Dialogue with Tree Hole Users: The Public Discussion of Anonymous Platform Imagined by Tree Hole (Part 1) | Around the Furnace · CUHK

Mar 16, 2022

In September last year, the WeChat applet "Ma Liushui bbji" (or "Tree Hole"), run by students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was launched, and it has become a real-time discussion community and information exchange platform widely used by mainland students. The Tree Hole applet adopts the form of "anonymous in the foreground and real name in the background", and users can choose to display their own nicknames or hide their nicknames when publishing content. Shudong has a wide range of topics, including sharing daily moods, discussing social current affairs, evaluating course information, and more. But in addition to daily discussions, hanging people in tree holes, rumors, debates about social events, etc. also often cause public turmoil. This article interviewed a victim of the Internet storm in the tree hole, a Zeng Shudong Da V who chose to fade out of the tree hole, and a journalism and communication student who had completed related topics on the use of tree holes, focusing on the experience of using tree holes from different perspectives and views on various tree-hole-related phenomena, by tree-hole imagine the possibility of public discussion on anonymous platforms.

The basic function page of the tree hole (I)

Vinyl | Let me introduce myself briefly.

Xie Bao| I am Xie Bao, I was a former tree hole big v, and later because the tree hole atmosphere became not very good, I quit the tree hole.

Coco| Hello everyone, I am Coco, a student majoring in journalism and communication, and I have done a relevant news interview before.

Doudou| I am Doudou, a victim who has experienced the Internet violence in Shudong. After being attacked by the Internet, I have some different thoughts on the entire tree hole ecology and the mechanism of Internet violence.

1｜Shudong as an information exchange platform

 Vinyl | Today, let's talk about your daily use of tree holes. Do you still look at tree holes? Or how often do you look at tree holes, and what are the main contents of the browsing?

Dolphin| I usually dig through tree holes at that kind of very fragmented time. In fact, it's a bit like punching in every day, that is, I have a faint feeling of completing the task and seeing what happened. I feel that this is actually a little bit like a microcosm of the entire modern information society. You will unconsciously want to obtain fragmented information, and sometimes you will think about this need rationally, and you will feel that it is not important to your entire The body of knowledge has no significant effect, but you will still browse and refresh involuntarily. After you develop such a habitual pattern, it will permeate your life.

I think this has a lot to do with the platform mechanism of the tree hole. First of all, the users of Shudong are CUHK students, so when I want to know something about my school, I completely rely on Shudong. Secondly, the user base of Shudong is not so large, and there are not so many posts. It is possible to browse all the information in a period of time. It will not be like the previous Jiaoda Shudong, which may have thousands of posts in a period of time. So you're going to browse as much information as possible that others have given you. Furthermore, its posts are relatively fragmented or flat, so it actually helps to facilitate information acquisition.

Another point I would like to add is about the characteristics of the tree hole mechanism, which actually encourages timely interaction and has the characteristics of decentralization and high liberalization. So when you receive this information, it allows you to get more information after the update, because the cave owner or others will supplement it. Its decentralization and high degree of liberalization will make the threshold for sharing or receiving information not so high.

Coco| I will pay more attention to tree holes when the surrounding environment changes a lot, and rely on tree holes to obtain second-hand information. Since I myself may not be someone who is used to paying attention to policy for a long time, then I would feel that the tree hole is a good platform for me to browse information related to my life. Because most of the people who use the tree hole are people with similar life trajectories to me, I will rely more on browsing through the tree hole for the information that they filter out and think is effective. It seems to me like a lazy search engine.

In fact, for me, I think I am quite selfish when I use the tree hole. Most of the time I use it, I get information from it one-way. For example, I have seen some policies about returning home and how to pay tuition fees on WeChat. I will collect the tree holes, etc.; but I rarely take the initiative to share some information that I think is useful, because I feel that in the process of sharing information, I will take some risks, and I have no way to be 100% sure that I share it. The information must be useful, valid, and must be approved by everyone. I think that, for me, Tree Hole is not an information exchange platform, but a way to obtain information.

