Not over night, but constant exposure does have a normalizing effect. How do you think Nazi Germany happened in the first place? We've been struggling as a country with a deeply racist streak that goes back to the founding of the country. We fought the Civil War over it and didn't adequately deal with it in the aftermath of the war, letting white supremacist attitudes torment to the point where they're viable in Presidential politics. I don't see how much more of a wake-up call we could possibly get that this behavior is deeply problematic.
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What, realistically, can be done about toxicity in gaming?
- Thread starter Persephone
- Start date
Not over night, but constant exposure does have a normalizing effect. How do you think Nazi Germany happened in the first place? We've been struggling as a country with a deeply racist streak that goes back to the founding of the country. We fought the Civil War over it and didn't adequately deal with it in the aftermath of the war, letting white supremacist attitudes torment to the point where they're viable in Presidential politics. I don't see how much more of a wake-up call we could possibly get that this behavior is deeply problematic.
All of these. Particularly number 5. Someone criticizing a game you love is neither a criticism or attack of you personally as an individual. It's a criticism of the game. Not you. The game. People need to be able to separate the two, but that appears to be a difficult thing for many people to do. This is quite clear from how people keep bringing up people like Anita over and over and over again in this thread alone and calling her criticisms toxic and somehow taking her criticisms personally, as if they're attacks on they themselves. Disagreeing is one thing. Providing you're own criticisms as well. But the way people respond to her, as if by criticizing games she's somehow affected them personally or insulted them personally or something is quite another. And that ultimately comes from too many games not being able to divorce the games they consume and enjoy from their constructions of their identities.
It's fine to love games. Everyone does. But the games and movies and tv shows you consume shouldn't define your identity or who you are as a person. People will love a given game; people will hate it. Both are fine, and you should be able to interact with people who love stuff you hate and hate stuff you love without any problem, since there's no reason that should affect you personally or be seen as an attack on your own preferences or tastes, unless you'be built up your identity around the media you consume to an unhealthy degree to the point that those type of things seem as an attack on you, even when they're not.
But unfortunately #5 is also the hardest, just due to human basic human psychology and nature and stuff like the fundamental attribution error and the ultimate attribution error. Only time and keeping at it regardless can do something to afford change, I suppose. Which is precisely are the rest of these are so important, especially the first two. By being committed to those principles and actually putting them into action and then sticking to them, the rest would follow from there. Problem is, too little is being done on those fronts right now. So much more can be done. I hope that changes, and there are definitely signs that certain developers and publishers are being receptive to those ideas--I just hope that spreads and more do the same, since too many still just seem completely ambivalent and alright with whatever ends up happening, when they really, really shouldn't be. =/
So, judging a work is okay unless we bring ethics into the equation? When media often serves an ethical purpose or to influence behaviour, why can they not be judged by that criteria?
By the same coin, why are "ethically improving" and "artistically improving" a work distinct? If the artist consumes Anita's videos and decides that their art is improved by reacting to them, why do we have to jump in and say that that particular improvement is wrong when any other improvement is fine?
Almost exactly that, yes.
I think the only thing that I'd want to clarify is that by "detrimental effect" I mean the encouraging of compromises/decisions that aren't intended to improve the artifact artistically, but to improve it ethically; and that the actual corruption of the artifact is of course never directly carried out by the critic, but the critic can be a corruptive force, especially when working in concert with, deliberately or not, other related forces.
It will never happen but make your name in the game be your real name and your ID linking to your facebook for other players. Anonymity is directly related for people being dicks in games, if there are real life consequences if you are an dick to someone, the toxicity will take a huge hit. It will never happen though because security and privacy reasons.
Vanilla WoW kinda got it right. The realms were small community that if you were an dick to someone and stole items from boss drops, everyone on the realm would eventually know who you are, being pratically blacklisted from parties in Dungeon and Raids, bringing the whole "action have consequences".
Vanilla WoW kinda got it right. The realms were small community that if you were an dick to someone and stole items from boss drops, everyone on the realm would eventually know who you are, being pratically blacklisted from parties in Dungeon and Raids, bringing the whole "action have consequences".
It depends on what you mean by okay, and on the context of the particular criticism. If I take "okay" to mean, doing one's job well, or accomplishing a task well, I'd say that if you're a writing a critique of a movie for a Buddhist outlet whose express, or at least implied, purpose is to discuss how closely movies adhere to Buddhist ideology, then to write a good ethical critique is more than okay by that definition. If you're writing a critique of a movie for an outlet whose express, or at least implied, purpose is to critique movies on the basis of how good they are as a movie, then to judge it based on how closely it adheres to Buddhist ideology is less than okay.
