Is it time to start paying for MN membership?

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

In the wake of everything that happened last night, I have been trying to think of ways to keep the goady fuckers and MRAs from repeatedly rejoining MN after being banned, just so that they can cause trouble and upset, particularly on boards like Relationships and Feminism.

If we were paying even a fairly nominal amount - say a tenner - per year for our MN membership, I don't think that is an amount that would put off people who wanted to join the site for the right reasons, but it would mean that joining, being a goady fucker, getting banned and then rejoining to cause more trouble, multiple times would get very expensive very quickly - and this might put off the trolls and goady fuckers.

Or are there other ways that we can think of that MNHQ can keep the goady fuckers off the site? Could they change the rules to say that joining just to goad people on sensitive boards is a banning offence?

IMO there are far fewer Trolls and Goady Fuckers than there are people who make the accusations as part of a personal attack ploy.

Whilst some may just troll for the fun of it and deliberately wind other posters up I have found, not very pleasantly, that an innocent poster can be subject to a torrent of abuse if you go against popular opinion

I was sworn at and abused by the temporarily banned poster, no attempt was made to engage and I see now I was probably thought to be a troll.
I dared to post in womens rights and I didnt know the history there but was not given a chance
Once a popular poster has taken a stance a bunch of others follow them like sheep
Paying to use MN would not stop any of that

I wouldnt use MN as a source of support anymore
When it was a personal issue to me I found the abuse too upsettting
I keep it light hearted now and talk to RL friends about issues

A charge would deter vast swathes of potential users, rich or poor. Most people just use the site for a bit of entertainment or a question about which buggy to buy. If they face a charge for posting, the latter will just head down to the next search result on google and the former will go to one of the million-and-one other free sources of online timewasting. MN can hardly charge for something that is free on twitter, facebook, etc etc. It would be like trying to sell leaves in the woods in autumn.

If they charged they would have to be offering something very different indeed, with a different business model. I'm not sure what it would be. It might be something really good, much better than MN, but I doubt it would survive economically.

I completely agree with Lazyjaney and roadwalker. Roadwalker, your experience is pretty much universal. That's why it seems that MN membership consists purely of troll hunters and trolls. If you're not in with the former, you must be the latter.

Paying to use MN might help.

And I agree with other recent posters: 90% of "trollhunting" and "goadyfucker" shaming and even "MRA" calling just seeks to ostracise unknown posters with views against the grain and is a shocking erosion of the conversation space.

... an important point is that this sort of ostracising doesn't in fact just affect people with "views against the grain". There might be something to be said in its favour if it did just penalise misogynistic expression: I don't think there is anything wrong with a predominantly female site on a predominantly male internet shaping and protecting a space in which misogyny is penalised. But that isn't all of what happens. What happens is that unless you are known to be a poster with acceptable views your words are scanned for evidence of right thinking, and if that evidence is lacking (perhaps just because you haven't felt the need to submit credentials of your decency before speaking) then people who choose to can use that absence as a strategy for wrongfooting you in argument so that free and equal discussion between feminists, between women, between good and well-intentioned people is much harder to achieve.

I tend to give most posts on here the benefit of the doubt, and sometimes that has led me into debating with - and hence feeding - trolls, and that leaves me with a dilemma. Do I carry on being me - someone maybe a bit too trusting, or do I try to become more cynical, and look for signs that another poster might not be all they appear to be?

"Credentials of your decency" = adherence to the gang view.

OP, you've been told you were feeding trolls by engaging with certain posters, but they may not have been trolls at all.

If you take the view that everyone except people you know is probably a troll, that could affect your attitude in RL in a way which is really bad for you, ie paranoia.

I have posted on threads that have definitely turned out to be trolls, MillyMollyMully - MNHQ has confirmed it on the threads and deleted them. But as you say, I don't want to go to the other extreme and become suspicious of everyone.

Well, I suppose the other question is, does it matter that much if the person you were engaging with was indeed a troll? The thread will be deleted by MNHQ, so there's no need to feel embarrassed.

SDT I am the same. I have fallen for trolls and I have also ignored threads I think are trolls but I'm not suspicious of everyone.

I think that if you are a person that is generally mistrustful of people in rl, which some people are, than coming onto MN doesnt do anything to help that part of your personality. In fact it makes it worse. But if you are a bit gullible as I can be, it does help, as it does make you question peoples motives a bit more.

For the practically perfect people in every way, I dont know what it does!

No way. I posted on MN when I was in a financially abusive relationship, and this also ended up meaning, although I was out of this, £2 was 10% of our food budget, so I wiodnt have wasted even that. Thankfully I'm out of that (deregged/rejoinined) but I don't think you should be penalised because you can't pay.

Milly I wonder if the general paranoia is why new people often get ignored because people assume they are trolls even when the thread subject is patently non-troll.

I am far more suspicious of posters that seem to spend most of their time on MN complaining about MN.

Trolls by any other name...

Yes, I agree with that. Particularly complaining that MNHQ aren't up to the task of telling troll from non-troll. Or that MN is chock full of trolls and goady fuckers.