And since Shudong are all classmates from the same school, I will have a natural sense of trust in them. In fact, this reminds me of a theory in the media, which is that people don’t trust the media because of the media organization itself, but because of the media people. media people. So in fact, for me, I don't think that what I trust is not Shudong as a platform for disseminating information, but every classmate who uses Shudong or school staff, etc. I will beautify the people around me, naturally Feel that what they share is believable. So even if everyone shares information anonymously on the tree hole, even if there will be some bad voices, etc., I still tend to believe that the accuracy and authenticity of the information shared by everyone on the tree hole.

Xie Bao | I basically don’t look at the tree hole anymore, and I don’t use it as an information exchange platform. I feel that its use is less than the harm or discomfort it brings to me, so it may be a month now. Watch it three or four times, and only watch it when I have an urgent need. For example, about what happened on campus, like the debate on MUA (Chinese University of Hong Kong Mainland Students Union), I couldn't get information elsewhere, so I would use Shudong as a platform for fact check.

Information exchange and sharing tree hole, the above picture is an anonymous tree hole, the bottom picture is a real name tree hole

2｜The public opinion environment of Shudong

 Vinyl | Next, I would like to talk to you about the tree hole as a public discussion platform. Before discussing specific areas, I would like to ask you how you feel about the public opinion environment in which Shudong is now discussing some campus affairs and public affairs? What are your different perceptions of the public opinion environment in Shudong from the beginning to now?

Coco| I will divide the users of the tree hole into three categories, according to the time, one is not accustomed to using the tree hole, that is, the classmates who entered the school in 2019 and before, they first entered. When they are on campus, Shudong is not a commonly used platform. Shudong only appears when they are already familiar with the school and have their own access to information and sharing information and channels.

The other is the 20th class, which is my own class. At that time, the class was online, and the tree hole was appearing when we were not familiar with schoolmates and so on. Everyone found that Shudong is a platform for exchanging information and sharing ideas with classmates on the Internet, and it is exclusively for Zhongda adults. Therefore, in fact, for those who were taking online classes at that time, including many classmates in my class, they would have a sense of belonging to Shudong like that of a Chinese family garden. In fact, I think Shudong really brought a lot of warmth and information to everyone when it was first launched. Everyone will feel very happy and enjoy when using Shudong.

Then there is the 21st class now. They have been accustomed to the existence of tree holes since they entered the school, and there is already a lot of known information on the tree holes, whether good or bad. Therefore, when they come into contact with the tree hole, the tree hole has formed a relatively complete public opinion field, and they will feel that I am its user, and can say some things I usually dare not say in life, and it will be more urgent I want to know what happened in the tree hole, so as to deepen my familiarity with the school. For example, some classmates of the 21st class around me sometimes ask about who the protagonist of some hanging incidents in the tree hole is, what kind of story they have, etc. They have a lot of opinions about what happened in the tree hole before. Strong understanding.

Therefore, in these three different school years, as the tree hole never appeared, and then matured, the public opinion orientation of the tree hole was constantly changing, and at the same time, everyone's attitude towards it and the mentality of using it also changed.

Dolphin| I think the change is quite big, especially since the first semester of 21, the public opinion of the whole tree hole has become worse and worse. In the beginning, the overall atmosphere was quite good. When encountering some major public opinion events, you can see different voices from both sides, and these voices are relatively in line with our imagination of public discussions. And everyone is more inclined to use a logical reasoning, or express it in a way that is more in line with common sense.

But after September 2020, I obviously feel that its overall ecological environment is getting worse and worse. Many times it will resort to irrationality to satisfy its desire to spy on other people's privacy, as well as its desire to criticize and reprimand others. This desire will be more explicit and constantly rationalized or even beautified.

When I just heard Coco say this, I had a very strong feeling that our level 20 class, taking myself as an example, has a strong desire to maintain the entire tree hole ecology, or we will hope that it will move towards It's going in the direction of a healthier public discussion, but it feels like for this group of users who poured in after September last year, they'll see it more as an anonymous platform like anywhere else, which is rarely the case. a maintenance mindset.