If I take okay to mean beneficial or harmless to art, I'd say that in a lot of contexts it's not okay.
Ethical improvements and artistic improvements can be the same thing. Where they're distinct is in the intention of the improvement. If an artist changes her work with the intention of improving it artistically and the result is that it's worsened artistically, this isn't a corruption. If an artist changes her work with the intention of improving it ethically and the result is that it's improved artistically, this is a corruption.
As long as it's an artistic decision I would never say that.
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We seem to agree that artistic expression derives from our experience of the world, and I would like to suggest that for any artistic expression to be understood as such - it would have to refer to certain systems of symbols, practices, and interpretations to make it 'something' like 'art'. You would also need these shared meanings to be able to distinguish between 'pure' and 'corrupted', wouldn't you agree?
I'm trying to understand how you believe the artistic expression can be 'pure' or disentangled from it's status as 'cultural artifact', because I'd argue that almost everything you know and know how to know about expressing yourself and your experience with the world is reproduced and interpreted within the sociocultural frameworks you are continuously socialized in - and wonder how you know what and how to express as the supposed true essence of your experience of the world, if your perception of it is framed by presupposed notions that give it meaning in the first place?
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The Nazi movement happened because of desperation. Germany was broke after world war 1 and the USA was helping them out, that is until after 1929 happened. After that happened, the USA itself was in a great depression and had to focus on themselves and so Germany started to struggle even more and that is when the Nazi party offered to make things better and they gained in power and took over and then started blaming all the bad things on the poor Jewish folks. Hitler then started designing the war machine and the rest is history.
Today, you won't find very many people that support anything Nazi. Maybe some skin headed kids that are fatherless and fall victim to hate, but this is vastly overblown online.
The left needs to worry less about Nazi's and more about trying to make a good positive difference in people's lives.
It is. In my post it existed in the etc. along with other immoral acts like murder, molestation, assault.
Those who are comfortable in America can be oblivious to the growing number who are struggling. The rise in poverty and the wealth gap is very real, and while it's not bad enough just yet to push people to the kind of desperate extremes you're referring to, we're certainly heading in that direction for a progressively larger part of the population.
Yes, the literal Nazi brand is largely toxic. I think the point is more that the rise in racist, nationalist tendencies does bear a striking resemblance regardless of what you choose to call it. There's legitimate reason for concern.
I agree the balance should be a whole lot healthier. I want to hear about the positive change candidates want to bring about more than I want to see finger pointing. That said, presumably you paid attention to the last Presidential election? Focusing on minimum wage, human rights, and infrastructure investment got drowned out by blatant appeals to fear propping up violent alternative right rhetoric.
Nothing. Online fun is zero sum; to have fun in an online multiplayer game necessarily means someone else is losing and therefore not having fun, and those people are going to get mad. Back when Blizzard collected match rating statistics in Overwatch for instance, they determined that the matches that people enjoyed the most were the ones in which their team totally rolled the other. For the losing team, obviously, this is not an enjoyable experience.
Moderation can change what words people say to express their frustration but as long as people get mad at videogames toxicity will exist. If you don't like that you should find a new hobby or just stick to singleplayer games.
Moderation can change what words people say to express their frustration but as long as people get mad at videogames toxicity will exist. If you don't like that you should find a new hobby or just stick to singleplayer games.
I don't think there's an easy solution, or one that wouldn't offend anyone.
It's 2017 but somehow people take offense to mundane things that 20 years ago no one would bat an eye at.
People mistake blatant disrespect and demonstrations of deplorable behavior for censorship.
Large masses of people can easily grasp onto a rumor and make enough noise to effectively shut down or gravely injure any person's career.
We're living in an era where information has never been more plentiful but also in an era where noise and misinformation is more rampant.
Outside of heavily moderating activity or heavily tying online activity to real life and having consequences for internet misdeeds I honestly don't think there's an effective solution and I don't think either one is ideal.
Ideally people should be educated and well-mannered enough so that toxicity is less of a thing so I guess that what I'm trying to say is that outside of giving people a good education and decent upbringing there only thing we can do is apply bandages over the onslaught of toxicity we see and receive.
