It never ceases to amaze me how some people behave on internet forums. Over the years I have witnessed death threats, people attempting to kill themselves (or threaten to) and lots of other weird goings on.
The trouble with cyberspace is that people often behave very differently to the way they would in real life.
I have watched as some people have almost cracked up over the arguments they have got themselves involved in. Some have been bullied by cliques that have formed on message boards.
Is it really worth getting wound up over a bunch of keyboard warriors? People with nothing better to do but rant and rave at strangers, insult and berate people they will probably never meet? Sometimes I just want to piss myself laughing at the way some take it to heart.
Then there are the seriously sick individuals who go out to wreck someone's life by stalking, harassing and generally being a sick fuck to someone just for the sake of it.
An example of this is the terrible situation Rachel North found herself in. A woman started posting on her blog, which she started after surviving the Kings Cross tube bomb, (see my list on the main page) and at first things went ok, then the person turned nasty for no apparent reason and ended up causing Rachel over a year of torment. The stalker is now safely banged up after the police took action.
It's people like this we need to worry about. Disturbed, obsessive stalkers who will stop at nothing. Very often they can't see that they are doing any wrong.
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3 comments:
There are in fact only a few psychopaths on internet forums.
This does not mean I think they shpuld not be neckshot though.
Trouble is it's impossible to tell, as you can see with Rachel North's case. The woman started off nice and friendly then she just turned on her for no reason.
Most people ARE really nice, I agree. Through Urban75 I have met some lovely people in real life.
Trouble is, message board punch ups are popular. Look at the thread viewing figures. People read them, laugh at them, email links to their friends, hand-wring and moralise, say 'tut tut disgusting disgusting' (while avidly reading every post) PM each other about them, strut about calling for bannings and IP referrals, start fights over who should be banned, etc etc etc. It’s a living soap. The recent Flimbo/WoW/Diana incident is just the latest example. It would be better if message board admins just acknowledged this simple bb dynamic and stopped being such po-faced hypocrites.
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