Xie Bao| I was thinking about a question. We always felt that the atmosphere of Shudong had obviously become bad since the beginning of the 21st class. Many people blame this on the decline in the quality of students, or think that such a problem will occur if a platform develops for a long time, but now that I think about it, it may be that it came out by chance, just in time for the online class.

At that time, the freshmen just came in. Everyone was very longing for the school and wanted to keep a little bit of restraint. The seniors also helped their classmates with a very enthusiastic attitude, so they would maintain a good image in the tree hole. We usually have a feeling in the university that the seniors are the best during the admission season, and then they gradually become ordinary people. Later, we gradually entered the face-to-face teaching mode. We have more offline communication, so we no longer only rely on online communication, and there is no need to disguise anything online, which leads to a bad atmosphere.

3 ｜「【⚠⚠⚠Tree Cave】」

 Vinyl | Let's get into some more specific topics. First, let's start with the yellow exclamation mark tree hole. Generally, when a tree hole user sends a tree hole, they will manually mark the content with a yellow exclamation mark (⚠)?

Coco| Generally, when they send some sex-related information, such as dating a gun, sharing their sexual life, questions about contraception, and asking for help in sexual skills, they will manually put three exclamation marks in front of the tree hole. .

I remember that the earliest people advocated the use of an exclamation point was that there would be many minors also using this platform, so when publishing some sexually related content, a yellow exclamation mark should be used, so that minors should not click on it. In fact, I think this is a setting method that makes me feel very strange, surprised, and unreasonable. Why can't minors browse the pornographic content? Later, many contraceptive-related topics will be written with "girls in", and sex-related terms will be automatically written with abbreviations and so on. The yellow exclamation mark actually reflects the discoloration of everyone talking about sex, which is a stigma against sex. Sexual knowledge, such as dating, etc., why can't this information be shared as openly as other information? As for women's physical health-related help and knowledge of contraception, why should only girls be seen by default?

I think all the information does not need to have a yellow exclamation mark to warn people who browse it.

Dolphin | Yes, when some tree hole users put exclamation marks on these content, they actually acquiesce to such content, which will cause discomfort to some people. Everyone will have such a consensus that if I see something related to sex, or if I see some negative energy content, I will feel uncomfortable, putting an exclamation mark will make me less likely to accidentally see this kind of content .

Xie Bao | As far as I am concerned, when I see the yellow exclamation mark, I want to read it more. Just like when I bought games online, when I saw r18, I wanted to click in and watch it. It was an artificially created feeling of sexual division.

But in fact, some dating are too much, or the content of showing off my sexual experience will make me feel a little uncomfortable, so I think this yellow exclamation mark is still reasonable. It's just that the boundary is too blurry, because a lot of times we just want to post something sexually related, and if we don't give a warning, we will be scolded, which is a bit like self-censorship.

 Vinyl | What do you think about negative energy tree holes that will mark yourself with a yellow exclamation mark, do you think this would be uncomfortable content?

Dolphin | The meaning behind the word "negative energy" is quite rich. Why does our society acquiesce that positive energy should be known, but negative energy should not be accepted? It was like a kind of self-censorship that started with good intentions, hoping that others would not be affected by my negative emotions.

So I feel that this still depends on the specific situation, because some people may be emotionally out of control, and the volume of emotional expression is very large, and you will be affected by his bad emotions. But some people may just express some pessimistic thoughts about daily life, and it is very vague to define or divide the boundaries of this negative energy.

I think it would be understandable to say that I, as a cave owner, made the yellow exclamation mark spontaneously. But others can't criticize this cave owner without putting an exclamation mark on him because he expressed negative energy, forcing him to put an exclamation mark on him. This is different.

Xie Bao | I think the yellow exclamation mark is actually a compromise product, and it still has something to do with the educational concept of our entire society. In the educational concept we have been exposed to since childhood, it is wrong to make others uncomfortable. When we see others sharing their unhappiness, we will naturally feel that they are wrong. So the yellow exclamation mark is more like a product that I want to share, but I'm afraid of affecting other people's mood. The key is that we don't dare to share our negative energy openly, so I think it's a very unnecessary thing.

