I like the "sage" in the email field bigmike. I lol'd.

Exactly though! There is no reason for politeness on the internet. We should take advantage of anonymity and call each other fags and niggers and wops and chinks because it is fun and ridiculous and stupid. 4chan KNOWS it is stupid. It makes fun of its self for that very reason.

I remember an instance in which someone said "Fag" in a post. Another anonymous use said he was offended by that because, according to him, he was in fact homosexual. This was on 4chan mind you. I immediately thought "This guy should grow up". The word "Fag" as used in the post was not used with intent to offend anyone. The poster said it because it was a stupid thing to say. It was a satire of those who use it seriously. Just like saying nigger. No one on 4chan really hate anyone (for the most part since there will always be bad eggs). If anything they're making things better by taking away the social stigmas that such words and slurs conjure. If you looked outside of your little infinitesimal bubble of taboo and no-nos, you'd see that its all just a joke. Silly shit for silly people.

Anonymous: Making Things Better

Some of these guys just don't get it.

Its not about making a point. Making a point (or arguing) on the internet is retarded. 4chan (and its users) know this.

They also know that silly little "virtual-world" games are useless and generally just bad. Thes games include (but are not limited to) Habbo Hotel, Active Worlds, IMVU, et cetera.

Spamming, scheming and other such activities bring them "lulz" and happiness.

They'll call you on your bullshit regardless of how it makes them look.

Most people don't like them because
A)They rag on something you like and you can't take a joke
B)You're an attention mongering tripfag that anonymous doesn't dig
3)???
4)Profit

Places like Something Awful, eBaumsWorld, and others of the like, contain stupid people trying to act smart. Whether or not you want to believe it... The majority of 4chan is made up of smart people who like acting stupid.

TITSORGTFOFGSFDSITSGOOFYTIMEDESUDESUDESUDESUDESUDESUDESU

Linden Labs should release the full names and street adresses of the griefer scum responsible, they should be held accountable for their crimes.

@ demon fox

You sound like jack thompson saying that.

@Yoshiko, Wolf and EOTD:

Thanks for the clearup and backup on those - I thought I remembered it right, but I was too lazy to look it up, hehe.

And agreed that it can be fun to rile up people on occasion too - I try not to do it TOO much, simply because like anything else it can lose it's fun after a while, and it can become more trouble than it's worth, but when I'm feelin' a little mischievous... :-D

"And while we’re at it, let’s discuss where this might go in the future. How long will it take before these “lulz” of yours do some real damage, whether to someone’s virtual property (virtual world land or possessions, a website, important data, etc.), or even to their mental health - with virtual reality coming in the future, large-scale griefing could potentially traumatize even in low-quality, sight only VR. I shudder to think what damage griefers might do if/when fully immersive, all-five-senses VR comes onto the scene."

This is hilarious. The future? More like the past.

4chan has destroyed countless lives, intentionally driven people to suicide, faked a national terror event (NFL dirty bomb stadium hoax was them) destroyed entire internet cultures such as the white nationalist movement via Mr Hal Turner and generally shown that they do wield actual power that extends beyond the internet.

They have for all intents actually killed people, caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage, ruined lives and caused untold harm on a whim. If they are treating it as a joke you would be well advised to treat it as such.

Anonymous isn't about cowardice, you stupid cockfags.

tl;dr post:

The intended aim of having names/trips is so that when the discussion at hand is turned in a direction where individual discernment between posters is essential to the conversation (e.g., a thread created by a moderator for the sake of communicating with the userbase) then the names can be seen and reacted to. However, many of the moderators are “just another one of the guys”. We post anonymously with the rest of the userbase. We laugh at the same stupid threads, we photoshop all the same stupid images, we engage in the same stupid flamewars.

Yet we still understand that there is a time and a place for revealing one’s identity. The adage “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him” applies itself readily here: for if there is no need to show everyone “HELLO MY NAME IS ANONYMOUS-SAN AND I HAVE BEEN POSTING HERE FOR THE PAST 23 MONTHS ALSO I AM A MODERATOR” with every single post you make, then showing it when you post will get in the way of what you are trying to say. Any threads that you make will be full of posters kissing your ass and never disagreeing with you for fear of being banned or ridiculed, even if the thread you make turns out to be a stupid thread or if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

However the concept of names/trips only has validity if the poster in question was already known at the time he entered the community, and people are free to post in any way they want. With a name alone, if they have not been educated as to the concept of a tripcode (and thus looking like a nonlurker, something that singles one out among any group); with a name and trip, if they wish to broadcast to everyone that they and they alone are posting (in some contexts this is fine, but in most others it can be interpreted as egotism, an overwhelming desire to stand apart from the community and even as an antisocial gesture if used with every post), or anonymously, where one’s words are judged solely on their meaning with absolutely no prejudice or closed-mindedness.

Of course, there are many people who believe that “standing by the words that you say” is the only effective way of communicating. This has its good points and its bad points. If you are out to build an internet reputation, to distinguish yourself among your peers, this can be seen as a detrimental attitude, especially when applied to a community that already has a rich and detailed culture. Not a culture defined as “who said what” but merely “what happened”. If you make a legendary post and then find that it has changed the political and ideological landscape of the BBS, or if you make a really good joke and it becomes an instant catchphrase, then saying Yeah, that was me that said that. Look at me, I’m posting with my name so you can all look at me and say “that’s the guy that said that really funny thing about three months ago” can and will be considered egotistical.

On the other hand, if you make good contributions to the community and don’t want to be seen as egotistical, then posting them anonymously is a lesson in humility and taking things in strides. As long as you yourself know that you created a fad or delivered the finishing blow to a heated argument, then that victory is both yours (internally) and shared by the community (externally), because there is no real way of knowing who has said what. Your victories become the victories of the group: your losses become the losses of the group. Anonymous posting promotes a sense of closeness, of comaraderie, of a shared culture that is seen on only a superficial level in forums where anonymous posting is seen as “cowardly”, or that anonymous posters are there merely to troll because they are afraid of revealing who they are.

