If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing – Anatole France
Privacy is an important concept now, not only in terms of security, but in the context of identity theft, abuse etc. Blogs present a difficult case for a public now able to reach the world in seconds with damning evidence, or equally damaging but false and libelous information.
Privacy is an important concept now, not only in terms of security, but in the context of identity theft, abuse etc. Blogs present a difficult case for a public now able to reach the world in seconds with damning evidence, or equally damaging but false and libelous information.
The internet is like a lot like money, you can use it for good or ill. In both cases, unfortunately human nature indicates an obvious predisposition. By far the majority of internet traffic is to pornographic websites. And by far the majority of financial resources remains in the hands of a fraction of the world’s rich, while an entire continent of people (Africa) starves to death.
The internet has recently become even more popular, as bloggers and those wanting to network connect with others on Facebook and Myspace etc. Blogs are another example of the poor quality not only of writing but also the thinking of the average person. Forums present another alternative for people to discuss and share issues.
Some Forums are based on blogs, such as the inane mushypeasontoast.blogspot.com (now featured as a ‘cool’ website in Cosmopolitan). Better ones include theoildrum.com, where comments are responded to, but even here the moderator is necessarily the owner of the forum, and the decider of what content to broadcast. At least theoildrum.com’s message is constructive, intelligent and useful. In this sense, once again, it is outnumbered by the sheer amount of brainless garbage circulating in cyberspace. Yes, the internet attracts spam, and junkmail and also, unfortunately, the braindead.
Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish – Charles Caleb Colton
One particular forum I’d like to identify here is http://www.thehubsa.co.za/. Recently in South Africa there was a lot of chest beating over a rugby player wearing a t-shirt with the worlds: Jesus is King. Especially on interactive news sites, many comments were made. What I noticed in many cases was that sometimes 100% of comments were identical, if not 100% identical. I am not sure what the point is for large groups of people to convey something they feel, when so many others obviously feel the same way. Is it a sense of security that what they hope and feel is echoed by others?
The reason I signed up on The Hub was to address a serious concern I had with a local cycling body that fraudulently claimed I was not a member, and then would not respond to my attempts to communicate with themselves and others to address the issue. An important point to make it that unlike almost all the avatars using The Hub, I signed up as myself, providing my real name, and location. I found myself immediately under attack by two avatars, and subsequently discovered that although I didn’t know who they were, they knew me. One, an avatar called Man With No Name I’d studied with at university, the other, Psycho, was someone I often cycled with.
After plenty of one-sided name-calling and insults, an avatar called Popeye posted private information as a New Topic, and then using google, attempted to profile and then belittle me. Naturally the aforementioned avatars were amongst the most frequent responders to this denigrating content. Peculiarly, the administrators of the site allowed this invasion of privacy to happen.
The nature of forums allows individuals to hide behind pseudonyms and post whatever garbage he or she feels like espousing. Unfortunately it's not a phenomena unique to The Hub. – comment made by an avatar called The Thug
Trackz was another quiet avatar that spoke up at this point:
Its important to follow the rules of the forum ...
... but I do support Sunblock [my avatar] in his/her quest to take a stand whether you agree or disagree ... freedom of speech is the foundation of our democracy! Any healthy organisation/sport/company has people that challenge the status quo ... albeit controversial at times!
As for thehubsa ... as a newbie I find some of the personal attacks on a public forum in much worse taste ...
But the worst personal attack was yet to come. With that helpless lust for blood that overtakes so many people, other avatars were attracted, not to the issues I had raised, but merely to the smear-fest. One avatar in particular, bmw-driver, posted a comment in response to a host of criticisms towards me with step by step suggestions on how to commit suicide.
An avatar called bobbie responded as follows:
The internet has recently become even more popular, as bloggers and those wanting to network connect with others on Facebook and Myspace etc. Blogs are another example of the poor quality not only of writing but also the thinking of the average person. Forums present another alternative for people to discuss and share issues.