It's 2017 but somehow people take offense to mundane things that 20 years ago no one would bat an eye at.
People mistake blatant disrespect and demonstrations of deplorable behavior for censorship.
Large masses of people can easily grasp onto a rumor and make enough noise to effectively shut down or gravely injure any person's career.
We're living in an era where information has never been more plentiful but also in an era where noise and misinformation is more rampant.
Outside of heavily moderating activity or heavily tying online activity to real life and having consequences for internet misdeeds I honestly don't think there's an effective solution and I don't think either one is ideal.
Ideally people should be educated and well-mannered enough so that toxicity is less of a thing so I guess that what I'm trying to say is that outside of giving people a good education and decent upbringing there only thing we can do is apply bandages over the onslaught of toxicity we see and receive.
That's an extremely easy decision. Free speech as a vague principle of "everyone should be able to say whatever they want at any time with no consequences" is garbage and not worth keeping in the slightest.
User was warned for belittlement and condescension.
Some people are just too sensitive. If you are one of those people then you can't expect the world to change to suit your needs.
You need to adapt by doing things like playing less with strangers or actively muting people online.
It's funny how people keep quoting the first part of my comment but ignore the second part. Should I quote myself in these replies?
So what you mean is we should copyright harassment and hate speech.
Sounds like a plan.
Empower people. Teach people to stand up to bullies rather than be victims. Reinforce self worth and self confidence. Bullies are cowards who merely take out self loathing and insecurity out on others. They can't and won't do shit. Tell them to fuck themselves and go to hell. Mute, block and report their sorry asses.
I've been called everything from nigger, faggot, retard, and everything in between. I just learned not to let these motherfuckers rent space in my head. I know I'm smarter and better than them. That's the attitude you need to adopt. They can't hurt you so why are you afraid of them? Fuck them.
I've been called everything from nigger, faggot, retard, and everything in between. I just learned not to let these motherfuckers rent space in my head. I know I'm smarter and better than them. That's the attitude you need to adopt. They can't hurt you so why are you afraid of them? Fuck them.
I don't personally experience many issues with online toxicity outside of run of the mill unpleasantness because I'm not a primary target. My username is nondescript and when I do get on the mic I sound like every other random white dude. I do, however, have a lot of friends who are not in that position, people who are very likely to become the targets of hate for just trying to interact with others in a normal way. Because I care about them, I have a stance on how this sort of issue should be moderated.
What I'm saying is that it's absolutely worth barbecuing the sacred cow of "FREE SPEECH" in order to maintain an online community that's welcoming and doesn't tolerate bigotry. The people who run said communities absolutely have the privilege of pruning elements they don't think fit with the kind of social space they're trying to create, and I think it's a great idea to aggressively wield that power to make a better environment for reasonable people.
The second part sucks too because you're focusing on it being the victims' responsibility.
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Nothing. Leave as it is. Also, it's not as bad as you think it is. You just hang out on Internet forums too much, which is giving you a false perception on reality.
More so, Internet is inherently a toxic place, it's not exclusive to gaming. Simply, avoid places where toxicity is. Because anytime, regulation of anything is imposed, it does more harm than good. Regulation affects good people more than bad people. I'm pretty sure Era gamers will say otherwise, because most Era are left leaning and they belive legislation/regulation is the answer to everything.
More so, Internet is inherently a toxic place, it's not exclusive to gaming. Simply, avoid places where toxicity is. Because anytime, regulation of anything is imposed, it does more harm than good. Regulation affects good people more than bad people. I'm pretty sure Era gamers will say otherwise, because most Era are left leaning and they belive legislation/regulation is the answer to everything.
You're right about this. Asshat behavior got punished by way of zero cooperation from the realm. Before server transfers? You act like a jerk and you have a toxic, useless character that you spent days leveling that nobody wants to party up with. And even if there was a guild full of jerks? Join another one and only raid with your cool new friends.
Shame this kind of community policing isn't really viable for most games. Heck, it doesn't even work for WoW anymore, as dungeon finder is a crapshoot in terms of getting grouped with some real unsavory characters.