The fact is, that anonymous posters don’t post without a name to conceal their identity: they post without a name because the things they are talking about are not of such critical importance to warrant plastering one’s signature all over everything.

Personally, I have a name and trip that is known by many of the posters on the BBS. However I don’t post with it because of the reasons I’ve stated above, mainly because who I am really has nothing to do with what I say. If you think that your identity somehow is supposed to give more or less credence to your words, then you are mistaken: for it is this preconviction that starts one on the road to elitism, a difficult issue with any forum. The words that you say will be judged merely on their own merit in an Anonymous system, and believe it or not people WILL adapt to it very easily.

Once usernames and avatars and search functions and all that fluff is removed, anonymous BBSes become solely focused on the transfer of ideas, and can be an interesting sociological study on the dynamics of a group. When someone reads an anonymous post, he will not spend any time thinking about who the person is, but will focus on what he says. People will become more adept at paying attention to details, to writing styles, to little unconscious touches that mark each poster. They will learn from and in turn give back to the community, and will help it grow.

Some other guy said:
I think this is backward, Russell. The problem with message boards isn’t that you can’t be anonymous, it is that you CAN be anonymous. It is darn easy to have a fake identity on the web, and then you can flame and spam and do whatever without any accountability. I can’t imagine the discussions on 2ch would interest me. I definitely consider the source when I consider a comment.

Wow! You good sir need to take a step back and look at things from another perspective! The only time anonymous posting ever devolves into that kind of environment, with people giving false information for the sake of doing so, and flaming and spamming, is when the majority of the other posters are expecting nothing more than clear-cut on-topic conversation. If you’re talking with your friends, and the conversation slowly shifts to another subject, do you forcibly tell them “HAY GUYS STOP TALKING ABOUT THAT SOMEWHAT RELATED TOPIC WE’RE STILL NOT DONE WITH TALKING ABOUT MY NEW CAR!!11? and expect them to approve? No, because doing so stifles the natural flow of conversation.

If you put up limits to the way people are allowed to express themselves, then people will not feel comfortable expressing themselves. It’s as simple as that. A forum with flexibility is most resistant to hardship and will evolve as a community of real people do, because that’s exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. As I said before, sociological experiment.

The reason people do those kind of things, like flame and yell at people over the internet, is because people like this guy get so miffed about it. If he were to just sit back, relax, and have a good time, not being oppressive, and not being haughty, he would learn to take things in strides. Who knows; the people who you think are spammers and flamers may actually be really good posters in other threads, people you’ve agreed with! Are you going to throw out your acknowledgement of their ideas merely because you don’t like what they said in another completely unrelated thread? Isn’t the whole core of conversation about clashes and resolutions?

When multiple people gather in a place, there will be collisions at first. However these will diffuse throughout the space and eventually reach an even level. People will learn to get along with other people, they will learn to appreciate differences in opinion and be receptive to them, and they will do so without ever knowing others’ names. And that’s just so very poetic, to me. How amazing it is that the way we live and die is the way we most effectively communicate. At the end of the day, you close your browser and chuckle to yourself, saying “God, >>352 in that thread made such a hilarious mockery of that one idiot. He really got what was coming to him! He’ll think twice before opening his mouth and spewing that pile of bull in the future.”, you realize that not only did >>352 gain some personal satisfaction from his contribution, but everyone else in the thread did as well.

And it’s that fun-loving spirit, that ease of manner, that makes posting so enjoyable. You don’t need to worry about if someone is flaming or trying to pick a fight: ignore him if you want, or yell at him. But don’t take it too personally, it’s the Internet. Don’t worry about if someone made fun of you because you said something stupid: maybe you did, and maybe you should read up on stuff before you decry it. Maybe HE is the one who’s wrong– okay, so what? You know he’s wrong, everyone ELSE in the thread knows he’s wrong, so bitch him out about it. You should be able to take what you dish out to communicate on the internet, free of pointless protocols and mannerisms and politeness that really have become a hindrance.

It’s good to have two selves when you’re on the internet: one self that is your true self, with which you conduct your everyday real-life business; and another which is hardened through battle, through countless clashes of opinion, one that has emerged victorious one minute then been utterly defeated by a master wordsmith the next. One who isn’t afraid of telling it like it is, of needless “let’s be nice to everyone even if we really disagree with them” philosophy, of the Human Potential Movement. If you aren’t capable of comprehending the difference between when someone REALLY MEANS something and when he is just bitching on the internet to get a rise out of people, then you honestly should move back in with your parents.

To prove my point, I submit for examination two cases. The first is of 2ch’s News4VIP board. To briefly explain its purpose, it is a board to which moderators have the ability to banish troublesome posters. They can’t post outside of their prison, but others who are NOT banished are freely able to post as well. And what kind of threads do they make? “lololololol hay guys i farted” and “YOU FUCKING FAGGOTS SHUT UP ABOUT THE GODDAMNED BASEBALL GAME, I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT” and often you’ll get an absolute gem of an Ascii Art Thread (look up the Soumen thread on world4ch to see what I mean).

The News4VIP board has the largest volume of posts of all of 2ch. It’s the largest, most active board on the largest, most active internet community in existence. And it’s not confined merely to those banished posters. A very good number of them post there for fun, as a trollsink, then switch IE windows to a serious discussion on physics. They can differentiate between the two modes of communication.