 Vinyl | Do you think there is any difference between posting negative energy content in the tree hole and posting it on other platforms such as Moments?

Coco| I think there will be many platforms for anonymous submissions on Weibo. When someone submits a topic related to sex, there will be a comment below, you are anonymous, we are not anonymous. I just thought that Moments is actually a real-name environment, so everyone will think that I have thought about it when I post those things. I have already recognized that the things I post in the real-name of Moments will be linked to me personally. It is related to the relationship, so when I said this, I must have reviewed it myself. I felt that it would not make most people uncomfortable, so I posted it in the circle of friends, and let everyone see it in a real-name way.

But people often choose to be anonymous when they post content with yellow exclamation marks. I think that when people are anonymous, they are actually distinguishing the content itself from himself, that is, they are unwilling to let others associate this content with the publisher, so he does so to prove that he believes that this content will make People feel uncomfortable, so I use a yellow exclamation mark to make up for this sentence I posted.

Vinyl | Actually what I was thinking about was the structure it built as a platform. Because I think everyone is on the same level in an anonymous state, everyone can see the content posted by everyone, and everyone can reply to the content posted by everyone, but the circle of friends is quite different, it is based on the publisher. In the center, the commenters are scattered points, it is an umbrella-like structure.

I think the structure actually determines to a certain extent the responsibility you have to take for saying this, or the weight of the content you publish. Then Moments may be a more private area where only my good friends or people I choose to see can see my content.

In this case, I would think it would be very strange if you accuse a person of posting something bad, because he is a publisher who is in a more discourse position, and then if someone accuses him not to post this kind of thing, post it People will say you can block my circle of friends. But I don't have a blocking function in the tree hole, so I can't filter recipients, so some people think that since your content release and recipients are not screened, maybe we can do a layer of filtering before, that is, let us choose whether to watch it or not, It feels like those who want to establish rules will do so out of consideration, and he thinks this is a more public or equal field.

4 ｜ Rules and unspoken rules of tree holes

 Vinyl | Do you have any clear-text usage regulations in Shudong, or are there any posting rules that everyone acquiesced in?

Coco| Tree Hole has a rule that no personal names or abbreviations can appear, and even directional words like "a classmate with a certain surname in a certain class", including no discussion of politics, no insults to others, It is not allowed to deliberately publish false information, etc. Another one is to comply with the regulations of WeChat.

I remember that the last rule is probably saying that if you violate the above rules, the operator has the right to delete your post, mute, etc., and the tree hole later also appeared in the report function. But when I was doing interviews at the time, I asked some interviewees, they really reported it, but after reporting it, it didn't work, and they didn't get any feedback. Now there are still a lot of content pointing to specific students and violating the rules of use in Shudong, but in fact, no administrator of Shudong manages or deletes posts. Therefore, in many cases, some folks who agree with the rules consciously interfere with some of Shudong's remarks through comments and other forms to maintain the discussion space of Shudong.

In fact, each of its rules is quite ambiguous, and there is a lot of room for interpretation. I think this is one of the reasons why everyone will spontaneously form some unspoken rules, because there are too many rules in the tree hole for interpretation and analysis. Part of it, different interpretations will generate some unspoken rules in the folk consensus, and spontaneously maintain these unspoken rules for the better operation of the public community.

For example, when it comes to political topics, its expression is "Based on the fact that it is a small program on the WeChat platform, in order to ensure the stable operation of the platform, all politically related remarks are prohibited. Search for the CU converter on the Internet or submit a manuscript in the form of a private letter in the form of Google form.” Therefore, it has a dual mechanism: on the one hand, it satisfies the rules of the tree hole based on a mainland management platform such as WeChat, on the other hand, it also gives space and freedom for everyone to discuss.

Dolphin | We will say that something needs to be deleted and managed, but I personally feel that the power behind this so-called management and control is more alarming. Because the management of Shudong is actually carried out by a campus civil society that regularly recruits new members, these managers, as students of the school, have the right to delete this post, do they also have the right to delete other posts? This kind of power will expand infinitely. When you give him the power to intervene in the speech of the tree hole user, and it is infinitely expanded and amplified when it is used, it will create a very dangerous situation. Therefore, I would think that the managers of the tree holes are "lack of management", which may also be a manifestation of their efforts to minimize interfering speech and use the power in their hands cautiously.

