Arisia 2017: "Don’t Feed The Trolls" Doesn’t Work

Andrew and Ben were both on panels at Arisia: New England’s Largest, Most Diverse Sci-Fi & Fantasy Convention! This episode is from the panel Ben was on: "Don’t Feed The Trolls" Doesn't Work. Thank you to everyone on the panel for letting us record. Find their awesome work (other than Ben – you know him by now) and the description of the panel below.

"Don’t read the comments" is not an option for your own Facebook, blog, or other online community. How do we moderate this input? Is simply turning the comments off the solution? Moderating with a strong hand? Allowing people to fight it out? How responsible are we for the things other people say in our online spaces and what are we to do about it?

William C. Walker III is an inveterate gamer in multiple media, lover of sci-fi and fantasy, and veteran gm/dm/storyteller with over twenty years of experience running at least one game, and as many as three concurrently. He is a PhD candidate in Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University, with a focus in renewable energy policy. He has worked as a researcher in nanotechnology and engineering education. He is currently a doctoral fellow for Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies.

Maddy Myers is an Editor at The Mary Sue. She previously has worked for Paste Magazine and the Boston Phoenix. Her writing has also appeared at Offworld, iMore, Kill Screen, re/Action, The Border House, Slice of MIT and MIT Technology Review. She plays the keytar and sings in a nerdcore pop-rock band called the Robot Knights.

Mink Rose has been a part of the Arisia community for years, even before she began regularly attending in 2007. Though she enjoys being an attendee, she's been doing more work for the convention in recent years, including finally agreeing to be on panels, and becoming an Arisia Corporate member. Mink served as the first Chair of the Diversity Committee for Arisia 2016. She continues to work closely with the Committee for the convention, and does her best to support intersectional feminist work everywhere possible. Mink Rose can be found on twitter & facebook sharing interesting information and connecting folks to resources for anti-bigotry activism. She remains an imperfect human being who is doing her best to get everyone to save the world.

Gabriel Valdez is an activist and media critic. He is helping coordinate campaigns geared to amplify and protect the voices of liberals and progressives - especially those entering activism and politics for the first time. He won national recognition in 2015 from the National Newspaper Association and Local Media Association for criticism focused on the historical meaning of art in the face of fascism. He has previous experience as an investigative reporter, campaign manager, and PAC database manager. It's a strange place to find oneself at the intersection of politics, media criticism, and activism right now.

As always, thank you to Bright Primate for our intro and outro music. You can find them at http://brightprimate.tk