Trolls provoke. Flame wars run out of control. Decent citizens flee. I just don't want to be part of this any more, writes one commenter on Tim Bray's blog. That's an only slightly hyped-up summary of the kerfuffle since web marketing guru, Kathy Sierra, accusing web veterans such as Chris Locke of complicity in death threats against her. The irony: the blogs emerged in the first place because they forced writers to own their own words, and allowed readers to route around idiocy and vitriol. They were, in part, a reaction to the anarchy of Usenet, the first online discussion platform, which was itself overwhelmed by spam and spite. Weblogs are more robust than Usenet, because it is still easy for sensitive readers to avoid the most malicious sites. But we've been here before: this week's soul-searching over unmoderated blog commentary sounds much like the dying agonies of Usenet. Let this, from a bitterly disappointed Usenet participant, be a warning:

We have allowed Usenet to become the way it is because we have been poor stewards of our neighborhoods. System administrators no longer take Usenet complaints seriously, partly because we haven't demanded that they do. And, whenever the decent citizens of any neighborhood abandon it, the sleaze and negative element comes in.

I recently rediscovered just how bad it's become recently on a visiting of some of my formerly favorite newsgroups. They are all now a complete wasteland of trolls, inappropriate crossposts, and absolute crap. It's a shame.

So, my proposal is: TURN IT OFF! It is, by in large, a waste of resources, populated by losers and malcontents who think violating the laws of common courtesy (or even, for that matter, the literal laws of society) is some kind of twisted adventure. Usenet is a wasteland of detritus, a mere shell of the powerful communications tool it once was. [Chris Sullivan, in 2002, calling for ISPs to shut down Usenet.]

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