Flag with Care

 

Introduction to the Rants and Raves and flagging problem

Flaggers have begun to wipe the slate of all types of content, including all content from the September 23 through 26, and most of the posts from the surrounding dates, in the Fort Collins Craigslist Rants and Raves forum leaving little but space in the popular community forum.

The “RnR” forum tends to act as a catch-all general forum, although it is originally meant to host both the village tirades and rambled praises. Instead it hosts a multitude of topics, especially politics with elections nearing, but also including anything else. This has become the social rule, although the site specifies otherwise.

There are, of course, rules to only post in the forum in a decent and relevant manner, and to enforce them is a self-regulated flagging system in the true spirit of the wild web 2.0.

Flagging is discouraged in the local forum through the thought of “if you don’t like it, ignore it,” as exemplified by this post. And although the practice is widely condemned by forum regulars, it is an issue unresolved as many if not most posts are flagged, seemingly without just cause; the issue of flagging is caused by a forum dangle in between the site rules and social norms.

One of the few posts which survived the flaggings so far said, “It has become clear to me that those who are flagging post to weed out what does and doesn’t belong are just doing it to upset us. I have posted a few different times now either Raves, response to a Rant, or my own personal appropriate Rant and all have been flagged/removed. As most things do, I’m sure this flagging will pass with time.”

 

Social Norms and Anti-Social Behaviors

Craigslist uses a set of rules are to maintain forum order, but content relevancy is often overlooked as discussion flourishes. As the RnR forum has grown in popularity, especially during the school year, disorder and complacency is the colloquial sentiment, the social norm.

Some users will flag content that is explicit or belongs on another forum, but it is mostly accepted that RnR forum section is normatively open to conversation of all kinds. The recent numerous postings removed through flagging signal either a type of behavior based on differences in opinion, a vigilante-like policing of content, or a behavior Rosa Martey, a professor at Colorado State University with a doctorate in Communication, calls “griefing.”

Griefing is a behavior where a user will appropriate anti-social behaviors on-line in a community for the purpose of other user grief. Flagging because of differences in opinion leads to a sort of weeding out opposing opinion, a form of censorship.

Based on the recent events, Dr. Martey does not believe the communities are being censored by individuals as much as they are being griefed.

Griefing is considered incredibly annoying and nothing else. Craigslist considers this form of over-flagging a form of abuse, telling users to “flag with care” but nothing is done to prevent abusive flaggers.

Legalities of Flagging

There are two rules to be noted on the self-regulating function of flagging. Warning and Disclaimer, item number 3, which is displayed every time you enter the RnR forum, says the user will flag any prohibited content.

The other, Terms of Use, item number 7z, says that use of forums implies agreement that no automated flagging devices or uses of competitive flagging will be used.

For the most part, these rules are followed and content is filed under categories according to appropriate categories. Post outside either the rules or the social norms and risk post removal. Abuse is introduced when a posts are removed for competition, which breaks Terms of Use without consequence.

Nothing indicates that antisocial behaviors specific to the forum are a violation of the social space, and accordingly, there are no legal consequences to be had. The site is a private cooperation which functions under the “.org” domain only to represent “the relatively noncommercial nature of Craigslist”, although it is private, so free speech rights do not apply.

In this discouraging but allowing atmosphere, flagging abuse and forum anti-social behaviors flourish and feed on the willing, and often ignorant, participants.

Flagging Prominence

As a little background, it is important to reveal that the Fort Collins Craigslist does not lead flagging abuse innovation. The Denver and Boulder Craigslists have both been experiencing similar this event this month. It has happened all over the virtual United States and the numerous other countries Craigslist has infiltrated.

Additionally, griefing is not unique to Craigslist, and neither is the censoring or vigilante behaviors. These are behaviors noted in many forms or social communication, including face-to-face communications.

This anti-social behavior is seen in cities everywhere spurring much discussion web-wide as to the nature of it, including entire blogs created to combat the flagging system, such as fortcollinscraigslist.blogspot.com. More blatantly and consistently, the Casual Encounters personals section is oft flagged away in both Fort Collins and Boulder.

One blog, activist-reactivated.blogspot.com, describes that “there are people willing to pay specialists cash to flag and post articles on Craigslist. So yes, one person can make sure that nothing about politics or flagging ever reaches the attention of the readers on the RnR section. Of course they hope to reach into more than Craigslist though on there, they can take advantage of flagging. Essentially these employers can pay for censorship on a mass scale. At least the technology exists for one person to censor on a mass scale. You can bet these buyers are seeking help in eliminating their competition, be it commercial or political!!”

There are even sites, bots and jobs devoted to flagging away competition, promoting abuse for pay.

Reactions to Flagging

When people who have been flagged write a post about their outrage to the events, often they get their reactions flagged away as well. Forum finger-pointing became a trend as everyone searched for the culprits. With the “flag with care” clause as a user’s only defense, it is virtually impossible to stop the behavior.

Although largely unsuccessful, blogs, as shown above, have formed in hopes of moving the crowd to a more accepting atmosphere. More typically, users have begun to abandon the forum altogether.

No other resolution is apparent. The flagging system on Craigslist is anonymous, and only requires a few flags to remove an item (more about flagging at the Craigslist FAQ). After multiple flags have been attached to a post, the Craigslist system automatically removes the post and a courteous email is sent to the poster alerting them of the event and reminding them of the rules. It also lets the condemned know that the flagging system is largely warranted and that only about 2 percent of removed posts are wrongfully removed.

In an e-mail interview, Carol Jankunas, an untraditional RnR follower is baffled by some posts she had flagged. She said that three of her posts were appropriate and relevant, even using correct conventions, they were polite and free of accusations and yet still flagged.

Jankunas said, “This could be a fun and interesting space to share, but instead, only certain posts are allowed, and many if not most, seem to be angry and hate-filled, from scary people!”

Another desirable response was found in a post.

“Spirited debates are fun. Pointless flagging is not. Besides, is anyone’s view really going to be effected by a idiotic post on CL? This is a place to “Rant and Rave”, so let’s let everyone rant and rave freely. Please!!!! Can we have a one week moratorium on flagging? If you don’t like it, ignore it but don’t flag it.”

Is flagging an Effective System for Self-Regulation?

Listen to my interveiw with Dr. Rosa Martey to find out more about griefing and the effectiveness of the flagging system.