Instagram Comment Wars

 I really struggled, initially, to find a comment war because 1. I'm not on facebook anymore and refuse to reactivate. It's a bit too much of a cesspool. 2. I think comment moderation is really strong on the platforms I use or the accounts I follow on instagram. and 3. Even posts on reddit's homepage have sort of turned into an echo chamber. Anything negative was so buried I couldn't find it, and I wanted some obvious arguments at the top of a post.

So after some thought I suddenly remembered what kinds of posts I often see the most vitriol and unprovoked negative comments and that is... *drum roll*... Women's sports!

ESPN's instagram used to be a terrible place to read the comments on women's sports but I think they have moderators now that are really locking down on negative comments about women.
Athletic women, especially ones with short hair, are pretty common targets on social media. Ilona Maher is an American Rugby player that was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition over the summer and here is a link to an Instagram page that shared some quotes and photos from the article.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_QhgcZOANU/?igsh=NGk0amRmZnNicmEx

The caption reads: Olympic rugby star @ilonamaher is rewriting the playbook on strength and style in her first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover 🔥👏

Here are some screenshots of a comment that shows up 5th and some of the responses. There are plenty of others in the thread, this was just the top one I grabbed.

My first concern is the comment that kicks this off isn't saying anything more than 'Physiological male'. Now, Ilona Maher is clearly a woman and nothing about the post was asking for the comments to debate that or to even form an opinion on it, because it's a fact. She is a woman. The person making the comment is not asking a question. Nothing about this comment says, please engage with me on the subject matter in a way that I can learn your perspective and you can learn mine. This is a quintessential 'troll' comment. A troll leaves a comment like this pretty much do it for the negative attention.
My second concern is that so many people take the bait and respond to it defending Ilona. Their comments become just as volatile, in my opinion, as the original offender's comment, who actually doesn't come back to respond to anyone. Some don't even defend Ilona, they're just attacking the troll. A pretty classic troll comment.
My third concern is that whoever is moderating this account was clearly taking down earlier negative comments but I saw many that slipped through or came long after the moderator had left the post. Perhaps they showed up a week after the initial post. So, not exactly an effective form of moderation.

Social media platforms are not structured to support online arguments. There's likes, upvoting, downvoting, user experience design that shortens comments or hides them unless you click. It's just not conducive to productive conversation on meaningful topics. 

5 rules I think people should follow when arguing online:

1. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. Be respectful.

2. Don't engage if you're in a bad mood. 

3. Disengage after 3 or 4 back and forths on a topic. If there's no progress, stop wasting energy on it. You don't know the other person's intentions in the conversation. It may not be worth your time if you find that their participation in debate isn't genuine.

4. Don't drop 3 words to start an internet fire and then leave. A "mic drop" response isn't helpful or effective. Be thoughtful.

5. Use your real name and photo. I think if people want to share their viewpoints in a public space then they should stand behind that opinion with their name and photo. That may be controversial to some but I think much of the vitriol spread online would be abated quickly if people were required to be, real people.

Here's a great article from the NYTimes that shares additional tips for engaging online.