#1, #2, #5 make sense to me. But I don't see how #3 and #4 will help at all? Is #3 supposed to be about diversification and having gamers understand that diversification isn't a bad thing in any art medium and learning to accept? At the end of the day this will do very little, if anything, to quell the overall toxicity in gaming. The same can be applied to #4 as well. Maybe I'm not seeing it, but how will this negate toxicity? As long as anonymity is in play, there isn't much anyone can viably do to stop toxicity. There will always be a form of it, barring heavy moderation of the individuals propagating toxicity in each game community and I don't see companies investing that kind of time and money into it, for what I assume is a small % of the population that is truly toxic. Thankfully most (if not all) games have some sort of block/mute feature.
I imagine this will upset some people. But regardless. This isn't the old country.
For a start, there needs to be an acknowledgement at every level, at every turn, that hate is hate, regardless of whether it comes from right wingers or left wingers or anything in between or beyond. There has been a severe political polarization in gaming. It has to stop. People need to calm down and discuss political and social issues in a sensible and orderly fashion. Rule need to be consistent. People need to know that they will be banned for breaking rules and nobody will be protected because they toe the right lines. That's how you cultivate a culture of respect, where everyone has confidence that if they behave with dignity and treat others with respect and don't break any rules, they won't be vindictively punished for stepping out line.
Political tension has become an umbrella that has caused otherwise sensible people to cluster together with horrible people obsessed with purging gaming of the "SJWs" or the "alt-right" or whatever stupid labels they want to throw around. And lets be clear. Yes, "both sides." Social media is full of extremists of various political stripes with sycophant followers who parrot everything they say uncritically and embark on harassment campaigns at the drop of a hat while having the absolute gall to accuse their opponents of the exact same crap they themselves are guilty of.
Your beliefs are not sacred. Your politics are not a golden ticket to be a dick to people you don't like. Stop derailing threads with your political tantrums. Nobody cares that you refused to buy Mass Effect Andromeda because you think Manveer Heir is an evil racist who hates white people. Nobody cares that you're not going to buy The Last Night because the lead developer doesn't support feminism, a political ideology supposedly backed by 18% of women. Nobody cares that you refused to watch Handmaid's Tale because it's anti-Christian propaganda and Christianity is the best thing ever War on Christmas, etc, etc. There are containment threads for that sort of derailing discussion. If you can't discuss constructively, step away. Don't be the problem.
"False equivalance!" someone bleats. "They represent hate, I represent the opposite! That's why it's okay for me to act like a total jackass!"
That's exactly the problem. Pull off the bib, get off your high chair, and face the fact that way too many people are horrible to others because they think that it's okay when they do it. When someone else does it to them, it's an outrage. Someone I don't like gets banned on twitter for breaking the rules? They had it coming. Someone I do like gets banned on twitter? What an outrage! Twitter is controlled by the alt-right/evil SJWs/lizard men, and there is no other explanation. So what if they broke 5 different Twitter rules, anyway? Their message was important and you have no right to silence them!
Bonus points if the person banned was woman because then you can run around demanding justice for women everywhere as everyone claps and tells you how brave you are, while scorning the evil platform for daring to have rules. (Albeit inconsistenly applied ones, which comes back to my earlier point about inconsistency of punishment for rule breakers.) Rules don't exist to punish people I like! No, they exist to punish the people I don't like!
The toxicity of gaming will never be solved so long as people think it's okay to hate others and behave hatefully towards them because of ideological disagreements. Everyone has a responsibility to call out members of their own loose circle who behave inappropriately. No more making excuses for them because you like them and you think they're being targeted by the SJW/anti-SJW boogieman. Doesn't matter who they are. The garden variety harassment where idiot 10 year olds scream obscenities is much less serious, and far simpler do deal with, than the brewing tensions over much more serious issues where people have proven time and time again they can't deal with disagreements sensibly and resort to hate and threats and active harassment against anyone who crosses them.
For a start, there needs to be an acknowledgement at every level, at every turn, that hate is hate, regardless of whether it comes from right wingers or left wingers or anything in between or beyond. There has been a severe political polarization in gaming. It has to stop. People need to calm down and discuss political and social issues in a sensible and orderly fashion. Rule need to be consistent. People need to know that they will be banned for breaking rules and nobody will be protected because they toe the right lines. That's how you cultivate a culture of respect, where everyone has confidence that if they behave with dignity and treat others with respect and don't break any rules, they won't be vindictively punished for stepping out line.
Political tension has become an umbrella that has caused otherwise sensible people to cluster together with horrible people obsessed with purging gaming of the "SJWs" or the "alt-right" or whatever stupid labels they want to throw around. And lets be clear. Yes, "both sides." Social media is full of extremists of various political stripes with sycophant followers who parrot everything they say uncritically and embark on harassment campaigns at the drop of a hat while having the absolute gall to accuse their opponents of the exact same crap they themselves are guilty of.
