The lack of traction you described suggest that neither of those theories actually work in practice, which makes no sense to me.
I don't want to suggest that there aren't ISPs and other providers that don't shut things down -- many do, and many make at least some attempts at preventing the endless game of whack-a-mole when the harassers just open additional accounts. It's just not as universal as it could like.
On a vaguely related note, I wonder if a Bayesian filter could learn to classify harassment the way it classifies spam? And, could it tell the difference between harassment and discussion about harassment? (Ignoring the case of direct quotes.)
Huh. Gut instinct is to say that it would have trouble telling between harassment and the discussion thereof, and would especially have problems with discussions that tend to be more overtly feminist (those being the ones most likely to be discussing threats of rape, etc, so the filter couldn't just say "any sort of this discussion is likely harassment") aka the ones that are more likely to need the protection. But I wonder how smart it could get over time.
I tell you though, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be working on that project, no matter how helpful it might become in the future; talk about making yourself a lightning rod even more than I already am! I am convinced such a project would need to be led by and worked on by someone(s) close to frequent victims of harassment (gendered or not) but not often targeted him/herself, and possessed of an epic level of don't-give-a-fuck. And probably living in a secured building. (That's the one thing I regret about buying a house last year: losing the keycard-only, 24/7-security-guarded building my wife and I had been living in. Especially since -- for various personal reasons -- it's not possible for us to keep firearms in the house. I have actually had people show up at the building and not be able to get in before; we took some steps when we moved, but I definitely do feel less safe, and been consequently less likely to shoot my mouth off in public, since.)
Power management, mobile and firmware developer on Linux. Security developer at Aurora. Ex-biologist. mjg59 on Twitter. Content here should not be interpreted as the opinion of my employer. Also on Mastodon.
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Date: 2011-10-31 06:50 am (UTC)I don't want to suggest that there aren't ISPs and other providers that don't shut things down -- many do, and many make at least some attempts at preventing the endless game of whack-a-mole when the harassers just open additional accounts. It's just not as universal as it could like.
On a vaguely related note, I wonder if a Bayesian filter could learn to classify harassment the way it classifies spam? And, could it tell the difference between harassment and discussion about harassment? (Ignoring the case of direct quotes.)
Huh. Gut instinct is to say that it would have trouble telling between harassment and the discussion thereof, and would especially have problems with discussions that tend to be more overtly feminist (those being the ones most likely to be discussing threats of rape, etc, so the filter couldn't just say "any sort of this discussion is likely harassment") aka the ones that are more likely to need the protection. But I wonder how smart it could get over time.
I tell you though, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be working on that project, no matter how helpful it might become in the future; talk about making yourself a lightning rod even more than I already am! I am convinced such a project would need to be led by and worked on by someone(s) close to frequent victims of harassment (gendered or not) but not often targeted him/herself, and possessed of an epic level of don't-give-a-fuck. And probably living in a secured building. (That's the one thing I regret about buying a house last year: losing the keycard-only, 24/7-security-guarded building my wife and I had been living in. Especially since -- for various personal reasons -- it's not possible for us to keep firearms in the house. I have actually had people show up at the building and not be able to get in before; we took some steps when we moved, but I definitely do feel less safe, and been consequently less likely to shoot my mouth off in public, since.)