Every morning Maryam and her mom go through their Basmati rice and remove bad grains because the quality of rice has gone down recently (prices recently doubled due to a drought in India so the rice producers are shipping more crappy rice along). Anyway, this made me think of the mobs. There are lots of tools to deal with them, just like Maryam is dealing with her bad rice problem: - Robert Scoble

1. Start a private room(er group). That is like the pile of rice with the bad ones removed. Maryam "invites" good rice into her room. - Robert Scoble

2. Block jerks who call names. That is what Maryam does when she throws bad rice into the trash. They -- unlike on Twitter -- even are removed from your search results. Blocking also removes YOUR account from THEIR view so they no longer can attack you. - Robert Scoble

3. Remove comments that exhibit mob behavior. Unly the person who starts a thread can do this on FriendFeed but this is much like a blog. Arrington removed one of my comments on TechCrunch today, for instance. - Robert Scoble

4. Don't cause mobs to form in the first place. Mobs get excited when people in leadership positions attack entire countries and entire user bases of social networking tools. - Robert Scoble

5. Use a higher form of media. If you respond to a Tweet storm with video, for instance, or to a video with a community roundtable where everyone can show up for a discussion you will appear more human and you will slow down the mob. - Robert Scoble

6.You never stop a mob by arguing with it. Instead, join the mob, move to the front, and slowly guide it to your position. That requires humility and work, though. - Robert Scoble

7. Call on your friends to be better. Attack them if you see them calling the other side names. - Robert Scoble

Any other ideas? - Robert Scoble

8. Stop taking things so seriously. It's just text on the screen. - Cristo

9. Stop buying into your friends' persecution complexes and paranoid delusions. Pay attention to your wife and come back to Planet Earth. - Karim

10. Stop equating critical remarks on a web page with having the shit physically beat out of you by a real mob of real people in the real world. - Karim

if the mob had numbers then wudnt it be harder for him to click those little checkboxs to delete the comments? - Paul Rawlings

Arrington said I was inciting the loonies. http://twitter.com/arrington The funny thing is there are at least 139% more loonies on Twitter than on FriendFeed. Provably so, too. They all have a hashtag. - Robert Scoble

Paul: I can delete all comments here very quickly. Here, I'll delete all the off topic comments here. - Robert Scoble

I just deleted nine comments and it took a few seconds. - Robert Scoble

Robert i love your style and commend you. - Paul Rawlings

Can someone post this item over on Arrington's post? He's moderating my comments now. :-) - Robert Scoble

Robert ,when u r not present no one can control your post comments and there is no control at all,,, the community should have some better tools ,,, - Johni Fisher

Johni: that is why I put my phone number on my blog and here so you can call and tell me a mob is out of control on my behalf: +1-425-205-1921 - Robert Scoble

Thats u Robert .... and the rest ? - Johni Fisher

Johni: if you see a mob getting out of control you can use many of the other techniques. Block those who participate and let them know. That will at least punish them for their behavior. - Robert Scoble

Johni: or join the mob, move to the front, and then start guiding them away from their target. That takes thought leadership and work, though. Not always easy. - Robert Scoble

Respect to you, Mr. Scoble, for using the pen like a sword, and honoring the power of words at the same time. - Dan Douglass from Nambu

Doing that I will not see them but they will be there for the rest ,,,we can add an abuse function as u can report spam u should report bad comments ,,,maybe I am old fashion but I am sure that we could do better - Johni Fisher

Johni: if we want the world to change first WE must change. Do you go and read racist materials? I don't. If people are jerks why not delete them from your inflow and keep them from engaging with you? That's how you change the world and signal to everyone that that behavior is not acceptable. - Robert Scoble

Robert I agree that we should be the first to delete them but the community that we are part of must know that these users are as bad as they are ...I dont think that its so bad that some one will be out from our community and not just be away from my stream - Johni Fisher

speaking of racist materials, Robert, did Arrington ever conclude that the TechNigga videos were racist? or does he still have his head up Loren Feldman's ass? - Karim

Wait. Drought in India? Huh? When? - Yuvi

Robert, I agree completely. Calling MA a douche or whatever doesn't help one bit. We need to to call him out on what he said, not what we think he is. You know him, better than most of us, so you have an insight into Michael Arrington. The rest of us need to just take a chill pill and if we feel strongly on what he wrote tell him. Other people who know should worry about him as a person. He does have a comment system over there so that's probably the best place to tell him what we thought of what he wrote. Shame he blocked you though. I was kinda looking forward to your take on it put to him, where he could reply. - Rasmus Lauridsen

Yuvi: that's what she heard. I don't know if it's true but the quality of rice from India has gone way down recently. - Robert Scoble

Guess I need to go over and retract some of my post since I see now that it wasn't justified some of the stuff I wrote. so BRB :-) - Rasmus Lauridsen

:-) - Johni Fisher

Karim: I don't know what Arrington and Feldman's relationship is at the moment. They used to be friends, though, and, yes, it was an example of Arrington pushing a mob for his own business interests. - Robert Scoble

"pushing a mob for his own business interests?" two questions. 1) is that what the kids call it these days? 2) aren't you assisting him with this in this thread? - Karim

Karim: 1. Heh. 2. probably but if I worried about who I was helping I would just stay off the Internet. In general I try to be helpful rather than hurtful. Even against people who have been hurtful to me in the past. - Robert Scoble