Your beliefs are not sacred. Your politics are not a golden ticket to be a dick to people you don't like. Stop derailing threads with your political tantrums. Nobody cares that you refused to buy Mass Effect Andromeda because you think Manveer Heir is an evil racist who hates white people. Nobody cares that you're not going to buy The Last Night because the lead developer doesn't support feminism, a political ideology supposedly backed by 18% of women. Nobody cares that you refused to watch Handmaid's Tale because it's anti-Christian propaganda and Christianity is the best thing ever War on Christmas, etc, etc. There are containment threads for that sort of derailing discussion. If you can't discuss constructively, step away. Don't be the problem.
"False equivalance!" someone bleats. "They represent hate, I represent the opposite! That's why it's okay for me to act like a total jackass!"
That's exactly the problem. Pull off the bib, get off your high chair, and face the fact that way too many people are horrible to others because they think that it's okay when they do it. When someone else does it to them, it's an outrage. Someone I don't like gets banned on twitter for breaking the rules? They had it coming. Someone I do like gets banned on twitter? What an outrage! Twitter is controlled by the alt-right/evil SJWs/lizard men, and there is no other explanation. So what if they broke 5 different Twitter rules, anyway? Their message was important and you have no right to silence them!
Bonus points if the person banned was woman because then you can run around demanding justice for women everywhere as everyone claps and tells you how brave you are, while scorning the evil platform for daring to have rules. (Albeit inconsistenly applied ones, which comes back to my earlier point about inconsistency of punishment for rule breakers.) Rules don't exist to punish people I like! No, they exist to punish the people I don't like!
The toxicity of gaming will never be solved so long as people think it's okay to hate others and behave hatefully towards them because of ideological disagreements. Everyone has a responsibility to call out members of their own loose circle who behave inappropriately. No more making excuses for them because you like them and you think they're being targeted by the SJW/anti-SJW boogieman. Doesn't matter who they are. The garden variety harassment where idiot 10 year olds scream obscenities is much less serious, and far simpler do deal with, than the brewing tensions over much more serious issues where people have proven time and time again they can't deal with disagreements sensibly and resort to hate and threats and active harassment against anyone who crosses them.
Seeing as how the "alt right" label was created by a Neo Nazi to make the ideology more palatable, while the term "SJW" was always a pejorative from when it was created by liberals to mock other liberals to how it's been adopted by conservatives now, no and thank you. You and I both know that these things aren't the same.
Right wingers: Everyone I don't like is an SJW.
Left wingers: Everyone I don't like is alt-right.
Disney, McCarthy, and Pals: Everyone I don't like is a communist plotting to destroy America.
That's how the madness starts.
A ridiculous number of people are convinced Wolfenstein II is pro-communist propaganda that "whitewashes the evils of communism". Look, I can understand, for example, eastern Europeans having a negative view of Wolfenstein's depiction of socialism. Both Daniel Vávra and Adrian Chmielarz had negative opinions on Wolfestein II's depiction of communism, and that has to do with, in Daniel's case, his parents living through the nightmare of a Soviet occupation. But everyone else? They have no excuse. They're just parroting nonsense some youtuber told them. Wolfenstein II's steam community forum is full of people ranting about the game being pro-communist propaganda.
Honestly, the only thing I think can be done is don't participate in it, talk to those you know not to do it online, and hope that it spreads. Maybe don't tolerate it if you hear it online (though this is risky for verbal abuse for a number of reasons, but if enough people did this it would start to make an impact).
There's a very delicate balance between standing up and saying, "Cut that shit out!" and accidentally triggering a snowballing harassment campaign. Particularly on social media. People on social media love finding someone who said something stupid and encouraging as many people as possible to shame them. As people, we have to be conscious of the difference between doing the right thing as a person and being dragged into a mob. I have seen way too many simple scoldings snowball into thousands of people hammering a single person. Before you know it they're being doxed and shit. Being part of that never ends well for anyone.
In the ironic words of Homer Simpson.
Lisa, maybe if I'm part of that mob, I can help steer it in wise directions!
Are you against discussing the political topics relating to and surrounding certain games, or just people who are aggressive about their political views? I personally think the effect that games have on people and how folks respond to them, how they intersect with life/current affairs and even how they're shaped by their creators own outlook is a very interesting aspect of game discussion.
