Topix finds that site registration draws trolls. It’s time to start saying “bad-bye”

Topix has a very interesting post on the their experience removing registration.

Since removing registration, our volume has exploded and just this morning we just passed a quarter-of-a-million aggregate posts on our system. And the quality of posts? To our surprise, our post kill-rate has actually dropped — hovering below 2%. This is less than half of the number incurred when registration was in place.

What gives? We think it’s the “Ni-chan paradox”…

If you’ve never heard of Ni-chan (or “2ch” - pronounced “ni-channeru”) it’s a Japanese site that has the distinction of being the largest internet forum in the world. 2ch champions an “anything goes” approach to posting, and while it’s a bit more wild-west than Topix aspires to be, we believe they’re on to something by eschewing the user registration in their boards.

Here’s a great post explaining the 2ch rationale for jettisoning the reg, and a quick summary of the philosophy:

Registration keeps out good posters. People with lives will tend to ignore forums with a registration process.

Registration lets in bad posters. Children and Internet addicts tend to have free time to go register an account and check their e-mail for the confirmation message. They will generally make your forum a waste of bandwidth.

Registration attracts trolls. If someone is interested in destroying a forum, a registration process only adds to the excitement of a challenge. Trolls are not out to protect their own reputation. They seek to destroy other peoples’ “reputation”.

Anonymity counters vanity. On a forum where registration is required, or even where people give themselves names, a clique is developed of the elite users, and posts deal as much with who you are as what you are posting. On an anonymous forum, if you can’t tell who posts what, logic will overrule vanity.

That’s wild stuff.

Is this bizarro world?

Hello!

UPDATE: Dr. John M. Grohol brings the earth back into alignment with “Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters” proposing that segemented, simple registration systems are the best route. Here’s a taste:

Membership systems are no panacea, and they won’t stop a person who is committed to disrupting your site. But they do offer an important stepping stone to connect a website’s community to a real person, and that person to their actions. Such a registration process also works to limit the disinhibitory effects of online behavior—or at least some of the more negative ones—and creates a subtle but important psychological difference between an anonymous visitor and a known community member. A person who is invested in a community through a membership system is one less likely to abuse the community.