Some Forums are based on blogs, such as the inane mushypeasontoast.blogspot.com (now featured as a ‘cool’ website in Cosmopolitan). Better ones include theoildrum.com, where comments are responded to, but even here the moderator is necessarily the owner of the forum, and the decider of what content to broadcast. At least theoildrum.com’s message is constructive, intelligent and useful. In this sense, once again, it is outnumbered by the sheer amount of brainless garbage circulating in cyberspace. Yes, the internet attracts spam, and junkmail and also, unfortunately, the braindead.
Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish – Charles Caleb Colton
One particular forum I’d like to identify here is http://www.thehubsa.co.za/. Recently in South Africa there was a lot of chest beating over a rugby player wearing a t-shirt with the worlds: Jesus is King. Especially on interactive news sites, many comments were made. What I noticed in many cases was that sometimes 100% of comments were identical, if not 100% identical. I am not sure what the point is for large groups of people to convey something they feel, when so many others obviously feel the same way. Is it a sense of security that what they hope and feel is echoed by others?
The reason I signed up on The Hub was to address a serious concern I had with a local cycling body that fraudulently claimed I was not a member, and then would not respond to my attempts to communicate with themselves and others to address the issue. An important point to make it that unlike almost all the avatars using The Hub, I signed up as myself, providing my real name, and location. I found myself immediately under attack by two avatars, and subsequently discovered that although I didn’t know who they were, they knew me. One, an avatar called Man With No Name I’d studied with at university, the other, Psycho, was someone I often cycled with.
After plenty of one-sided name-calling and insults, an avatar called Popeye posted private information as a New Topic, and then using google, attempted to profile and then belittle me. Naturally the aforementioned avatars were amongst the most frequent responders to this denigrating content. Peculiarly, the administrators of the site allowed this invasion of privacy to happen.
The nature of forums allows individuals to hide behind pseudonyms and post whatever garbage he or she feels like espousing. Unfortunately it's not a phenomena unique to The Hub. – comment made by an avatar called The Thug
Trackz was another quiet avatar that spoke up at this point:
Its important to follow the rules of the forum ...
... but I do support Sunblock [my avatar] in his/her quest to take a stand whether you agree or disagree ... freedom of speech is the foundation of our democracy! Any healthy organisation/sport/company has people that challenge the status quo ... albeit controversial at times!
As for thehubsa ... as a newbie I find some of the personal attacks on a public forum in much worse taste ...
But the worst personal attack was yet to come. With that helpless lust for blood that overtakes so many people, other avatars were attracted, not to the issues I had raised, but merely to the smear-fest. One avatar in particular, bmw-driver, posted a comment in response to a host of criticisms towards me with step by step suggestions on how to commit suicide.
An avatar called bobbie responded as follows:
As a mom with a teenager and two small daughters I take huge offense to this suggestion as to "How to commit suicide". Are you completely out of your mind? Is there not enough violence and crime around us without you making ridiculous and wild suggestions like this?
I hope you have the guts to edit your post and delete point number 2 - I think this is completely unacceptable and has gone way too far.
The moderator then asked for the same thing, and bmw-driver duly deleted his suggestion. The moderator, Cruxpearl, then finally closed the link, with this comment:
… the Hub has become a cesspool of anger, filth an sick comments, certainly not the fun place where like minded cyclist started off coming together to share enjoyed memories and exchange advice and information.
This Topic is also now closed....
Over the weekend, with someone having posted a photograph of Psycho, I called him up, and asked him a few questions, made a few clarifications and then particularly about the public demonstration of bravado (he said he would beat me up if he saw me). Naturally he was very different, even apologetic over the phone.
Subsequently I was banned from the forum, with a farewell message from my varsity mate, someone who sent me a personal message of apology at one point, but it was in the manner of ‘I will apologise if you do’. Under the avatar Man With No Name my ‘pal’ wrote the following:
To be very honest, my irritation with your attitude and comments got the better of me and I regret that.’
Banning is difficult to enforce though. I signed on as a new avatar under a different name but I realized I had nothing to say to these foolish, foolish people.
Wise men talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something - Plato
Wise men talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something - Plato
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