When Flaming & Profanity Attack…

For a while now, I’ve wanted to discuss the issue of profanity and flaming on Bleacher Report.

When people get the opportunity to broadcast their opinions freely on an open platform, there are inevitably going to be some folks who abuse the system. While many will use an open source sports network to further their aspirations as a blogger, aspiring journalist, or die-hard fan, there are always a few jerks out there that will instead use it as a means of dealing with their emotional problems.

Everyone’s got to have an outlet for their anger, after all—and I guess for some, coming onto a site where a community of opinionated sports fans is engaging in stimulating conversation seems like a ripe opportunity to unleash their inner demons. The mindset of the flamer is as follows: by ruining everyone’s good time, I can get one step closer to feeling good inside.

At some point in time, all websites of Bleacher Report’s nature come to a crossroads where a decision must be reached regarding how to deal with such people.

On the most basic level, there are two options to choose from: let the conversation progress as is, or intervene.

Option one sounds nice in theory. It would work perfectly fine if our members weren’t hyper sensitive about their work, and could remember the “sticks and stones” adage when a poster said something cruel.

But that’s simply not the case. We have a lot of aspiring writers at Bleacher Report that need to be encouraged and praised, and they like to see positive comments on their articles—not a bunch of flamers telling them to look into another career (and obviously not in those words).

Thus, we can’t just “let the conversation progress as is.” Intervention is necessary.

However within the umbrella of “intervention” itself, there are a few different roads you can go down.

Back in the days of our concept site, we simply deleted comments we personally felt were inappropriate. This seemed to be an adequate solution at the time—as in addition to being easily doable on our end, it essentially deprived the flamers of what they wanted the most.

What flamers are looking for more than anything is attention—and if people can’t see their comments, they can’t respond to them either.

However there’s an enormous fundamental problem with this kind of intervention. What the policy requires in actuality is for Bleacher Report’s internal staff to be the gatekeepers of what stays and what goes. And that doesn’t really fall into line with the whole “open source network” thing very well.

No matter which way you cut it, the “gatekeepers” approach is censorship—and censorship amounts to nothing more than one individual or collection of individuals judging someone else’s work and imposing restrictions on it. If you read the Bleacher Report Manifesto, I think you’ll see our view on avoiding policies that establish a “party line” that members are expected to follow.

As the network has expanded, we’ve had to change our policies in this regard to more accurately reflect the principles the site was founded upon . Now, comments are only deleted upon the outspoken request of a member of the site—or in instances where racism, sexism, or other forms of blatant discrimination or profanity rear their ugly head.

But something I’ve started to notice recently is that an “unofficial” policy towards flamers has begun to develop within our community. And that unofficial policy has, in my estimation, ended up being one of our most effective community building tools to date.

So now, when people ask me: “how do you handle profanity?” I’m starting to answer with our unofficial community policy rather than with our more formal company policy of deleting comments upon request.

When you’re a sports fanatic who wants nothing more than to talk about last night’s game, flamers are your enemy. Even if you totally disagree with what a writer said in a given article, seeing someone come in and try to bring down the overall value of the discussion is highly counterproductive to your ultimate goal.

What we’re seeing more and more at Bleacher Report is members of the network allying themselves as genuine sports fans—against obnoxious, immature flamers.

The Bleacher Creatures ally themselves by sticking up for one another—even if they disagree with each other’s opinions on a given issue. Furthermore, network members have found clever ways to make flamers feel unwanted, embarrassed, and ultimately more insecure than they were when they entered the discussion in the first place. This only brings the members of the site closer together, as they see the flamers cowering away from their failed mission with their tail between their legs.

Victory belongs to the Bleacher Report, and the debate goes on.

For example:

by Anonymous from about 6 hours ago

DJ

Here’s another good one:

by Anonymous from 1 day ago

1) I question whether or not you actually read the article above. Did you understand that I was making the same point that you just did in your “hate letter” towards me? USC lost ONE game! I’m with you on that one. So how about reading the actual article before you go off on how “hollow” my work is.
2) If you decide that you want to continue judging other people’s writing style even though you clearly haven’t learned how to use punctuation – sign up for an account for yourself. You can learn a little about grammar and english, as well as put your name with all of your bashings. That would be a joy, wouldn’t it?
3) Again, you make absolutely no sense. I understand *what* you’re trying to say, but I still find it quite ironic that you claim my “articles are hollow and not even that smart” when your type of writing doesn’t exactly fit the bill for greatness itself. Seriously, read up on a book or two before you decide to walk to your local library and pay 10 cents to access the internet just to write two poorly strung together sentences directed towards me, or anyone else.

In addition to defending his work, Robert H is essentially sticking up for the integrity of the site as a whole here. He’s a great example of someone who cares about the user experience and feels passionately about fostering an atmosphere where talented writers feel free to speak their mind. Check out what he wrote on fellow member Ben Bussard’s bulletin board:

by Robert H.
22 days ago

Hey Ben, I liked your recent UF Swamp Alert article. Also noticed the one article that had 100,000 comments, or shall I say ignorant hate mail. Just wanted to let you know even without being able to read the article that I’ve got your back (even though youre a gators fan). Almost all of those comments were uncalled for. I would love the chance to read the article for myself, merely out of interest, now that I have seen all of the comments. Keep up the good writing man, and don’t get too happy about UF’s win over my Vols – basketball season is just around the corner, hah.

Gotta love that Robert H. You’ll be hearing more about him in a future post when I (finally!) begin revealing our next generation of Bleacher Creatures.

Going forward, we’re going to be implementing a flagging system for inappropriate comments. We feel this is the most effective way to deal with the problem, as essentially users are making the decisions as to which comments stay and which ones go, while administrators are carrying out their orders.

And that’s the way it ought to be on an open source sports network.

In the meantime though, I trust in the Bleacher Creatures to stick together and keep the flamers in their place.