Here's how I handle online abuse

An interesting article that shows the vitriol that some feel obliged to throw at others who are successful. The takewaway from the article is that life is too short to try and reason with a troll, so ignore them and move on.

The advice is pretty good, and covers a large number of cases. It's close to my own formulation, discovered on G+: "Block fuckwits".[1]

The solution is one that works well where it is afforded, and breaks down pretty badly where it isn't. I noticed this quite especially on Imzy, a new site pitched as a "kinder, gentler Reddit", and claiming several ex-Reddit employees among its own founders. The site combines a number of profoundly dysfunctional dynamics, including pervasive single-instance anonymity, inability to block anonymous tormenters, and several UI/UX patterns which exacerbate the situation, as well as a founding user cohort already exploiting the opportunities afforded. I have been, and will be, critical of the site on account that its own top management, including Dan McComas, CEO, seem entirely insensitive to compound issues.[2]

There's another problem where the administrators of a site, either volunteers or (as in the case of Imzy) management and employees create or foster a hostile environment. One of the more salient criticisms of Wikipedia is the article-squatting which occurs by entrenched interests (often manifesting as edit wars), particularly over politically-charged issues, though petit wars can also emerge on obscure topics. I'd posted Peter Strempel's criticisms of Wikipedia to HN a day or so back,[3] even though I disagree with many of his conclusions and don't quite understand his goals (he and I have been discussing the matter at G+). I've witnessed the issue myself most especially on global climate change and related articles, particularly those involving the Koch Brothers (or their various companies and political-influence "charities"), or organisations emerging from the Mont Pelerin Society and Atlas Network (including many Koch-associated institutions).

Reddit certainly has its problems of moderator capture / squatting, including such incongruencies as the xkcd forum falling prey to a set of MRA, neonazi, and Holocaust-denying interests.[4]

Scott Alexander's Slate Star Codex has some excellent discussions of toxic dynamics among online communities, most especially "The Toxoplasma of Rage".[5] There's much prior art going back to Charles Mackay & John Templeton's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and Gustave le Bon's The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (both available via the Internet Archive's truly amazing books collection).

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Notes:

1. https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/drLZV8sm...

2. See for general issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/500ysb/the_imz... For problems and failures of oversight, see: https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/qdxyzy2x4lbaq_4rx81nnw

3. http://peterstrempel.com/index.php/culture/phantoms-of-fear-... for g G+ discussion: https://plus.google.com/+PeterStrempel/posts/Rbm6AusBgmt

4. Discussed briefly among other issues with Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/20yhxc/reddit_...

5. http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/