The second case is that of what has become known as /b/. You really can’t describe /b/. On Futaba, /b/ is the directory under which the “2D Misc. Image” pictures are posted and critiqued. Being Misc, it doesn’t have any specific guidelines for posts. Therefore, anything goes! You’ll see photoshop threads, pornography, anime screencaps by people who are watching shows on their TV Tuner cards, serious threads about philosophy, and threads where the OP bitches about his girlfriend. As of this writing, I know of no less than THREE separate /b/s, each one on a separate server, on Futaba, each one having millions and millions of posts.

By comparison, all other boards combined may strive to hold a candle to the postrate and types of threads that you can get there. It’s really a mixed bag, and it has good days and bad days. But it’s the best representation of human sociology that exists, because there are no restrictions. People are able to do what they want to do in a virtual environment, and it is healthy.

We here at 4chan have a /b/ of our own, and although it isn’t what we’ve intended it to become, it has taken on a life of its own with over 3.27 million posts itself, while the board with the next largest number of posts is /a/, the board where people post anime/manga related pics, with 194,000 posts.

Look at those numbers. Indeed, the reason why there ARE so many /b/s on Futaba Channel is simply because there are so many people posting at such a high rate that it has to be split up lest the board software utterly crumble. Something is obviously being done right here. Discourse limited only by the whims and imaginations of the participants allows for the most personal and community growth. Let’s compare with a traditional forum.

In the West, we do not have one universal internet culture. The closest thing we have is a scattering of acronyms and lists of popular websites, where people gather and bicker about who comes from where. It is a terribly feudal system, where the online populace lives out their entire posting lives ferociously dedicated to one particular forum and IRC channel. Oh, we all know about the same acronyms or what have you: but that’s only because they were invented at a time when we DID have one enormous communication medium that everyone went to– Usenet. They spread through Usenet, these emoticons and acronyms, and when everybody and their grandmother started getting Internet access, people wanted to have their own websites, and finally their own forum systems. And everyone started to take the initiative to create their own personal forums for, say, three people, on one limited subject - cars, football, baseball, music, particular bands.

After things split up, people made their own offshoots of these things so now there are thousands of forums, each with a maximum of hundreds of users, all completely separate and limited in their domains. The only shared community they have is with themselves and with the posters of Usenet twenty years ago. There is at this time no enormous community that people know of. Sure, people have heard of SA or Fark or Slashdot, and these are certainly some of the largest with thousands of people in their userbase. But with the penchant Western sites seem to have with plastering usernames and avatars and fluffy icons and stuff all over the place, it is daunting and unnecessary to the true aim of a forum– to spread ideas.

A system whose focus is on ideas should have a minimalist interface to lessen distractions, and also to maintain compatibility with all sorts of browsing/posting technologies. Perhaps some users are using cell phones to read/post, or maybe they are reading through an older system that does not have all the bells and whistles that a newer environment would have. In either event, using a CSS-heavy, web2.0-extended interface to a forum increases server loads, bandwidth loads, client-side processing, and adds visual elements that can be distracting and more difficult to grasp and work with than “type in the box at the bottom of each thread and press Post”.

Contrast this with the Eastern side of the internet. Sure, you have your spattering of personal sites and blogs, but 2ch is so huge that ANYONE with an internet connection who spends any time of consequence online has at least heard of it, if he doesn’t already post there. It’s huge, it’s popular, and it’s anonymous. Hiroyuki hit the nail on the head when he said that anonymity on the internet, where you don’t know someone’s name or face unless they choose to tell you, is the natural form of communication. And with a BBS as huge as 2ch is, you have to do something pretty enormous to garner any sort of fame there, if that’s what you’re after. (People who post for the sake of accumulating attention are incredibly vain and base people, and they are quickly weeded out by the posters who post because they *like going there*.)

On a phpBB forum, you have to remember lists of usernames, avatars; there is enormous drama on these forums. Let’s say you, the budding internet user, come upon a forum and sign up to post there. Now, why would you do this? There are two major reasons why you would go through a process and register to start posting in an already existing internet community which you have never seen before: either you have a one-time need that will soon be filled, a thread to create asking one question; or you are simply looking for a place to introduce yourself and make friends over the internet.

In the first case, you may get your answer to your question in a matter of hours or days, and then never go back there again. In the second, you may be ostracized because you posted without lurking. The practice of showing registration dates and post counts right in users’ profiles is evidence of the fact that inherently grained into the Western posting system are the excuses and red tape that bar new posters from posting and keep original posters at their place in the clique. A user coming to this site for the first time and making a thread will typically be greeted with “shut up faggot and stop posting” or “who gave you permission to post in our forum and hang out with us” or “why are you posting without lurking” or something to that effect.

However, with an anonymous BBS you don’t need to worry about that. Posting anonymously you are completely safe from people judging the worth of your comments based on the fact that you haven’t been posting there. In fact, as far as they know, you could have been posting there before they started going themselves! Thus ideas drive the conversation, not “who says what”. Of course there will be people who may give out incorrect information: but when they do so anonymously, they have nothing to gain from it. Where is the “proof” that they did that? Well, it can be manifested in other posters who correct them. It’s a discussion forum, meant to be the exchange of ideas, not a clique where someone can only speak and be heard if he’s proven himself to posters who have been there before him.

Anonymous posting is a relatively unknown segment of internet communication whose advantages need to be introduced to the large percentage of Western internet-residents. And we know that although 4chan has a HUGE number of visitors, only a relatively small percentage of them ever post. If only 5% of the userbase ever posted you would be guaranteed to see new content every time you pressed F5.

So hopefully this little essay has turned some of you on to the prospects of anonymity on the Internet!

Wait, am I getting this right? /b/tards trying to justify their griefing?


Not gonna happen kids.. Virtual or not, whatever pranks you pull WILL affect someone, either through loss of content or time, or even both.

