“The
No Asshole Rule” focuses on how traditional organizations can –- and do –- enforce
norms that stop people from acting like demeaning jerks. But, especially since
I starting blogging, people keep telling me about how similar rules are
expressed and enforced in online communities.
A
few months back, my teenage son showed me an intriguing chatlog from (I hope I
am getting this language right) a chat channel that he is part of where people
talk about massively multiplayer online
games (MMOGs). The log starts with an
incident where a person is banned for soliciting people to sell him drugs. Then a conversation among about 10 people starts
about some of the worst “asshats” and “assholes” they’ve ever encountered and
how quickly they had been kicked-off, including “the one who started the
argument about using gay as an insult.” The group then decides to establish “a
three strikes rule,” where “We’re going to start using temporary silencing as
warning shots for people causing an abundance of trouble,” and after three
incidents, ban them permanently.
I started asking my friends who play online games if
they have such a rule, and I learned that, for example, that in World of
Warcraft, some “guilds” write down and enforce quite detailed rules, which
often include guidelines for expelling people who act like jerks. A gamer who
read this blog also sent me to several links on Penny Arcade
(a site for gamers) that talk about “The Golden
Rule of Internet: Don’t be a Dick,” which list things that can get you banned from MMOGs and chat groups. I
don’t understand all these guidelines, as many have to do with game play, but I
do understand why they ban pornographic images, racism, and my favorite item because
it is so subtle and so compelling:
Trolling
This has a working definition of "attempting to be as
annoying as possible while still technically obeying the rules," and it’s
not the way to go about getting attention. There tends to be a thin line
between being annoying and being funny. Those who cross it–whether through a
lack of familiarity with the forums or as sad, twisted, bid for attention–will
be banned.
Another person wrote me about how people in the
Wikipedia community, specifically on Wikimedia, also talk about
and apply the “Don’t
be a dick” rule. Apparently, the guideline is:
Don’t be a dick. If people abided by
this, we wouldn’t need any other policies. This is a corollary of ignore all
rules, and most other rules are a special case of this one.
And I like the added advice:
If you’ve been labeled as a dick, or if you suspect that you may be
one, the first step is to realize it. Ask what is causing this perception.
Change your behavior and your mode of presentation. If needed, apologize to
anyone to whom you may have been a dick. It’s okay! People will take notice of
your willingness to cooperate and will almost always meet your efforts with
increased respect.
This
last bit of advice mirrors my observations from the off-line world: That the
first step to recovering from being an asshole is to realize that you are
one. And when people realize that you
are taking authentic steps to reform, they often show remarkable understanding.
In fact, some you may have seen those buttons and refrigerator magnets that say
"Admitting
you are an asshole is the first step."
As
an organizational researcher, I am fascinated by how explicitly these norms are
stated and how – although there are arguments and ambiguities – about what it
means to be a online jerk, there is a remarkable amount of consensus as well.
PS:
I am just starting to learn about how online groups engage in “asshole
management” and enforce other important norms, so of any of you could point me
to other places where I might learn more, I would appreciate it.
Leave a Reply