Any forum mods should read this: how to tame a mad crowd

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From Scientific American:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...ness-of-crowds

The key: low profile, nonaggressive tactics. While it works for soccer/football fan violence, some of the group psychology can be applied to any forum as well.

Then again, the psychology of trolling and flaming (see: http://www.newscientist.com/blog/tec...me-me-bro.html ) probably needs special consideration and psycho-technological tweaks to address effectively

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Great info on how psychology and group dynamics impact crowd control... with online implications.

[seeandsee]

Nothing that shoe can't beat!

[cherrylula]

Excellent topic, probably goes way over the heads of most around here though.

[cherrylula]

this is excellent and spot on from that second link:

My pet theory about why people behave so rudely is that online commenting is treated, by most people, like a pub conversation ? they don't necessarily expect to be taken seriously and the social rules are fairly relaxed. And yet, because comments appear in cold text without important cues like friendly body language, they can easily seem more offensive than if they would otherwise. As a result some people get annoyed, and the flaming and trolling begin.

I love internet psychology.

[bobby666]

well written....

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Interesting idea re "deindividuation"

[Don Pueblo]

[tony286]

a good read thanks

[MaDalton]

lol - classic

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That's a classic.

[NaughtyRob]

What I like about GFY is that it somewhat polices itself, if someone is out of hand the crowd will make the mods very much aware of it.

[SomeCreep]

how to tame a mad crowd

Two words: tear gas.