I think it depends on the audience. Subject-specif...

2011-10-03T16:14:47.195-07:00

I think it depends on the audience. Subject-specific forums tend to be less noise driven. Even forums where people tend to get overheated in arguments (programming languages, games, hardware), the signal is still at a tolerable level.

On the other hand, a site with no actual focus, frequented by the general public, tends to produce hit-and-run nasty hater posts. (e.g. YouTube)

It is hard to develop a community around a single YouTube video that would bring social forces to bear. There's no tit-for-tat, no downside to being a douchebag in the comments because the poster is likely to never return.

I'm not sure how this plays out on Google+ where being a douchebag in one thread can stick with you.

I think pseudonymity is fine, but there probably has to be some minimum cost to creating new pseudonyms, otherwise spammers and other idiots can avoid any bad behavior on their record just by creating new nyms everytime.

And this would tend to make anyone suspicious of a new nym with no history, which would make the initial adoption process of new users very unfriendly as no one would want to talk to them.

Comments on Lex Spoon: Pseudonyms lead to uncivil forums?

I think it depends on the audience. Subject-specif...