As such, what you do is harmful to others. Ergo, you're being jackasses who vandalize other people's property. In RL (Real Life, You might have heard of it) we call those people Criminals.

You know, like those 200 people who were arrested this last week in Copenhagen for vandalizing an entire city-block, almost all of of whom were in it for "the lulz"...

Guess who got hurt there? Everyone. The government, the pro-ungdomshus folks, AND random people who actually live in or simply pass by that part of town.


Good show, Anarchists.

"Bags over our heads and ski masks help us be anonymous where ever we are. Being at the super market or simply, molesting your mother we will ALWAYS BE ANONYMOUS!"

Yeah, until you drop some DNA evidence or fingerprints. Which is almost inevitable. Cause quess what: you're the only one with that information. There is no chance that someone will have the same DNA as you; hell, I'm not even sure if identical twins have completely same DNA.

But, either way, Jeffy pretty much said it; you're not funny, so why not just shut up, take a jar of vasoline, and return to the depths of your parent's basement where you can waste away on a sub-par game like a crack addict or something.

"Except a power outage. Because without the interweb you can’t be anonymous anymore. "


Bags over our heads and ski masks help us be anonymous where ever we are. Being at the super market or simply, molesting your mother we will ALWAYS BE ANONYMOUS!

Can I post in response to this article? I applied for meme status a while back...

NICE TRY HAL.

But in all seriousness, it IS rather disturbing the lengths people go to when they are just doing it "for the lawls"

@anonymous
nice speech . . now tell me which movie book or whatever you copied that speech out of and claimed it as your own. hIronic that you try to define anonymous and yet the very definition of anonymous is that you don't know what it is (or they don't want you to know who/what it is). Also

"Enemies of the Anonymous include anyone who is not an Anonymous."
"We are void of human restraints, such as pity and mercy. "
"Under no circumstances are Anonymous human. We are above humans and mortality. "
Anonymous has no weakness or flaw.
Anonymous is in control at all times.

I take it you must have been a member of the third reich, good luck commanding much respect on the internet, since all your other quotes sound like something taken straight out of 1984 (the party's charter maybe).

Also
"Anonymous are not to partake in meaningless tasks. Those who do are to be either reformed or eliminated. "

A lot of people would consider the attack on edward's office as meaningless, and also now that you've revealed yourselves as nothing but a bunch of idiots out for shits and giggles it really IS meaningless now.

@Hannah:

WoW players have the choice between full PvP and limited PvE servers. Someone who chooses a PvP server knows full well what he's getting himself into (or at least, he should). Killing other players is also something that's encouraged by the game design and a feature of the game itself.

I haven't played Second Life myself, but from what I understand, the game isn't promoted as being a playground of griefing. I imagine if someone were to build a house out of penises, that would be fine, but if someone builds his penishouse on the doorstep of someone else's building, that would be outside the generally accepted practices of the game.

As far as whether it's worth arguing over: if it's worth doing in the first place, why shouldn't it be worth arguing about? If a griefer says, "Why worry?" a regular person could ask, "Why do it?"

@the1jeffy

Just a clarification.

I don't think I'm an anarchist.

I think it's a terrible idea.

@Richard C. Mongler

You're a /b/tard.

I know a meme when I see one.

@Jabrwock
In both cases your a total ass. The differnce with driving the car up and down the street. Is the physical danger you are putting the kids in, and the fact that you are likely cruiseing. SL = virtual game = virtual damage, that can be restored without physical harm to the user. Hit the kid with your car and its a little more then that. These people were being pricks, but didnt put anyone in real harm, deal with it.

@weatherlight

Ok fine. Let's remove the sense of physical danger altogether. Now instead of my car, my neighborhood turns out, and stands in the kid's way. Now it's impossible for them to be hurt, but we're still disrupting the kid's fun.

Then is it ok to be an asshole? Should they just "deal with it"?

Ouch, my sense of irony is hurting... ;)

The argument that it does "no real damage" is a straw man... of course it does no real damage. These are bytes inside a computer, and little lights that we look at on a screen. Does that excuse acting like an f'in jackass in anonymity? No chance.

If I were to walk down the street following men in business suits and tapping them on the shoulder repeatedly, even after they told me to stop, would you defend my position as "I'm not hurting anyone, so it's ok"? If I were sitting in a bus terminal clucking like a chicken every five seconds, would you not be annoyed? Why should you have to go to another terminal just to avoid some idiot whose trying to annoy you?

It doesn't matter whether or not it does real damage, and to argue that is missing the point completely: if you harass other people and become a public nuisance just for the fun of it, you should be locked in a closet for three weeks with a hungry Richard Simmons.

Now please, can we go on and stop giving these dipshits more attention than they deserve?

Hmm... in a virtual sandbox environment where anything is possible, can we really say that one style of play is better (or more valid) than another? Is pretending to build a house really better than pretending to fill the house with penises? Doesn't mean you're not a dick (pun intended) if you follow the latter course of action, but it's still allowed and, in a sense, encouraged by the design of the game itself.

In WoW, if you're playing on a PvP server, you can get a bunch of buddies together and take over a contested zone. This will undoubtedly annoy anyone who just wants to quest in peace, and it's both immature and unnecessary in most cases, so it could be considered a form of griefing. However, it could easily be argued that the game is designed to enable such an aggressive play style, so contested zone ganking is as much part of the game as PvE combat or PvP arenas, so most people don't take it too seriously.

In Second Life, however, even though the game explicitly allows to do "anything" (ie. not just happy friendly building and furry sex), player aggression of any sort is taken very seriously, even though at its roots, it's not all that different from sneaking up behind some noob and ganking him before he kills a quest mob. Part of this might be because a lot of Second Lifers really do treat the game as if it's equivalent (or superior) to reality, or perhaps it's just because each attack must be custom-made -- even though the tools necessary are built into the game, Second Life has no official combat system or anything beyond building and chatting. Scripting your own bomb and "exploding" it in somebody else's sim is somehow seen as more serious than using one provided by a company in another MMO.

