SXSW2008 notes – Social Network Coups: The Users are Revolting!

Friday, 8 March 2008 - 5:00PM

Abstract:
The “user revolt” has become one of the most promising (and terrifying) community activities on social networks. Perhaps the best-known user revolt was the mass protest on Digg over publishing the AACS key. But other revolts have broken out on LiveJournal, Lifehacker, Facebook, and many other networks. This panel explores user revolts from both sides of the fence: panelists discuss how users can stage successful coups to get what they want from social networks, as well as the best ways for community organizers to respond.

Jeska Dzwigalski - Community & Prod Dev, Linden Lab (Second Life)
Annalee Newitz - Editor, io9.com
Gina Trapani - Editor, Lifehacker
Jessamyn West - metafilter.com

How can we handle pissed off users?

Newitz:

• Examples: anarchist, grassroots and op-ed/open letter from high profile users
• Respectively: Buying diggs, AACS key posting on Digg, The Drill Down open letter

Dzwigalski:

• Revolts by griefers are issue-based.
• Their initial way of making money was taxing prims which loaded the burden upon the more creative facet of the SL population. They protested with an American Revolution theme by dumping boxes of tea all over their areas and closing it down.
• Copybot problem in 2006.
• The more data transparency you create, the more users want.
• The best result is the users using a tool built to create a virtual social environment to organize in protest.

West:

• Much of what she used as examples were riding herd on sexism.

Trapani:

• Toto ad involving smiling butts. The company bought leader board and tower side ads and the response to the ads drowned out other posts.

My new word: astroturfing.