NSFW (Not Suitable For Work), or if you have young children around you – strong language in this video…
Now that you have seen this video, you are probably in one of two camps…
i) What the hell was that about?
OR
ii) That really hits the nail on the head
So, for members of group i), a quick explanation, over the last decade or so, I have spent a lot of time in forums. Sometimes researching subjects for work purposes, other time to learn more about a topic that interests me personally, and sometimes because I’ve run out of sites to visit 🙂 I have been a moderator or admin in a few over the years, and it is unfortunately true that the anonymisation that people feel when typing in a virtual world, rather than face to face conversations, often allow peopel to behave in ways that simply would not be accepted in the real world. A prime example of this can be found at the Amsterdam based forums I have recently been frequenting, indeed this video was linked to by one of them (I think the channels.nl one); some people feel the need to belittle other member’s posts, and will even follow them around from thread to thread, attempting to poke the person until they react. Having created such a reaction, the poker will then often come across as surprised, and ask other members to admonish the pokee.
To members of group ii) – notice any behaviour familiar to that which occurs in your favourite forums?
Just in case it isn’t clear, people will often post a simple comment, especially on blogs and social networking sites that simply states ‘first’ – for some reason, they enjoy being the first person to post a reaction. Sadly, this is all they often post, so hardly worth the effort of typing it.
Others will always be cynical, and claim any interesting photo is a fake – that is has been edited (‘photoshopped’).
One thing that bugs the hell out of me is immature Americans (mostly) who seem to use the word gay as an insult. I would really love to meet them in the real world, and discover what deep seated issues and/or repression has led them to this behaviour.
Although some forums do not suffer greatly from it, you will often still find blatant sexism or teenage like behaviour, to the point that many women simply don’t advertise the fact that they are female, or even choose an alternative male sounding name.
Finally, I really did love the spam and captcha references towards the end, whoever created this video’s concept has captured the issue perfectly.