Kirk here. As the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 approaches I’d like to take a moment to express my gratitude to everyone who has contributed to making Kumamoto a comfortable place to exchange information and ideas – especially the editors who have been putting their valuable time and energy into the care and feeding of the page. I’d also like to offer a few thoughts about how to deal with trolling and other unwelcome behavior. Finally, I’ll make a small request for support for those of you who can bear to read this entire post.
Thankfully, Kumamoto International is a fairly peaceful site. Occasionally, however, individuals engage in troll-like behavior (insults, comments intended to provoke and/or irritate, etc.). I know from experience that, as the Mercury News article indicates, various factors can lead otherwise good people to engage in such behavior but, nonetheless, as one of the editors of this page, I think it’s important to show a yellow flag when such behavior becomes apparent. If I’m lucky, the person who has made a comment that I deem to be inappropriate will respond in a civil way, either by accepting my admonishment or by defending the original comment without going ballistic. Predictably, however, people who have already begun to engage in troll-like commenting don’t always respond in a measured way.
A few weeks ago, a Kumamoto International participant insulted another participant and, when I called him out on it, began to aim his insults at me instead. When I insisted that the real problem was not his relationship with me but his use of a slur against another Kumamoto-i participate, he disengaged from our discussion, wrote a bad review of the page, and, as far as I can tell, left:
https://www.facebook.com/stephen.marshall.5036459/posts/10156503506915973
In response to his review, I pointed out that it was proceeded by his being called out for insulting another participant. Although I feel I’ve made plenty of mistakes in handling confrontation on the internet in the past I think (or, at least, hope) that I handled things more-or-less appropriately in this instance. So, I’m happy for others, even people who are new to the page, to look at our interaction and see that participants may be called out for rude behavior. On the other hand, I’m a little sorry to see that the bad review succeeded in putting a big dent in the average rating of Kumamoto International.
This is where I’d like to ask a favor. If you generally approve of the way that Kumamoto International is being run (including but not limited to my response to this individual), would you be so kind as to give us a good review and help us bring up our numbers? You don’t need to respond to the bad review – just rate the page yourself. Thanks!
https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/07/why-good-people-become-bad-trolls/
