Sensitivity and the Internet?

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Kitty Gnar-Gnar

I just have to say -- I see you in forums a couple of times and I love your picture in your signature alot.

He seems happy and positive when he's all; "THIS PLACE SUCKS. emotion_awesome " XDD

[Catena Carswell]

Hayes28

Kitty Gnar-Gnar

I just have to say -- I see you in forums a couple of times and I love your picture in your signature alot.

He seems happy and positive when he's all; "THIS PLACE SUCKS. emotion_awesome " XDD

Haha, thank you. I love my signature too, it's super old but I just can't change it.

THIS PLACE SUCKS but I love it anyway.

[Bane of Ezekiel]

The Internet is just another form, another medium for communication. It is no different than the phone or in person speech.

What constitutes a lot of trolling is sort of trivial, but we've seen serious cases of harassment online in and before that. If one makes a death threat or any other threat/etc that would be punished by laws in real life, why wouldn't it punished online?

They were two high profile cases of online harassment in Toronto/Canada in 2012, one involving Anita Sarkeesan, a feminist blogger, who was the target of extreme trolling to the point of libel (making a game to beat up a person is harassment, period) and Stephanie Guthrie who was harassed online after refusing to work with somebody because he was making her feel uncomfortable.

I used to say, "Internet, you need a hard skin to deal with it." But as the 2000s have progressed, one can't work/communicate/study without the Internet, not like the early 2000s when Gaia/4chan/etc ruled the high seas. We're progressing to an era where EVERYBODY will have some sort of online presence. Which means everything will be stricter. Good.

[Kinosho Kawakami]

-Priceless Junk-

Eh If I was hurt by insults of people on the internet where would I be?
If they are out to be negative I deal with it. You have to ask yourself what am I getting hurt about? Someone I will never meet? Just having someone not agreeing with you? Is this something I should care about?
Sometimes it's just me being mad because they disagreed with me and I took it as a personal attack. I don't want to lash out if that is the case.
What would lashing out accomplish? Would talking back be the right thing to do in the situation?
If it's something I should confront them on I guess I will though.

But I don't think Gaia wants to have some guys feelings hurt and leave the site. They don't want the site to be known as "One that just makes you deal with it." They want to be a nice site where people can communicate in peace.
I can't get mad at them for wanting to be a more peaceful community.

wish more ppl would think like that. just earlier i had a situation where a person took my opinion as something bad just because they didn't like what they heard. the fact is, everyone has the right for one and if you don't like it, that's your problem. you can't change someone's opinion of yourself

[Fire 0ak]

As much as I and most people hate the act of bullying I don't think we should kid ourselves that there aren't shades of grey everyone delves in. It's kinda like a 'you know it when you see it', kinda thing but it's hard to call people out on it because it can be subtle. I think those shades of grey are harmless and proof that we all have permisable levels of antagonizing. The problem begins when people classify the shades of grey as full-on bullying. Yes we should 'disarm' the bullies opportunity to bully but that doesn't necessarily mean we should 'arm' the bullied. Anyone agree/disagree with this idea? smile

[panties overrated]

I like that last comment. xD

I don't think expressing feelings = trolling. When someone says, "I don't like that because it's ugly now go home and *******", it's different from a respectful response. Take art critiques for example. The good critiques will adamantly state the good and the bad without using heavily biased terms ("It's bad because it's not in ___style" ). On the other hand, I've found the not-so-good critiques using these terms.

Maybe the internet is just drawing a thicker line between respect and freedom of expression.

[Odd Cinderella]

I am on the defensive side. I feel offended a couple times more than normal people. I will respond if I feel attacked. It has been my nature. I had someone use one of my quotes and just spammed everywhere under my older account, had to move accounts because of it. It was such a terrible thing.

Then, I found out that I was on someone's Ignore List and to this Day, I still don't know why. It makes me sad because he and I used to be friends. Something happened, and every chance I try to ask him why he hates me, he just places me on ignore. If I ask a friend to ask for me, he still won't answer. emo His username is Azure Sielhart. But, it won't matter if I name drop him. He won't see me as I am on his ignore list.

Either way, sometimes I do take s**t online serious. Just because you're behind a computer doesn't give you the right to insult people.

[Petite Aristocrat]

I think the internet is just trying to be more like reality. Back before everyone and their grandmother had the internet... we had these things called Social Etiquette. I think the internet (Or certain places within) is simply trying to create a more humane place for people to spend their time. Half of the people on the internet are... well... for a lack of a better word "Jerks" (Maybe they are wonderful and kind people in reality... But somehow being in a virtual space changes that). They say and do things they would never even consider doing in reality. Why? There's no draw back... Or at least there hasn't been. You can be as awful to your fellow humans as you want to be and if they don't like it, too bad! What are they going to do? Nothing! Troll olol and what not. I think times are changing. That sort of environment isn't safe or healthy. I actually appreciate people trying to make the internet a little less hostile and aggressive.

[OtakuJeannie]

Late to the party but oh well.

I see it as a mixture of both, people are ruder on the net, because there are less IRL consiquences. We can get that word in and we can say what we might IRL.