 Vinyl | In your discussion just now, you mentioned two different tree hole maintenance modes. One is that the manager deletes posts, which is more coercive; the other is actually an autonomous community, so how do you think about these two model? From the perspective of tree hole managers, do you think they have the right to delete posts?

Dolphin | I think it's okay to run the two modes in parallel, because if the effectiveness of a single mode is emphasized, it may cause out-of-control or extreme phenomena to varying degrees. For example, when you emphasize the control power possessed by the tree-hole manager, is it possible to cause his power to expand? Will he also have the power to define, delete and retain all posts?

However, if all management and auditing flow to the autonomy of the user group, and lack a relatively stable and reliable power, or a feasible channel, some very extreme remarks, or those that have actually caused problems Such speech is controlled, so I think this model is relatively effective so far.

Cocoa | Community autonomy reminds me of small countries with few people, independent self-government. In fact, I think Shudong has a bit of a return to the feeling of a city-state system. It is just like what is said in "Nigmako Ethics": some people pursue a contemplative life, some people pursue a hedonic life, and some People pursue a life of honor. Everyone's pursuit in the tree hole is different, but the existence of the tree hole is equally open to everyone, everyone can pursue what they want to pursue equally, so we can see the tree hole There will be people who share the delicious food they eat in their lives, and the happiness and unhappiness in their lives. Some people will make and maintain rules in the tree hole, some will abuse and attack others in the tree hole, etc., but the tree hole is equally open to each of them.

Personally, I'm actually a bit more "liberal", and I think it's dangerous to hand over the power to set binding rules to any party. This reminds me of something about the media, we see the media as the "fourth power", that is, the fourth power in addition to the Legislative Council, the courts, and the government, and what is special about it is that it It represents the citizens and helps them supervise and balance other powers.

I think that Shudong is actually a small media, and it is dangerous to give it to any party completely. The power of Shudong should belong to every user, so this is very contradictory. In fact, on the one hand, the operators of the tree hole possessed such power, but they did not use it, and on the other hand, the students spontaneously wanted to maintain it. So it's actually an unbalanced relationship. In this imbalanced relationship, the small media network should monitor on behalf of the weaker side.

So I think it is quite contradictory, and it is difficult to reach a consensus theoretically and practically.

Xie Bao | There is a conflict between managers and users in Shudong. I think it is due to the lack of system construction. There is no way for it to have a very effective management organization that can not only reflect public opinion, but also implement rules with high efficiency.

I think the reason why "exclamation mark area" and "rainbow area" always appear in tree holes now is more because everyone knows that managers can't control us, but I don't want to be hurt by others, so we can only spontaneously form a community , keep others out of our discussion circle on this topic. Because we can't coordinate the relationships between the various communities, we can only be isolated like this, and I think this forms a "stratosphere" of tree holes.

I found that, on another level, the boundaries of the tree hole managers are actually very clear, they only care about those things that may cause the tree hole to not exist, and the most important thing for them is to keep the tree hole alive.

5 ｜ Tree hole big v

 Vinyl | There is a special identity in the tree hole, that is, Xie Bao's identity as "tree hole big v". So, what kind of tree hole user will be called a tree hole big v? What is the connection between the label of tree hole big v and real people?

Xie Bao| In fact, it is a user who speaks more with his real name. Because there are fewer real-name speakers, each nickname, especially the ones that are easier to remember, will be more impressive when they appear more often. And the appearance of the tree hole big v will not make many people feel uncomfortable, but it is very interesting. If a person makes some violent comments every day, he can't become a big v, but will become a "line opponent".

I feel that as a big V, I actually have a fixed posting logic of my own. Basically, I will only post some very funny posts, or comment on other people's things in a more characteristic tone, because the identity of a big V is actually with some The content is bound, and everyone sees the id of this big v and thinks that he should post such content.

