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The Dark Underbelly of Community


By Allen Holub
September 1, 2004 — 
When most people think of community, they think of an idealized small town, full of supportive people sharing common values, working together toward common goals. But there are other sorts of communities as well. Dark slums, where a stranger is more likely to cut your throat than give you directions. The general consensus amongst almost everybody that I talk too is that the Java community-at least that part of it that's evident online-is more like turn-of-the-century Calcutta than Anytown, USA.

Since everyone can get huge value out of online forums, it's a pity that the name-calling and general abuse that seems to be the norm nowadays makes it hard to participate.

It's bad enough that the beginners are berated for asking beginner questions. The worst part, though, is the way that knowledgeable programmers who point out the shortcomings of badly done programs or tools are flamed. I've been burnt often enough that I'm reluctant to participate in public forums, and many of the Java luminaries that I know feel the same way.

Interestingly, this mean-spirited behavior seems particularly prevalent in the Java community. Friends of mine in the Python world claim that it's a much nicer place. People are honestly helpful and try to do good work. The Java community used to be like that, but isn't anymore.

Clearly this situation doesn't benefit anyone, but how do you fix things? Here's my advice:

Robert Axelrod's spectacular book "The Evolution of Cooperation" and its sequel, "The Complexity of Cooperation," put the issue of encouraging cooperative interaction into an interesting perspective. Using the classic "prisoner's dilemma," Axelrod creates a mathematical model of cooperation that applies in spades to the real world.

The prisoner's dilemma works as follows: Two prisoners are given the choice to testify against on each other by a district attorney as part of a plea agreement. If neither one "defects," only a lesser charge can be brought (a reward of 1, perhaps just a misdemeanor conviction). If one confesses and testifies against the other, the payback is huge for the defector (a reward of 3, perhaps a simple six-month probation), and the other gets no payback (a reward of 0, meaning 20 years of hard time). If both defect, then the confessions aren't worth much (a reward of 2, meaning both serve a little time).

The question is how to maximize your score over repeated iterations. Over time, you'll get the highest score by cooperating, but if you're in it for the short haul (one round, for example), you win big by "defecting," that is, by trying to improve your situation at your colleague's expense.

Now, apply this observation to an online discussion group. One way to encourage cooperation is to introduce longevity. That is, if the participants expect to regularly interact with other participants over a long period of time, then the tenor of the group will be more cooperative because the long-term payback from cooperation is higher.

There are lots of ways to encourage long-term thinking, even in an environment as fleeting as the Web. First of all, you must make the group a font of useful information. For example, hosting it on a Web site that provides that information in the guise of articles and white papers is a plus.

Second, you must provide a set of real expert participants (you may need to pay them) to foster and fertilize that community, so that more people are motivated to sign up.

Third, have people pay for the right to post. Yes, that's right, contribute money for membership! You're much more likely to value a resource that you've paid for than one that's free.

Next, discussion groups must be safe havens moderated by benevolent dictators who simply will not allow trash-talking messages to be posted. This is not a "free speech" issue: Jerks can exercise their free-speech rights on their own Web sites.

Finally, eliminate anonymous postings. Few of the most offensive comments found on online forums would have been posted if the attackers couldn't hide behind an alias. One approach would be to use a check, or some other form of ID, when you register. To get the right to post messages, your publicly visible name would have to match the one on the check.

Other ideas come to mind as well: I'd love one of the big open-source community sites (such as SourceForge or SlashDot) to build an online-shopping-like user-driven rating system to grade other discussion groups. This way you could avoid the groups that were dominated by the egomaniacs.

Something has to be done if there is to be an online Java community in the future. If you have any ideas of your own, I'd love to hear them.


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