Incidentally, I'm not exactly pro-griefer, but I still find the whole "Griefers are horrible human beings who should be punished in real life!" attitude to be a wee bit extreme. When we're dealing with virtual worlds, morality isn't always black and white.

And yes, I know I'm overanalysing this, but humour me.

I'm honestly offended by these people who think that just because they're legion, they have the right to do such disgraceful acts towards our social and political views. Second Life is more than just a chat room; it's an important communicational development system that can alter real life events and views. It's distasteful that this 4chan.org website can cause such disruption. Obviously this over-reaction is well just, and we should show to them that we are not afraid of "Anonymous", when we ourselves are posting anonymously to an extent.

What I really want to touch on was some of the horrifying things that could be seen on this game, because I was on Second Life, when a couple of guys who were up to no good, Startin' makin trouble in my neighbourhood. I got in one lil fight and my mom got scared, she said, "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in bel Air".

We are arguing with internet trolls. What has this site come to?

@ Bizzo

"/b/tard=anarchist

They’re kids, let them have their agenda of a lack of an agenda."

Ahhh, to be 15 and going through the, "I'm an anarchist phase," again. Sigh, so cute.

@Danny5

"But this is a game, and the game landscape and rules inside the game allow for trespassing onto this property, and doing pretty much whatever you want to it. If that’s allowed, why complain about it?"

Refer to my street hockey comment... by your logic, since I'm using a public road, and I'm not breaking any traffic laws, those kids have no right to complain if I keep interrupting their game...

And to sum things up, I don't give a damn about the Headquarters of some American politician in Second life and more than I give a damn about supposedly adult people behaving like 4 year olds with poster paint.

What I care about is the fact that morons like these colour peoples opinion of gamers in general, and as they would be the first to claim, they don't care.

I think the primary problem here is that the griefers don't THINK.

Sure, they think it's funny. Some people aside from them, usually people with the same afore-mentioned defect, will even laugh with them.

Guess what - not everyone is laughing. These /b/tards are the type who only think 1 step ahead. "We'll do it, and we'll laugh" is as far as their thought processes get, when the rest of us who aren't laughing think "I'd hate to be the guy who has to clean up that mess". Griefers don't bother to think about how the other guy feels, or about any consequences to their actions aside from the immediate, purile humor. The worst part? They don't care, either. They just don't care. Whether because of bad parenting, poor social integration, or just plain idiocy, these cowards perpetrate their idiocy any place where they can't be caught, or where the consequences of getting caught are a mere inconvenience.

It is at this point that, during a classical essay, I would propose a solution to the problem. However, my proposed solutions are born of rage and usually involve a baseball bat, so I'll leave them for someone who has more compassion or distance from the subject than I.

First, we had pheromones.
Next, we had body language.
Then spoken language.
After many thousands of years, we developed the written language, and it was good. It lasted us many thousands of years, evolving over time. And all was well.

Then, everything changed. We began to write letters to eachother, instead of using writing to communicate with someone who was there with us. This was a major shake-up, but we adapted.
Then came the next great thing, radio. We began to communicate by speaking through the air over very great distances.

From radio came television. Once more, we were able to communicate over wide distances, with the help of body language, as well as spoken and written language.

Then there was a time of peace, where such wondrous forms of communication were used only by the few, to stimulate the masses.

Alas, that time has passed, for we developed the Internet. And it has spread, wide and vast, within the wilds of the homes of private citizens. It allows anonymity and information. It was created to share the wonders of mankind with others, to share the information and collective knowledge.

But, it has been twisted. Corrupted. Its original purpose remains, but it has been defiled, irreparably. Intellectual children, people who wish to abuse the anonymity to cause trouble for no good reason, have swarmed the internet and have sought to destroy it.

Those who act as children on the internet, those who say "realx, dude! it's only the intarwebz!" should realize, this is the form of communication for our era, for our generation. With it, we have unlimited access to the knowledge of mankind. We have unlimited access around the world, able to talk, at the speed of light, with people in virtually any country on the map. We should be using the internet responsibly, as the tool it was meant to be. As a form of modern communication. Instead, it's been reduced to being a joke utility.

I hold as much contempt for people who perform such acts on the internet, as I would hold if they did it on TV, or on the radio, or in a letter or book, or on a picture. As much contempt as if they had done something as similar as possible, right to my face.

Second Life is not a game. It is a medium for communication. Games have clearcut rules, goals, and purposes. Second Life, does not. It's no more a game than an information BBS, IRC, or even a political blog is.

If you want to go grief people online, go do it in a shooter, or an MMO in a PK area. That's what that junk is for. If you want to go somewhere meant for mental stimulation, creativity and communication, just to cause problems, go down to the library, or your local city hall, or a university, and create a scene. That way, you'll be dealt with, as your mental development deserves.

And for all their 'just having a laugh, it doesn't mean anything' attitude they still brag about the news sites it reached.

I'm not against people having fun, God knows I've done some fun things in Eve, which annoys the Devs at times ;)

The thing is there IS a knock-on effect, it's happening, we're posting in it.

You can't, as a group, run around demanding attention and then think that attention will have no effect on peoples perceptions. It's already being played as a political move by the Edwards camp.

The difference between a child and an adult is that an adult is aware of the knock-on effects of their actions, these people are denying they exist. Have fun, by all means, that's what Second Life etc is for, but if scrawl political comments all over a poltically owned area of the game, then don't be surprised when there's a loud bang and a perforated cat, as it were.

AIDS IN THE POOL!

