I'm not entirely sure what we're talking about here. Is it that anonymous communication is a double edged sword or that teenagers are kind of evil?<p>Either way, it would be very disturbing to see a company give out customer information without a warrant or similar, wouldn't it? Especially if the customer is a minor.
First, this is a serious problem. Severe bullying is one of the <i>better</i> outcomes if you have unrestricted, anonymous <i>localized</i> trolling.<p>Second, it seems like this could be easily fixed without compromising anonymity, using standard moderation techniques. And Yik Yak can in theory do even better than an online discussion board - acquiring a new phone number is much higher cost than creating a new online account.<p>In fact, this feature could enable Yik Yak to be one of the <i>better</i> online communities, since effective moderation is actually possible while still maintaining anonymity.
It always boggles my mind that people would rather not see the true nature and thoughts of their community than actually address the underlying social environment that makes those thoughts acceptable to air. Further I find it worrying that people's response is to want to hunt down and punish individual people for airing thoughts when on YY it is clear that the only way they stay visible is because a GROUP of people actively agrees with them.<p>Don't you WANT to know that there are biggots out there so you can actually address the problem!??!<p>Ostriches, ostriches everywhere.
Interestingly enough, my experience using Yik Yak at a small liberal arts college is quite different. As the article notes, posts get removed if their score reaches -5. My observations are that basically any post with any negative connotations whatsoever is almost immediately downvoted to deletion. It's the opposite of what this article describes: overmoderation rather than undermoderation.
I recently read an online conversation about how to spoof GPS coordinates to get in on and even skewing discourse in target areas. Sounds like a lot of fun, unless of course you factor in that most users probably aren't mature enough to critically judge what appears on their screens.
My university is one of the universities listed in the article for having issues with Yik Yak. The university president was rumored to be considering banning the app, which is a functionality supported by the creators to fence off a certain geographical region. The yaks made in my area can get particularly nasty, but I'm not sure what the appropriate response should be. Most of them aren't specific enough to be illegal - inciting violence, harassment, etc.<p>Comments made on Yik Yak also was a big motivator for a series of protests on my campus around the time of the Ferguson protests, which is unusual for a socially conservative campus with little social activism.
I was wondering this weekend about an anonymous chat app, where abusive or nasty comments were changed by the service, in one of many ways, like reversing the focus of the comment, negating it, or simply changing it to something like "I like roses; they are pretty and smell nice". And the more someone tries to be obnoxious, the more it changes their comments. Almost like a chat version of the justice zone from the BBC comedy series Red Dwarf, where you were not able to do any wrong, as it came straight back to you.<p>Might just give it a go...
How could there be a purer application of Greater Internet F-wad Theory[1]? Both the founders and the funders[2] should be ashamed.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/" rel="nofollow">http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yik_Yak" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yik_Yak</a>
Two fraternity guys make an app for anonymous posts. Genius! Never in a million years would I think this was something worthwhile to make or that it would contribute in any meaningful way to any community. The bit about empowering individuals in a community to level the playing field is especially hilarious.<p>The problem is that 20-somethings don't have the required gray matter to foresee the consequences of their actions and by many definitions they're not even fully realized humans yet. I attribute this trend of throwing money at such individuals to the geniuses in SV like PG, a16z, etc. It turns out you don't need fully realized humans to do a random walk among shitty ideas to see if one of them sticks. Evolutionary tactics will do it for you.
I'd be curious if the content of these posts is genuinely worse than the things they say to each other with boring old human speech.<p>Just because the awful-ness isn't normally shouted into a megaphone, doesn't mean it's not there. My high school shortened the lunch break because of how horrible the girls were being to each-other when they had free time. Not effective of course.
I was going to gloat about how I don't use something like yik yak, but then I realized I'm anonymous here, and that HN employs heavy handed moderation to deal with near anonymous chat.
> There were dozens of posts, most demeaning, many using crude, sexually explicit language and imagery.<p>A little misleading; to be clear, there are no image posts on Yik Yak.
This is really disturbing and i think its the tipping point on anonymity. I don't know about you but i'm ready to give up my freedoms for the sake of some people not being offended. Shutting down yikyak or suing them to death would be a good start.