The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.)

[Karl]

This is a very heartening thing to see.

Something to remember is that each one of these tactics also has those rare
times when it is valid and important and normal to do.

That fact is why groups fall apart.  The tactics are two-pronged: if you
allow the behavior, capacity is taxed from handling it, if you ban the
behavior, effectiveness is lost from being unable to use it when needed,
and if you exclude and isolate the behavior people using it can outcompete
you.

There are solutions but all take some labor and capacity and have risk.

One of the risks is of the people obstructing the list learning who is
directing the solutions, and what patterns the solutions have.  It can then
become simple for the disruptors to have a meeting around the new solution
and put a secret countersolution into play.

Another risk is of excluding real valuable members, as described above.

I believe a really important solution to hold a common behavior of talking
about the issue and current strategies to handle it.  My experience is this
norm can quickly fall apart, and to me basically that indicates that people
have been maliciously influenced in some way.

So, I've been upholding the importance of anonymity here and there.  When
people are more anonymous, it is more expensive to influence them.  I
recommend nobody use their legal name, because it is very easy to find
people based on a legal name, and it threatens an entire group to have
people influenced.

It's not great because I'm using my legal name myself, but still :)
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