Coco| I am very impressed. To make Shudong Dav really become the official tree hole Dav, it should be the annual statistics released by Shudong. Let everyone vote on who has posted the most real-name posts this year, and then list 4 There are people who are more familiar with each name, and these people are called tree hole big v by folk users.

Dolphin | I think the interesting thing is that the big v identity is the presentation of a certain fragment of your person. It is fluid, and it is an identity that needs to be shaped by you, and then you gain recognition from it. When you use the tree hole, your personality is actually fluid, and different posts have different moods, but when you are a big V, this label is relatively fixed.

 Vinyl | What is the relationship between this kind of tree-hole big v identity and you in reality?

Xie Bao | I will try my best to bind the identity of the tree hole big v with the social character I present in reality. But in fact, I also have my own dark side in reality, and this part will not be expressed in the tree hole, so I think it is a continuation of my circle of friends or a part of real life, so it is not very good. There is a sense of separation between two identities.

As a big V, I rarely participate in the discussion of opposing opinions in public space, because it is very empty, and the people participating in the discussion are a bunch of anonymous people. Once I help one of them as a big V, I will become a real-name attack. Target, so I don’t dare to speak during general discussions, and I don’t want to play a role like a KOL (Key Opinion Leader). I don’t think I have this energy, because the wave of anonymity can’t be stopped. How much a person posts is very important weak.

Dolphin | I think there are three states of Shudong's real name, anonymity, and real name in real life, and these three states can be superimposed. Then these three states can actually be subdivided. For example, when you are anonymous in the tree hole, it may be traceable due to your tone of voice, your opinions, or some of your experiences, and may correspond to specific situations in real life. people.

The real name of the tree hole can actually be divided into two types. Although the real name of the tree hole is opened, it has a strong sense of separation from your social role in real life. In fact, it is a kind of semi-anonymous. In each of these forms, there is no way for you to guarantee that you are completely anonymous or completely real-name, the dual existence of anonymity and real-name, or intertwined.

6 ｜Shudong as a platform for discussing campus public events

 Vinyl | What do you think of Shudong's discussion of some campus public events?

Dolphin| First of all, we need to define what a public event is. Whether community-related affairs can be counted as public events depends on the size of the number of people it affects and the nature of the event. For example, a student club I once belonged to was only responsible for its members, and most of the people who had not participated in the activities were not members, and only about 30 new members were added every year. Therefore, discussions of such community affairs should not be counted as public events. Compared with MUA (Mainland Students Association of the Chinese University of Hong Kong), on the one hand, it represents the demands or interests of the mainland students in many matters, and on the other hand, its membership base is very large, and almost all mainland students will join the MUA, so with Related discussions are considered public events.

Also, I don't think anything related to an individual, whether it's his private morals, public morals, etc., can't be called a public event. For example, if a person cheats, this is his private matter, not a public incident. Therefore, it is too much to discuss these incidents in a tree hole as public incidents.

Xie Bao | In fact, I think there is a standard to judge whether it is a public event. From the point of view of economics, public goods must be non-competitive and non-exclusive.

Non-competitive means that your participation in this organization will not affect the rights of others to participate in this organization. If I participate, you can also participate, and you will not be unable to participate because of my participation. Non-exclusive means that you have no right to exclude me, which means that I can decide for myself whether to participate or not. Only things that satisfy these two conditions can be called public things. Another point to add is that although a thing may be competitive and exclusive, it has strong external influence and can also be regarded as a public affair.

For example, although a person is a scumbag, playing with girls' feelings and cheating is his own business. But if this person instigates other boys to maliciously influence the lives of women and instigates others to cheat, then his existence at this time is actually a threat to everyone at CUHK.

 Vinyl | After clarifying the definition of public events, what do you think of this kind of public event discussion on the tree hole? Do you think Shudong is a suitable platform for the discussion of campus public events?

Dolphin | I think it should be a very suitable platform, but the status quo is that it is not suitable enough. Small programs like Shudong are opened on mobile phones, and its overall settings encourage fragmented information and speeches, but in the face of some public events, what it actually needs is a more integrated and systematic sorting out and feedback.

