So... it's been a while.
It's been a while since I last posted an article. Part of that has been due to a month of incredible busyness where even the planned "down time" became frantic research time for car insurance, holiday planning, present purchasing etc. The rest has been Pokémon Go!, which has eaten free time like nothing else in recent history.
It's been a while since I reviewed a movie. Sort of. The reality is, I've actually managed to keep on top of those over the last week or so, but I have a couple annoyingly outstanding from a time BPg (Before Pokémon Go!) and I'm not 100% happy with the current state of some of the others. July's MiM is coming, with some interesting new 'features', but it may be a week or so late.
It's been a while since I spent any time working on this website. Again, in a time BPg (historians will catch on, I'm sure of it) I was getting close to making some pretty big, radical changes to the backend here. They hit a slight snag which morphed into a major roadblock simply because I still haven't really sat down to mull it over. Still, plans are slowly creeping forward!
It's been a while since I did any photo editing. Despite weekend after weekend of major events in the past month, which have produced hundreds of photos I'm genuinely proud of, I haven't posted to Flickr in coughmumblemumble... I'm not proud of that, but again, plans may finally be moving forward.
It's been a while since I saw something truly exemplary online. There have been some great videos and some new passions, but nothing that's made me sit up and go: yes! I agree! Let's think about/act on that right now! Luckily, this waiting period has actually ended thanks to the ever inspiring Vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green. I don't want to go too deep into my thoughts right now because, well, this post has ballooned into something else which I quite like, but lets just say they've struck a nerve.
In a handful of recent Youtube videos, they both touched upon a worrying trend online, specifically that angry voices, ranting and outrage are becoming increasingly prevalent. In some ways, that's totally okay, but the ubiquity and degree of rage is getting out of control. Between the two videos they discussed why anger leads to poor conversations, why it builds so much traction online, why that may provoke certain elements to create and foster this emotion above others and, most importantly, presented one method for potentially combating this trend. In terms of the "whys", rather than regurgitate their words I'd urge you to just watch the videos. If the virality of anger is something that interests you, I'd also thoroughly recommend this analysis by CGPGrey.
What really made me sit up and take note, though, was their suggestion to combat saltiness and flame wars on Youtube: "+" comments. Because Youtube ranks comments based on the number of Likes and Comments they get, but comments are weighted higher than likes, angry/flamebait comments tend to rise to the top, causing a circle jerk of ever increasing rage. Hank Green, instead, suggested that people should leave a comment with a simple "+" symbol on any comments they felt worthy of praise, discussion or both. In doing so, they've hacked their own Youtube comments section into one where bile and trolling isn't rewarded and genuine discussion/ideas are. It's by no means perfect, but I thoroughly agree with both brothers when they say that it is as much the community's job to police themselves and maintain order as it is the platform's.
Personally, I'm a big fan of "+" comments. It may be that Youtube eventually begins to remove them or negate their importance, but in the meantime they seem to be a power for good. In particular, I feel they may be much more effective than reporting negative/trolling/abusive comments. I'm a firm believer that a carrot will be more likely to provoke change than a stick (plus, over reliance on the stick reduces it's power/thorniness).
