Anonymous arseholes

[fanf]

It soon becomes obvious to people who spend much time communicating online that people tend to behave worse than they do in person. This is probably due to the absence of the usual cues you get from being able to see or hear who you are talking to. The problem becomes much worse when you add anonymity into the mix.

We've recently had a dickhead on the exim-users list abusing anonymous remailers to make one of the regular posters appear bad. As a consequence I've blacklisted all the anonymous remailers I could find - only 35 of them, which was fewer than I expected. I did this based on their sender addresses, since they tend to live on dynamic IP addresses or behind legitimate email systems.

I'm feeling very cross because of this bad behaviour.

Comments

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

It soon becomes obvious to people who spend much time communicating online that people tend to behave worse than they do in person. This is probably due to the absence of the usual cues you get from being able to see or hear who you are talking to. The problem becomes much worse when you add anonymity into the mix.

And that, I'm afraid, is why I exiled myself from usenet approximately two and a half years ago; the likes of Chris Caputo have a hell of a lot to answer for, even if they do attempt to justify their actions by cloaking them in "First Amendment rights" and much blathersgate about "free speech".

A relevant Theory

[(Anonymous)]

I believe John Gabriel has an excellent and concise summary of this phenomenon:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/