Jabrwock, they don't hate Edwards. Yes, it's childish, so?

It doesn't harm anyone, but I prefer /b/tards raiding crap, like Habbo or the Republican Elephant Building, then Edwards HQ 2008. Still, it is quite amusing when stunts like these happen.

And it's not like you are causing monetary damage.

In this case, I think it'd be alot like the scenario in which the neighbor calls the cops after kids TP his house.

You know what happens the next week?

5 different groups of kids TP his house, and this time they throw in some eggs and fork the front lawn.

By even bringing attention to the issue, you're giving them exactly what they want. Same thing with our lawyer friend.

Sometimes big problems are caused, and then it's time to address the issue. But by catering up every single little nuance, we're serving no purpose but their own.

@Danny5

"Honestly, I think the largest difference here is that in a game you can simply choose to ignore it."

I certain instances? Yes. In this case? No, someone needs to go clean up the mess, it's not like they can just turn on the "ignore" flag. Unless I'm unaware of the "clean out everyone else's crap from my property" function in SL.

Spamming chats, you can just hit the ignore button. When people are allowed to create & place objects in your "space", then it's still vandalism, whether it's virtual or not. You'd object if /b/ came and flooded these comments with "sh*ttingdicknipples". Would you tell Dennis to "get a life, it's not real" if he complained?

"And really, in your scenario, I’m sure one of the kids would drive the puck through one of your windows in due time."

And ironically, THEY would get charged with damaging my window, whereas I would get away with the aformentioned excuse, because "it's just a game"...

"ITS A GAME PEOPLE…. GET OVER IT"

ME!

@Jabrwock:

I won't deny that griefing isn't a very nice thing to do, but it's still highly amusing if done right. On Second Life, there are a lot of people who take the game very very seriously, and sometimes they need a few flying penises to remind them that it isn't real. If anyone makes gamers look bad, it's not the griefers -- it's the people who react to the attacks as if they were physically assaulted in real life. These are the people who pretty much prove a certain lawyer's theories that gamers can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and I don't think that's a good thing.

You also have to consider that many griefing targets aren't much better than the griefers themselves. Harrassing a bunch of neighbourhood kids may make you look like a dick, but what about playing a public practical joke on a local land baron who's known for shady business practices? Still not a very nice thing to do, but not wholly bad either.

@Cecil+Kuros

It was a joke. -_-

@Joe Bourrie

"I’m not convinced that your scenario is a hypothetical"

Just keeping my options open for when I'm retired and bored. :P

@ the1jeffy

NO U

Dear god, I can't believe people can actually get so angry about this.

First off, this is second life. This is a game. Not only a game, but a game that doesn't adhere to any rules. In fact, some might say that is the games entire purpose; To be an ever evolving social experiment. ...

"Remind me to use that as an excuse the next time I feel like driving up and down the street while my neighbors’ kids try to play street hockey… afterall, it’s just a game, they should get over it… right?"

No, oh sweet jesus. WHAT?!? Listen. That is real life. People's LIVES could end. The thing we're talking about here is Second Life. It is not real life, or even a continuation of anything real in your life. It is a lawless environment where you are supposed to be able to create anything you want. If you want to create mindless anarchy, what the hell is wrong with that?

Sure, it's immature and stupid. But is it REALLY any more idiotic than campaigning on Second Life? I don't think so.

What I find sad about this entire situation isn't that they attacked a real-life political force trying to make a presence in a game to garner support(to show that they're 'hip' or something), or that they did it using humor a 5 year old would enjoy. What's so disgusting about this entire situation is that people actually CARED. People thought it was politically motivated, an evil attack from those Republican scum!

Come on, WAKE UP PEOPLE.

I'm not sure how to get this through to you. Just repeat these words over, and over, and over again in your head: It doesn't matter.

@ Jabrwock

Actually it does accomplish something.

Making computer-users all over the world appear even More like retards in the common man's eye.

@ ~Jeffy

And thus the image of all gamers being basement virgins grew ever stronger...



Actually, this reminds me of a kid I know in relation to the riots that took place in Copenhagen this past week. The kid was extremely anti-authority, claiming the police destroyed everything and that 'next time' the police would 'have it coming for them'. When I asked him why he thought so, he said "I like teh violence!"

That's the common troublemaker right there. An idiot who only does it for kicks, and has little to no clue what's actually happening.

These guys are jackasses, but they did solidify what I've been saying: the B.S. that happens on Second Life is not worth reporting on, nor is Second Life itself worth wasting time "campaigning" on. Linden Labs loves the free publicity, I'm sure, but any "politics" that might come from SL is compromised by the number of shittingdicknipples on the servers.

Between this and the flying penis attack, I wouldn't be surprised if PR companies go back to MySpace and Second Life returns to it's "geeks and griefers" roots, and not a moment too soon. After all, nobody wants to be part of a press conference with porn flying at their face. Actually, that's not entirely true...

@Velkrin

"They spell simply correctly but they can’t manage lol?"

It's their version of being different. "lulz" is taken from the way you pronounce lol... like someone writing "lawl" instead of "lol".

/b/'s antics are mildly amusing, but they lack the skills and creativity of other griefing groups. Anyone can paper a building with offensive imagery, but it really takes talent (or at least a good sense of humour) to orchestrate a flying penis attack during a press conference, then video the whole thing and put it to music.

I'd like to add, how did some people not expect that this would happen?

John Edwards is currently a high profile person and he's making a base of operations in an online game where people can easily manipulate the environment, of course someone is gonna go and screw up his HQ.

I'm sure there would be a similar situation if a celeb had an account in WoW, EQ, GW or any other popular MMORPG. They would be griefed, ganked and otherwise made a target by everyone imaginable.

