Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Online anonymity lets users gets nasty

Interesting article today at Yahoo . It's one of the first things that I learned about the internet years ago when I first started surfing the web.

That is so sad. And all too true.

It is sad....
And it's exactly the problem the Admins and Mods in our forum sff.gr have to deal with these past few days.
A person who posted a horribly insulting message towards a girl who simply said that a book from some semi-famous Greek writer was "indifferent, in my opinion".
We deleted the post and this person now poses as the writer...even though his style smacks of nasty trollness, bad language skills and general brattiness.
We banned him of course and contacted the publisher of that writer to see if it's a case of identity theft. There's nothing else one can do.

As an overweight person I've had to put up with some nasty remarks in the past, but nothing so unfeeling and...evil, like what that poor woman has to deal with.

The anonymity of the internet allows me to be more polite than I am in real life

Seriously, I think the anonymity does allow more people to make comments that they would not say to another person's face. Hopefully a majority of those people eventually see what they are doing and stop.

You see alot of this sort of stuff in chat rooms and on message boards, especially. On the one hand, it gives shy people the courage to come out of their shell a bit. The flip side is that it encourages people with limited self restraint to completely abandon their sense of propriety and just make nuissances of themselves.

Hard as it is for some to believe, I actually fall into the "shy but coming out of shell category"

Depends on the message board, but I often just post with my real name anyway. This board is full of great people, but there are other message boards where it seems like some posters consider a screen name the internet version of a white hood, giving them license to act out all sorts of grotesque behavior.

It's that sense of security that anonymity offers.
Some use it as a way to get away from shyness and isolation, while others see it as a "green light" that'll allow them to get away with being rude and malicious.
My personal experience as a mod/admin has shown me that the majority of the most bad-mouthing, unpleasant and rude people online are really quite meek offline. It's all a persona fueled in part by the Net's anonymity.

Ah well, you gotta take the bad with the good!

dumbest thread ever!

Who's calling me Fat?

The insults and the level of anger on many boards are really appalling. You very seldom hear that sort of talk in real, face-to-face public conversations, outside of a barroom brawl or road rage incidents. Perhaps some people are better off kept in their shells, for the good of the community at large.

You do get it on talk radio (somewhat anonymous) and on the television political talk shows (not at all anonymous). Maybe the internet anger is fueling the tv crap-talk, or vice-versa. Unfortunately, it's probably spilling over into more of everyday life. Grocery store cashiers will be insulting you because they don't like the food you're buying. Stuff like that.

We're fortunate that this is a civilized board and that we have a consensus to work at keeping it that way.

I've seen in in real life, Cramer-- at several different jobs I worked over the years (drafting departments) and in my "neighborhood" (yes, I use the word loosely) where kids with no upbringing act like wild savages and then try to pin the blame on their victims by claiming "racism". No kidding.

The internet remains a scary thing. Honestly, after all these years, I've learned that in order to take someone seriously, they truly have to earn it. After seeing tons and tons of 'trolls', which could range from a thirteen year old kid looking to goof around by being a jerk to a meek person looking to live out their fantasy of being a badass in cyber-space, you really have to 'know' someone before you put any value to their words. Know doesn't equal knowing their real name, etc., just some part of their personality that justifies why you give their opinions any real weight.

Personally, face to face interaction is truly the only type of intimate, honest interaction I desire. I don't even like using the phone or IMing people (and I've never been shy in real life). Legion World and the LMB are an odd sort of thing in that respect for me, given how much I value the interaction here. A large part of that is the easy-going joking attitude of most the posters, as well as the common love to see the comics industry do well.

And honestly, its the type of trollish behavior that causes such a hard crack-down on so many boards, which is something I can't argue against. If the culture of the internet is a wild west mentality, that it needs to be met with an even harsher moderator regime if thats what the owners of message boards desire. If I was a moderator on that baby website, I'd be banning a poster a day probably. And not giving it a second's thought either.

if you want to see a site that has frequent bannings as well as lots of bad behavior, try the Hannity Boards where I also post. I am much more guarded there then here.

Me too. My roommate is always trying to convince me to get a cell-phone or install some IM software, and I always refuse. Both lend themselves to far too much 'empty' communication.

I play a lot of online games and I've hung out with the same guild since EverQuest 1. We get together every summer for a face-to-face 'geekend' and drink and have a good time together, and I think it really helps us stick together as a guild, since we aren't just a bunch of faceless strangers, but a group of friends who just happen to live all over the world.

"If I was a moderator on that baby website, I'd be banning a poster a day probably. And not giving it a second's thought either."

I've only been BANNED from one message board so far. There, the moderators are nastier than any of the posters ever were! And most of the members don't ever post at all, because they just want to avoid trouble... (To think, it's a Yahoo group dedicated to one of my favorite artists! Sheesh...)

Yeah, prof, those Yanni mods are tough...

And did Cobie get a spellchecker??

This scares me a bit....


I think message boards should give up the codename thing all together. Require posters to use their real name, and you will see a change in tone.

Mind, LegionWorld is excepted.

Well, of course. We are expected to have real names *and* code-names! It's a genre thing.

We should also list our home worlds, our super-power and swear an oath not to kill anyone.

I'm just glad we don't have to go through tryouts to register with the boards, and end up getting shuffled off to a 'Legion of Message Board Poster Rejects' forum if we blow it!

Something else else about your post made me visualize Simon (American Idol) running the Legion try-outs in the future!

The moderator and actual private owner of one message board I discovered a few months ago shut it down when one of the trolls tracked him down in real life and got a lawyer who threatened to sue because his "first amendment right to free speech" was being violated when he was banned for breaking the terms of service. Despite offers of pro bono legal work, the owner was so discouraged, he just gave up. (Assuming he was telling the truth )

Simon Lad-- the updated Lester Spiffany!

(Hmmm... makes me want to see an AI homage to the classic ADV #247 cover, with Cannus as Randy ("DAWG!" ), Lori Morning as Paula and the afore-mentioned Lester... )

Not exactly what you requested but it WAS inspired by it.


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