Yuvi: have a look at this http://bit.ly/B72RI . There is an issue of drought going on right now - Kashif Khan

Robert: reference to bad rice :) i heard that they automated the process and dont pick it by hand anymore. apparently they use machines. maybe this is why the rice doesnt taste as good. Simply the machinery and the farming methods have had an impact on the quality of the rice. - Paul Rawlings

Paul: that's possible. Whatever is going on with the rice supply it has several kernels that are dark and ruin the coloring of food (my motherinlaw says those are caused by worms inside the rice kernel). - Robert Scoble

I'd also suggest stop feeding the trolls, Robert. Being helpful is one thing, linking back to Arrington continually is another. Just stop linking; you can talk about him, but links are assertions of authority, relevance, and value. Take that away. You can give him advice on tools w/o also giving him linklove. *grin* - Ken Kennedy

Robert, who, exactly, is it helping to buy into his hyperbole about "mobs" being syphilis or cancer or swine flu? i see how it helps "his own business interests," but i'm not sure why you feel a need to be an enabler. - Karim

Robert: i can simply say that your mother in law is a very wise woman. damn those worms. lets hit the root of the problem and increase the number of birds so that the worms will be plucked from the soil before entering the rice and hopefully leading to a better quality rice. - Paul Rawlings

Robert , should we get the FF founders opinion ? - Johni Fisher

Ken: good point. Karim: I fall for link bait just as often as the next guy. I'm a sucker! :-) - Robert Scoble

Clark: that's my intent, yes. And TechCrunch is relevant and influential. Even if we say it isn't. - Robert Scoble

Robert: if you do talk to friendfeed, tell them to put a comment button on the bottom of the comment stream. pain in the arse scrolling to the top. i am lazy, and proud of it :) - Paul Rawlings

agree with you Paul, lets start a mob for getting the comment button under the comment stream. *Grabs pitchfork* Finally a worthy cause :-P - Rasmus Lauridsen

Paul you can use this link and u can comment with no scrolling http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... - Johni Fisher

I think the call to calm down and think before you post and the other ones you gave are very good and timely, Robert, and I hope they help. The link-bait-incitement article that prompted it I haven't read and neither will I. I have grown weary with people stirring things up just to get attention. - WorldofHiglet

Paul click twice on the time stamp to get a window with just that. - Robert Scoble

U c paul :-) just for u - Johni Fisher

timestamp. wheres that. i see the bubble icon. come on guys. help me out. i dont want no scrolling action now. - Paul Rawlings

uhhh didn't know that little trick, thank you Robert very helpful. - Rasmus Lauridsen

Where it says 1 hour ago.. - Rasmus Lauridsen

Clark, it's like "professional" wrestling. fixed outcomes, mock combat, web 2.0 version of a carny sideshow. "SEE Stone Cold Leo Laporte blow his top! SEE Arrington call Scoble a mob instigator!" fake punches and elastic floors and people shouting STFU one week, only to kiss and make up the next. i'm just disappointed to see Scoble participating. - Karim

@Clark @Robert the fact that TC is linked anyway makes no difference, IMO. If you don't change how you act, don't be surprised when things don't change. It's the voting analogy -- "my vote isn't enough to make a difference". Hardly. Votes are what makes the difference. I don't cast my vote for a popular politician just because I know "he'll get plenty of votes anyway". Even if he wins, I don't have to support it. And linking is even more important, b/c it's public. It's YOUR assertion of influence. - Ken Kennedy

:: sigh :: When people fight on the internet, both sides lose. Internet mobs are just people who never got past the middle school clique thing or the high school "live and breathe drama" thing. Their immaturity is obvious and they are a bore to everyone except themselves. - Miss Elle

Miss Elle: when you rely on page views for your business model (I don't) then you quickly learn that using these techniques gets you major page views. You might be above it all but most humans aren't. - Robert Scoble

Robert - thank you for posting your list of how to deal with MobFeed and mobs - this is the type of service that is a benefit to the Internet community - Kathleen Forden

Well put, Robert. Appreciate your thoughts as always. - Bill Kinney

Late to the thread, but as far as "front of the mob" is concerned I'd go and watch "Milk" again and see how he manages to use mobs to his advantage. (full disclosure: the subject of the film was a cousin on my father's side). On a less serious note -- I'm interested in how to determine which grains of basmati are 'bad.' I thought all were equally delicious...especially with saffron... - Andrew Feinberg

Andrew: the bad ones have a dirty look. Blackened on one side. - Robert Scoble

Ah! The things I can learn from FriendFeed. (shocking that I own -- and use -- a rice cooker, no?) - Andrew Feinberg

IMHO, online mobs are nothing new. While they're not exactly analogous to flamewars, maybe there's something to be gleaned from what Shirky wrote about the latter: http://www.shirky.com/writing... - Ryan McCormack

Logic surrenders. - Mark Davidson from BuddyFeed

Funny someone mentioned wrestling above. Sort of reminds me of the kayfabe plotlines on WWE. Gotta admit the commentary's getting interesting. So, Robert, how do you outdo an article comparing syphillus and Friendfeed? - George Hall (Australia)

Actually I'll answer my own question. One could write an article comparing Twitter to pelvic inflamatory disease...which it sort of seems like when you get a day or two of spam bots anyway. - George Hall (Australia)

Hey, anyone want to see Robert versus Arrington on Raw or Smackdown? - George Hall (Australia)

What Cristo said (point 8) - Kevin J Hatton