Also, the 18% number that I've seen floating around is from all Americans, not solely women. Most polls seem to come up notably higher than that for specifically women, although, this is just North American stuff I'm looking at. That said, the discussion on why many don't uphold the label is an interesting one.
Discuss them in the right context. Discuss them constructively. "No politics" is a completely impractical mantra. But that doesn't mean overt derailment should be allowed, much less encouraged
For example, imagine if every single thread on a random indie game were derailed by some charging in and saying, "I was interested in this game until I discovered that the developer supports Planned Parenthood/doesn't support Planned Parenthood." The topic of indie game devs supporting Planned Parenthood and how this makes people feel about the developer and the game is a worthwhile one. In the right context. It's just not the kind of thing that should be allowed to shit up a thread that is supposed to be discussing the game. That is bizarre behavior, and it seems to happen all too often with political subjects that go against a vague forum leaning. If you want to talk about a developer's support or lack of support for a political organization and it will blatantly derail the thread, then make a separate thread about it. It'd be preferable to have a subforum where "industry drama" stuff goes so it doesn't repeatedly derail game discussion threads.
And most important, enforce civility. A lot of people cannot discuss a topic like Planned Parenthood, which is indeed very relevant to the indie gaming scene, in a civil manner. It will rear its head again next time some indie devs do a bundle to support Planned Parenthood. If they can't discuss it in a civil manner, they should be banned. There is no "right" or "wrong" opinion on Planned Parenthood. There are however objectively uncivil ones.
you can live in SK where they tie social security numbers to your online account and watch as harassments and other toxic behaviour disappears and gets punished.
Call it out when you see it, especially when your friends do it. Tolerating this crap is how it spreads.
Stop with anonymous names and accounts is the quickest and easiest way. Your real name needs to be displayed. Make people treat it like real life. You'd not call that woman a "fucking bitch" or that black person out his name if you knew they knew who YOU were as well. That's always been the problem with the internet. People feel empowered to do and say dumb shit because they feel like there is no consequences for their actions. but if Tom Jones or Maggie Johnson know you know who they are then they may be a bit less reticent to just mouth off about wanting to kill you/rape you/etc.
Unless you're harassing a female K-Pop group because they dared to have a boyfriend and/or smile at a man. I guess the problem is that when you have a culture capable of mass harassment at the slightest sign of impurity, it's a little hard to police. When everyone is a harasser because you've fostered a culture of harassment, how you do weed out the harassers? Do you just focus on the most extreme cases? Won't do much good.
That case where an entire arena refused to show any support for a girl group because they'd deemed them morally impure was some creepy shit. South Korea has problems.
My first name is Mickey, last name Mouse. I don't have a credit card. I use pre paid cards and a dummy Pay Pal account.
Your solution just failed. Even if people knew your name, then what? Good luck finding them or associating them with the right person. Plus this just punishes people who haven't done anything wrong. So everyone has to have their privacy breached because of a few assholes? No thanks.
"Gaming" as a whole will never be free of it. There will likely always be pockets that are tolerant of that sort of thing. In the future, individual games will probably just be more liberal with their report function. If you're the kind of person who wants that future, you should probably financially support games that heavily moderate chat and hope the rest of the industry follows suit.
You can curb the snowballing a little bit, but a shocking number of people are perfectly willing to use their real names on social media when attacking people. They refuse to believe they're doing anything wrong. Like those people who screamed outrage because they were banned for cheating in Overwatch. They admitted to cheating, but were still angry because they felt that by paying for the game, they had a right to cheat. That kind of behavior transcends fake names.
I was watching my friend do multiplayer in COD last night and not even 30 seconds in the lobby someone randomly yells "I hate n.i....s" And my friend is so used to it he's like, " Yeap. There it is." Nobody in the room responded to it or anything. And it's like you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. People like that are looking for a reaction but we say nothing and it's like we're allowing it.
I would say go and get rid of people who are toxic. You are NEVER going to get rid of toxicity with the public because lets be honest with ourselves humans are pretty awful for the most part. Add anonymity and that puts the nail in the coffin (which already had 7billion nails in it).
You can talk about making less apparent in a site like this by essentially ruling with an iron fist but that will only make everyone hate the site. That's just how it is, find things to make it a better experience because you will never solve the problem.