@Ace_ofspade

I like this comic. I don't read as often as I used to but I like it. There's nothing wrong with furries.

(It's kinda biased since I draw them.)

- Warren Lewis

@Ace_ofspade

I like how you dismiss Jabwock's post due to the fact that the comic uses anthropomorphic characters instead of humans.

I suppose the Thundercats or even VeggieTales (foody?) is useless based on your comment?

THIS kind of stupid...

http://www.ozyandmillie.org/d/19990709.html

@MrKenyon

My apologies. I guess I should have remembered that some teens (and adults) can be such retards sometimes. The kind of stupid that gives you a headache.

Mudkips? Nigras? *sigh* I TOLD you people it was /b/tards, but no one ever listens to ol' Kenyon...

Grahamr - "Physical violence won’t solve the problem….."

I think that depends entirely on how much is applied and where. For instance, if you cut off their hands...

See, this is why I leave the decision to those who have more compassion. I'd break their knuckles with a ball-peen hammer so that, even after they healed, using a mouse/keyboard would cause wracking pain.

See, it's the compassion I lack... Perhaps I'm just jaded, but I seriously believe that there are quite a few good candidates out there for retro-active abortions, and a good many of them will clue you into their identities on the internet with the sort of pranks that this article is about.

yeah... it's a good thing I'm not in charge...

@Davian2K5, Yoshiko, and EOTD

Thank you, I knew there was something different between them but I couldn't remember what. Biology isn't my biggest scientific interest; I just happen to know some because my sister needs some classes in it as she is aiming to be a zoologist. I, myself, am more interested in astronomy and other similar sciences.

And, I agree with EOTD; it can be fun at time :P I used to mod at a small board that was based around video games, and sometimes we'd get an idiot come on and start flaming one of the companies, like Nintendo. So I'd get them all riled up, cause it was fun to do, hehe.

@Grahamr

"Alot of the people they “Raid” had it coming IMO."

So now they're self-appointed vigilantes who not only smear shit on people's walls for kicks, they do it to fight against "the man"? Please, these people wouldn't know social justice if it kicked them in the teeth and stuffed a rubber chicken in their pants. They just assault high-profile targets, or people they know will garner the biggest reaction.

That's all it is, the thrill of getting a rise out of someone. It's like the 4 year old who keeps poking his sister, just to keep her saying "quit it!"

While I'm sure it's good for "lulz", it still accomplishes squat. It's still just a bunch of children pretending they have power, and making a mess because that's all they know how to do.

"…Plus, it’s just funny."

Maybe the first time the dog peed on the floor it was funny. The 2nd time, amusing. The 100th time, you get tired of it, and wish the dog would learn a new trick... But then it pees again, and gets as excited as it did the previous 100 times.

It's entertainment for people who have 5 second attention spans. I mean I enjoy ebaumsworld once in a while, but these people click through all of it, all the time, because without it, their life is meaningless. They're worse than people who can't live without their soap operas...

*Ominous music*

It's them.....

*Ominious music intensifies*

4chan.........

"No man-made or natural occurance can harm the Anonymous."

Except a power outage. Because without the interweb you can't be anonymous anymore. ;)

Does that message sound like, "lol we made u angry by harassing you!!!!111" to anyone else?

and Jabrwock.. don't think that thousands of 4chan'rs wouldn't take to the streets wearing suits and afros. I think a serious pool closing could be iminent..

I wasn't far from the mark. The claim to fame was made by their "official leader", ShortCat...

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/User:Shortcat

"Soon, one can only hope."

I CAME BEFORE I COULD TAKE MY DICK OUT OF MY PANTS!

"And while we’re at it, let’s discuss where this might go in the future. How long will it take before these “lulz” of yours do some real damage, whether to someone’s virtual property (virtual world land or possessions, a website, important data, etc.),"

Soon, one can only hope.

The internet is not serious business at all and to prove it I will argue and get huffy.

WE ARE FUNNY GODDAMNIT!

Seriously though, you guys should relax.

@Davian

"also: Despite this, as I recall, fingerprints can end up different, because (again, this is purely memory and possibly flawed) those aren’t genetically encoded but a result of the fact that the processes governing the growth and formation of a fetus cause the fingerprints. - Again, I THINK that is the case, but I’m not 100% sure. So identical twins are not exactly perfectly identical, but it’s all but. The environment can play a bit of a part in determining it."

Fingerprints are -always- unique to an individual, regardless of identical twins or fraternal twins. The chances of finding a duplicate set of fingerprints on two separate humans is less than finding a duplicate pattern of a snow flake.

@Wolf
As for DNA, Davian's correct. "In the case of identical twins, the cell division goes a little too far--the dividing cells split into two separate clusters, each one becoming a separate human being. However, since there was only one complete set of DNA to start with, there still is only one complete set to end with, just split among two human beings." -TheStraightDope.com (you can look up other sites for citation, but Davial has the jist of it.

And a chimera's DNA... Whoo, that's a whole 'nother topic in and of itself.

"*Overly affectionate Grandmother voice*

Ooh! Aren’t you just the cutest little thing! Pumpkins, you are so smart and wuvable. I just wanna hug you all to death. And buy you presents - I’ma just gonna spoil you more than your parents! So clever! So original! I just can’t stand it, you lumps of pure sweetness. You’re better that store-bought cake-icing! Let Grammie get some kisses!

PRO TIP:

If you are the only one in the room laughing, it’s almost certain that you aren’t funny."

oh I see what you did there.

Wow, the internet really IS serious business!

"Hal Turner Says:
March 7th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
@ kurisu7885:

gb2gaia fag"

What The Hell?! 0.o

@Wolf

Identical twins do essentially share the exact same set of DNA. After the egg gets fertilized, sometimes in the process of cell division in order to grow it separates and 2 different fetuses (fetii? fetusii? fetish? ... Sorry, my train of thought derailed...) can form which share the exact same base DNA.