That being said, I mainly hang in the SF and I've see pleanty of people who demand only 'positive' responces even when what is being said is pointing out fatal flaws to their suggestions (ex: upped goldgain will just flood the economy with even more gold and not get you that limited shiny easily) or even the slightes critique will get them started on the drama. I've also seen it in fandoms where one can't take legit crits/arguments or anything that isn't glowing praise of their fanworks (I just invented this charater, fanwork plz- not kidding) sometime both in the same swollen head.

[Samuel Elias Carswell]

The engineer scowls, and shakes his head.

Honestly? I see no compelling reason why I cannot expect a degree of civility in one's communication! Just because it's 'the Internet' doesn't mean you have carte blanche to behave like an absolute pillock. There is a vast difference between expressing a dissenting opinion, and being a complete pail of posteriors, and an even greater difference betwixt that and being an arrogant, self-aggrandizing sod.

If people continue to believe they can do that, they bloody well will! Do we really want that to remain normative? I certainly bloody well don't. One must, on occasion, send a message... particularly when another is being attacked! Are we a civil society, or are we just a tribe of orang-utans in backward-facing caps and overly-tight jeans? Honestly!

[OG Meinu]

Hmmm... I've be going on the Internet for AGES now and I've honestly come to understand to never take what people say seriously. Being a GD regular has helped me learn to laugh at myself and to just have a good time. We banter all the time and what we say to each other can be pretty hurtful, but we all know deep down that we're just messing around. I can't remember the last time I was genuinely offended on this website.

So yes, I do think that people from different forums on gaia are definitely weak and can't really take the heat if you will.

[Yulania]

Interestingly enough, despite this being a somewhat of an older thread, I've had my first experience with someone who was pretty rude today. Normally I'm a lurker (though not so much recently), I tend to remember certain people by their posts, avatars, and sometimes signatures. I usually judge people by the content their posts, and I have respected and maybe even admired some by the way they present themselves through their posts, as well as how intelligent or insightful they may seem.

I was really disappointed today when someone who've I've seen around pretty often, not to mention seemed intelligent enough as well, proceeded to call everyone in the thread "idiots" for no reason. It's kind of hard to not say anything when someone insults you to your face, so I replied, saying that it was uncalled for. I don't even think I've even done anything that would warrant such a impression. Instead of even apologizing, I was simply told that they "hated everyone equally". rolleyes

I was kindly asked to butt out, which I found odd, since well... It was a thread, everyone can see it and everyone can post in it.
I ended up just leaving it alone, because it was easier to ignore such a small issue. Honestly, I had bigger things to worry about.

I know it's really not a big deal, but it was, you know, like a "...Really?" moment. (Seriously, so much disappointment.)
(TL;DR) I mean, with the anonymity of the internet, just because you can be rude/mean/whatever without any real consequence, doesn't mean you should. neutral

I guess you guys can tell from this that I can be pretty sensitive. I find that I'll occasionally put someone on ignore, but then later I can't remember the reason, so I eventually take them off. I guess it's just more pleasant for me not to deal with it for a while. After a while passes, it'll be easier for me to look back and laugh, thinking how stupid it was to react over that.

[Tama Rama Ding Dong]

On Gaia so far, everyone has been pretty nice. And I really haven't seen anything that would be considered bullying on the site. But on other social networks, if I do come across a rude comment, I usually tend to ignore it, or just comment with an, "okay", since I can't really deal with conflict...makes me sweat and among my friends, I'm known as the walking doormat. emo

I think any rude comment comes from a temporary lack of self restraint. For instance, I don't really pay attention to myself when I'm online, and I'm pretty sure others don't pay attention to me either, so if no one's there to judge me, it just makes it that much easier to say something I'd probably regret in real life - you do bad things when no one's looking.

[Mississippi Black Velvet]

The way I see it the younger generation TO ME seems to get their feelings hurt a lot worst than those of us who grew up without the internet for a long time and had to resort to bullying each other with our words and to one another's faces.

I myself have never understood getting upset over a faceless nobody telling you that you're ugly. My response, your point? Why let someone you've never met before and will more than likely never meet get under your skin that badly?

I don't understand kids these days.
emotion_facepalm

[Commander Sigma]

Mississippi Black Velvet

The way I see it the younger generation TO ME seems to get their feelings hurt a lot worst than those of us who grew up without the internet for a long time and had to resort to bullying each other with our words and to one another's faces.

I myself have never understood getting upset over a faceless nobody telling you that you're ugly. My response, your point? Why let someone you've never met before and will more than likely never meet get under your skin that badly?

I don't understand kids these days.
emotion_facepalm

If they've had the same experiences as me, it's possible they've gotten enough s**t offline that they find it hard to deal with online as well. Hearing people (or in my case, my sister) call you a retard offline and then going on the computer and hearing it some more reinforces a negative belief you're constantly told by people you know. Now someone ONLINE is doing it and hey - these people must know me pretty ******** well considering my sister said the same thing to me all the damn time and she knew me in person.

I think it's kind of like trying to break a brick wall - one person most likely won't be able to do much, but if you get enough people all wailing away at the wall, it might start to give in.