This Just In: Anonymity Makes Some People Sociopathic Jerks

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Scott Jennings| 24 Comments

New York Times, once again at the forefront of modern reporting.

Today the Internet is much more than esoteric discussion forums. It is a mass medium for defining who we are to ourselves and to others. Teenagers groom their MySpace profiles as intensely as their hair; escapists clock 50-hour weeks in virtual worlds, accumulating gold for their online avatars. Anyone seeking work or love can expect to be Googled. As our emotional investment in the Internet has grown, the stakes for trolling — for provoking strangers online — have risen. Trolling has evolved from ironic solo skit to vicious group hunt.

Prokofy Neva, who has been accused of trolling more than once, and has been griefed more than twice, would like them to be called something else, please.

Some of the acts described in this NYT piece are criminal, and they should all be investigated by the FBI and prosecuted. While that no doubt difficult process goes on, people of good will can at least rise up and say unequivocally, “That’s wrong, and we will condemn it when it occurs among us, and discourage it” rather than saying “the solution to trolls is to stop taking them seriously”.

The fact is, trolls and griefers are far more deadly serious than you or I. They are so ragingly Puritanical and extreme that they insist on controlling what other people feel and do on the Internet, compelling them “not to take it seriously* by force, and refashioning the Internet into a totalitarian space in which only the boot on face has any validity. This simply has to be resisted; to say that victims of trolling need to shrug off cyber-bullying and harassment is to capitulate to their evil.

At this point I may be suffering from online fatigue. I’ve experienced so many online worlds and communities, and watched so many of them corroded by “lulz” or “goons” or “trolls” or “griefers” or “toads” or “snerts” or “k-rads” that I just don’t care. I Just Don’t Care. All I ask for is the maintainers of said communities, and what I try to provide as maintainer of my own communities, is providing enough weaponry to deal with the slavering zombie anonymous hordes.

Because when the zombies come, you can’t solve the problem by yourself. You just shoot any who get close to you and yours in the head.

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  • Axecleaver

    Hello, FBI? Someone made me feel bad on the Internet.

  • Paul

    I’m still waiting for the typical MMO Friends List to evolve into a rating system similar to EVE’s.

  • http://bdadv.blogspot.com Bonedead

    The way I see it is: If you don’t understand the concept of “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” then you don’t belong on the internet.

    I’ve been online since I was an extremely annoying preteen, I had all kinds of shit thrown my way and I even cried a few times. But the same kind of shit can happen at school to any kid out there.

    I blame the lawyers tbh. Giving everyone the idea that if you don’t feel good on the inside you can probably find someone to blame BESIDES YOURSELF and sue them.

  • http://emergentfuture.com Arrakiv

    Ugh. Not more of this… I don’t like trolls and what not – who does? But is this really necessary?

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    Trolling seems harmless enough on the old school level, where the main people who are using the Internet were hardened computer nerds anyway. However, things have changed a bit, now we’ve got kids who are so wired in that they’re getting harassed by the school bullies over their cell phones. There have been suicides. So, people are taking all forms of cyber-bullying (trolling included) a bit more seriously than they used to.

    The Internet: Serious Business. It’s becoming less of a joke over time.

  • http://weblog.probablynot.com jason

    You have invoked the name, now prepare to reap the whirlwind.

  • DJ Larkin

    Scott is a poopyhead.

  • anonymous

    Shitcock!

  • Njal

    God damned kids.

  • Rick

    God, that Times article was a waste of space. I can’t read anything else about the Internet that has to be couched in quotes. “lulz”, “trolls”, “lol”. I don’t read science articles to find out about “quarks”. Give it to me without the quotes. I can take it.

  • http://www.mahoganyfinish.org/ Drugstore Space Cowboy

    To riff on the local government’s anti-littering slogan:

    Trolling is unlAWFUL.

  • http://www.thisisnotacommunity.org D-0ne

    It’s cold and lonely out here in cyber space, sometimes a troll is better than nothing…

    /Brrrrr

  • http://wowpanda.blogspot.com wowpanda

    I know some students got bullied and commit suicide in Japan. That was about 15 years back though. Internet or not bullies will be there, it is better to prepare the kids then stop the trolls.

  • Prokofy Neva

    Lum, surely, whatever your political differences with me, and your basic soulful support of goons and griefers, you could nevertheless hold out for semantic purity here in virtual worlds and MMORPGs and such.

    You know full well that NYT and Reuters and others who have taken to calling these sorts of cyberbullying actions “trolling” aren’t using the correct term for this activity, at least from the perspective of this culture itself.

    “Trolling” is what people do on forums. “Griefing” is what they do sending pizzas to people’s home in RL or bombarding them with self-replicating prims in Second Life and such. Please, you know that, and you should uphold the classic terminology here in our traditions.

  • Scott Jennings

    your basic soulful support of goons and griefers

    It just isn’t a Prokofy Neva comment without a wildly inaccurate ad hominem aside!

    (I agree with the rest, and in fact was why I highlighted the blog post. Just sayin’.)

  • Random Poster

    Damn it I thought he/she didn’t appear unless you looked in the mirror and said the name three times. You only said it once Lum

  • http://www.plaguelands.com Krones

    I knew you were an evil bastard all along, Scott. You are soulfully supporting the goons of the interwebs and didn’t tell us about it? Ass.

  • http://blog.somniusonline.com VPellen

    “escapists clock 50-hour weeks in virtual worlds”

    Pfft, amateurs.

  • Iconic

    “The Internet: Serious Business. It’s becoming less of a joke over time.”

    Yes, but at least the porn is now in high def.

  • yunk

    I blame the lack of corporeal punishment. These kids need a good whuppin. Even the adults, it’s never too late.

  • http://www.olmmod.com Krib

    I’m with you, Scott. Wrote a bit about this over at my site, http://www.olmmod.com.

    I found it amusing to read some of the justifications from the trolls he interviews. “I was sexually abused”.. “I’m trying to save people” … so forth. Poppycock. Some people just want to shout “fire” in a crowded movie theater, and their reasons are never idealistic.

    The article was pretentious, but the idea of a sect of trolls who salt away millions in offshore accounts and drive Rolls Royces will haunt my dreams.

    Always save the last bullet for yourself.

  • http://www.slightlymadscience.com Slightly-Mad

    It’s clear that we’re facing a troubling epidemic, and that these poor cursed individuals need our help more than ever.

  • DavidC

    I have to agree with yunk’s last comment. Some of the people should get whipped. You wreck someone’s life, which you can online, you deserve to get beat, severely.

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