Your DNA for the rest of your life will essentially be the same, ignoring you being exposed to a massive surge of radiation or something. Minor mutations and changes may occur, but on a DNA test, I'm relatively sure (about 95% sure) that they will show up the same.

Oh, I was a biology major in college - is why I know about that somewhat.

Also: Despite this, as I recall, fingerprints can end up different, because (again, this is purely memory and possibly flawed) those aren't genetically encoded but a result of the fact that the processes governing the growth and formation of a fetus cause the fingerprints. - Again, I THINK that is the case, but I'm not 100% sure. So identical twins are not exactly perfectly identical, but it's all but. The environment can play a bit of a part in determining it.

@ kellye

Thanks!

@ kurisu7885:

gb2gaia fag

Yea... i would happen to aggree with noman.

People are tight asses.

Come on people. Havn't you ever done a practical joke on someone????? just for the sake of a LAUGH. ( or 'lulz' if your someone from SL)

LAUGH ALREADY!!! its ok.... you can be serious when your dead because then you can't laugh ;)

Remeber kids, leaving an eraser on top of a partly opened door to fall on someone is TERRORISM!

God, /b/tards cross the line sometimes, but the outcry over this is pathetic.

I HAVE TO PEEEEEEEEEE

I love how these anonymous losers hypocrite themselves to such an immense degree as to be laughable. What is a bigger loser the one acting like a retard or the one opposed? The retard. Obviously. I love the grifer mentality that the internet is this magical fantasy land where their words don't count due to the format.

"Teh interweb is serious business" No it doesn't have to be but, hiding behind the ambiguous veil of "the internet" is about as lame and pathetic as it gets. What a limited. myopic view of how the internet functions and a huge sign of how detached these fools are from reality.
These kids have no moderation. It's either stiff tight assed "serious business" or acting like a retarded goober mashing the keyboard with his face. The problem is they honestly think they're funny. Everyone who logs on to the internet is either a tight ass or a constantly cackling asshole.
The fact that these losers actually have the arrogance to define the internet as a simple playground for idiots drunk on anonymity shows how inexperienced these guys are. Socially stunted to an extreme.

Maybe crowbarring your fingers off the keyboard and getting outside may help you but, an anti-social jackass is going to be hated offline as well. Unless you're the "nice guy/girl offline" bonehead stereotype. Then you're doubly pathetic for compromising who you are for the sake of fitting in with mob. Usually when people adjust their personalities it's for the better. Rarely do they actually go out of their way to be more unlikable.

Acting like a retarded five year old online doesn't accomplish anything deeper than making your parent's look like failures (which clearly they are.)
Every single member of 4Chan (the sphincter of the internet) and Something Awful (the toilet) is the same. They can't actually argue so they resort to annoyance tactics because that's what witless kids do.
Serious business? or Retarded, moronic business. If you can't actually make someone laugh without resorting to the same stupid meme? Guess what? You're not funny. "Everything can be funny" ...
Until they have a tragedy. Then it's "goondolences"
It's everyone else's responsibility to ignore the dancing jackass shitting in the fountain. God forbid these same people take their own advice and ignore the people complaining right?

They can't take they're own attitude and aren't even smart enough to recognize it when it happens.
Basically these morons don't give a shit because no one is there to beat the shit out of them. We call these folks "pussies" out in the real world.

"Lulz" sounds retarded. Seriously, you sound stupid saying it and you sound even more stupid bragging about it. No matter how smart your remedial English teacher said you were, you say "I did it for the lulz" and you immediately look dumber than a bag of bags.

"Lulz" and/or Memes, are for kids who actually aren't funny but, want the attention funny people get. Responses here prove that.
Unimpressive one liners that smack of pretense and effort. The calling cars of the teenager on Mommy and Daddy's PC.
Sorry you weren't born with a sense of humor but repeatedly cutting and pasting the same tired cliches isn't getting laughs worth remembering.

The obliviousness is very satisfying though. The fact that these folks actually think they look even remotely impressive is hilarious when 90% of the world is laughing at them for being such morons.

That wall of text cut and pasted from 4Chan's official annual alloted "Five whole minutes of complete sentences" would probably hold more weight if the average user didn't take advantage of the anonymity to have non-stop conversations like this:

*Posts pic of dick girl with arms cut off fucking a baby cow*
Anonymous - MOAR
Anonymous - fags
Anonymous - sauce moar plz
Anonymous - fap fap fap
Anonymous - moar or gtfo

Take a bow douchebags!

Popularity doesn't equal quality. Look at MTV. The majority voted for Bush (the second time) Just because the memes are spread out from 4Chan just means there are tons of humor deprived teenagers who aren't funny enough to come up with their own material.

Mudkips Acronym you have to the dumbest, dumb fuck I've ever heard.

1st due to the fact that you used the phrase:

"lol @"

That alone should be call enough to give you a beating.

Second for having the audacity to even question which one is more of a loser. The one who plays a game for enjoyment or the one who has nothing better to do than play the SAME GAME only to act like a shit head.

Gee let me think.

Person one Plays the game.
Person two plays the same game AND judges the people playing AND takes it upon themselves to make those people miserable while PLAYING THE GAME.

Guess what champ? YOU'RE the bigger tool. No contest. Except while those people may have friends you don't! Because you're an unlikeable chode. I don't even play the fucking game and I can figure that shit out.

Find a fucking hobby of your own asshole. Stop fucking up the internet with your pointless bullshit. You can either do something you enjoy or you can be the douchebag that ruins it for others. If you can't enjoy yourself without coming up hypocrisy fueled excuses and justifications for being an asshole you have serious personality problems and should seek help.