, all of them, so I can see where the conversation is going. Often, in many forums, this means filtering through multiple idiotic troll posts in one go, which can suck up alot of time, and eat away at my already nonexistent patience. Simply because of trolls acting like a waste of existence.


The whole idea kinda reminds me of a Youtube plugin I saw one time. Youtube is infamous for it's amazingly toxic and generally angering comments sections, and it's often very difficult for people to NOT scroll down and read something, and thus get irritated, even if they know there's a high chance that'll happen. So the plugin takes every comment there is, and basically makes it look like this: "Derp herp herp derp herp. Derp herp derp." Which, sadly, is a pretty accurate translation of what is often going on in the comments section for videos from popular channels.

You could unplug your internet?

I can't imagine an internet that only told me things I already thought / wanted to hear.

People have the right to respectful discourse--whether in person or on the internet.

What irritates me is when people use rhetorical techniques, instead of sticking to the facts.

If you want to change Internet culture, fine. If you want to stick to moderated areas, fine. If you want to keep yourself from seeing stupid comments through a filter, that's your prerogative. If you want to make such a filter available to others, go ahead. But if you want to prevent others from posting or viewing such comments without their express opt-in, that's censorship, and that's not OK.

I don't believe in censorship.

I believe in self-censorship. If somebody insults me for the sake of insulting me, I just IGNORE the person. The person just might be on the Internet only to vent.

If somebody wants to have a decent debate, I'm all for it.