So I think the function settings of the whole applet are actually inconvenient for the discussion itself. For example, when you send tree holes, you generally don't type a lot. In contrast, it is easier to type on the computer, and it is more inclined to sort out the opinions, and the expression will be more systematic and complete; and the posts of the tree holes are often scattered, for example, there will be many different opinions on the same topic. tree holes, but they appear sporadically separated by other tree holes of completely different themes.

So in fact, sometimes I have a very strong feeling that if I want to express some opinions on a certain topic, I don’t know which tree hole to reply to, and I don’t know which one to reply, because maybe I will reply This one will be swiped down soon, and similar content will appear later, and it is impossible for me to copy and paste my comments for all similar content, which makes me feel a little inefficient, or a little wasteful time.

Xie Bao| I think the problem is that Shudong is not a real-name discussion platform. When the Athenian General Assembly was held in ancient times, it was not discussed anonymously. If it is anonymous, the speaker can not be responsible for the position. I think the discussion of public affairs still requires each of us to stand up and be responsible for what we say, either expressing an opinion or not expressing an opinion. Such public discussions are more efficient and targeted. Anonymous, there are many people who just want to vent their emotions, not discuss rationally. So I think it is inappropriate for Shudong as an anonymous platform to discuss public affairs that affect us all.

 Vinyl | You mentioned the decentralized nature of the tree hole just now. Do you think this feature has any impact on the discussion of public events on campus?

Xie Bao | I think it's not good, because this kind of decentralization makes the tree hole confuse the boundaries of complaints and discussions. The tree holes before 2018 and 2019 were screened and released by the operators in the form of public accounts. They will decide which area to put your content in, whether to put it in the Tucao area, the emotional area, or in the discussion area. Area. And at that time, we would all publish a very long point of view to discuss - because the applet is delayed, things submitted today may not be sent out in three or four days, so we need to organize the point of view, if we want to reply to a certain If you have a point of view, you can either reply directly with your real name below, or post a post to respond to the point of view after three days. In this way, viewpoints can be concentrated, and they will not be as scattered as they are now, and there will be no feeling of lack of center. However, its censorship and delay will also be bad. The best is the kind of platform that can distinguish complaints and discussions, and has a relatively low degree of censorship. I feel that the current successful example may be more similar to the Matters environment.

Doudou| I think this is quite in line with the instant interactivity and decentralization we discussed earlier.

I quite agree with what Xie Bao said just now that decentralization leads to the dispersion of the entire discussion. When you are going to participate in public discussions, whether you hold a certain point of view, or just go to watch, the impression presented is very scattered, it is difficult for you to see the concentrated point of view, but only a general impression, this impression In many cases, it is composed of some emotions. In fact, you only have a vague concept or impression of the event under discussion, but do not have a very systematic cognition.

In addition, Xie Bao just said that the post is screened and republished after a period of time. In fact, I think it is also a double-edged sword: on the one hand, we often use tree holes to pay more attention to its instant interactivity. , you can immediately see it and reply.

But I think that the artificial process of "screening" of the public account is also difficult to say that it is neutral, and may have a pre-judgment of certain values and positions; secondly, whether the power of this filtering is reasonable; Categorizing allows you to form a pre-judgment about the nature of the entire post. If it is said that this post is in the fuzzy boundary between two categories, how should it be decided, this is actually judged by the screening people.

Coco| This reminds me that when I was in junior high school and primary school, each school would set up its own post bar. Compared with a tree hole, it seems to be more suitable. But at the same time, there are some other problems with Tieba. For example, it is fully open to the public, and people from other schools can also read your school’s Tieba.

In fact, I think a more accurate expression of this question should be: how to treat the users of Shudong to have some public discussions on the platform of Shudong. Among the topics we just talked about, we use the tree hole as a subject, but in fact it is just a way and a tool. In fact, when I interviewed Xie Bao before, Xie Bao said that as long as there are such people, there will inevitably be such a platform and such problems.

I think we should think more about what kind of public discussions are reasonable, or how to conduct public discussions. A big deciding factor is the people who participate in these public discussions, not the one who conducts the public discussions. platform.

(The screenshots of the tree holes provided in the article are with the consent of the publisher)