[Daewood]

on the World of warcraft Off Topic forums a character named Addranna Got ganged up on for about 2 hours of constant flaming and people questioning his/her sexual orientation...

the whole time this was going on this person never said anything to start it nor did this person flame anyone that was doing this back.

now everytime this person posts there everyone flames Addranna for no good reason.

while this was happening I was talking to this person over AIM and this person was extremely upset (almost crying). I've know this person for about 6 years and even thought I tried to defend him it happened to me and I know for a fact that this person is not a homosexual.

What causes people to do this to other people that they have never met?

[tom10167]

The wonders of acne-infested fourteen year olds masking behind the internet...

[Xenocide]

Originally Posted by tom10167

The wonders of acne-infested fourteen year olds masking behind the internet...

[Daewood]

it just boggles my mind that these forums will do that without someone to moderate this stuff...

I say that because the Mods are not present on the weekends

I'm sure it would have been taken care of earlier if someone was there...

[dkitt10]

why dont YOU do something bout it

[tom10167]

Or maybe even him.

It's the internet, those kids are probably punks, it's not that big of a deal.

[Daewood]

I know dont flame me!

I'm just ranting sorry...

[Malpine Walis]

You know what your friend ought to do? Slap down some good old fashion pwnage on those guys. Then do a happy dance all over the forums. I bet they will feel like big men after that.

People are uneducated about sexuality and listen to old wives' tales that it's contagious, a disorder, etc. because they don't know any better and don't want to. Instead of getting mad, feel sorry for them.

That and most people in general are jerks. They get off on being self righteous and act condescending towards others. Everyone does it but smarter people keep shut about it.

That and people will do just about anything to get a rise out of other people. If you ignore them, they'll get even more mad but they'll stop once they realize you don't care.

[nahmus]

Lots of people are bigshots on the internet. their mostly just bored punks. Once one starts something others follow to "be cool" Like a bunch of lemmings running to the sea.

First off tell your friend its just a board. No big deal. If they have been playing for a long time I'm sure that they have made frinds in game and don't really need the people flaming her. Its a different story if they are affecting her ingame.

can't she change her forum name?

[Mr.Guvernment]

almost all teenages will jump the bashing bandwagon cause they think it is cool.

[buckbadly]

IrC channels are very bad for this type of behaviour, I've seen people get soooo mad on there.

[Slackfumasta]

Kids get off on calling people **** and homos on message boards, like what is happening to your friend. Anybody who has read a message board and/or played something like Counter Strike knows this.

It's easy to put a stop to it though if you do it early. Just say "Yeah, I take it in the butt, so?" or something like that. Works every time - the fun for them is making you mad because you're not a '***' and it gets you riled up.

I do this pretty often, because my name in online games is Hobo. There's always some loser who says something stupid like "haha, ur a homo?" I invariably respond with something along the lines of "yeah, wanna meet? you sound nice" or something and they always shut up.

That's the key: take away their angle for making fun of you and they just let it go. It's hard to do when it's gone on for a while, but that's why you have to take care of it right off the bat.

[samuraisam]

It ****es me off too. Mostly because it gives me a bad name.

-Sam

[DuckDodgers]

I agree with Slackfumasta, turn it back on them. Be agreeable to the point of adding to thier comments.
Not to get off track here, but my brother works for a very large finance company. He hates sales people and even more so telemarketers. When he gets a call from someone from those professions he lets them talk for a minute or two and then starts asking them questions. It's hilarious. He'll ask if they are wearing underware, if they like spankings, etc. you get the drift. (trying to stay P.G. here). Point is, the conversation stops pretty quick and most times it's the marketer who ends up hanging up on him.

Reverse pychology can work wonders...

[gt24]

The strength of any forum in my book consists of two different things...

First off is the apparent "there must be a great amount of discussion about things that I want to talk about"... blah blah blah... you get the idea...

Second is the moderation team. When I lurked here at OCers, I was looking for trouble. No no no, I wasn't CAUSING any trouble, I was trying to see where trouble was happening. For whatever reason, a few people on the forums are fighting (this is either both of them hashing it out, or one just KILLING another... or in a rare case, a TON of people just KILLING one person). In any cases like that, there should be a superior authority (the moderator) present to handle the situtation.

The moderator can step into that situation and join in, by being extremely harsh in punishments or just picking on the person that everybody else is picking on. This has happened at forums before... and those forums I run FAR away from.

The moderator can either not be present at all or be present or do little about the situation. Those forums are bad beacuse of the extreme rudeness and generally mean disposition on there. I will comment on the rudeness and mean disposition in a bit.

The moderator, if doing a proper job, can sort out the arguments and keep things civil on the boards. This is an acceptable situation.

Now, about rudeness and disposition... If the membership of the board is generally nice and friendly (due to the membership asking new members to be helpful and the old membership feeling a responsibility for welcoming new members) (or just by who frequents the boards), you won't encounter rude people all that often. So, the moderator's job is much easier and also the board members will have a better time.

So, in other words, I love OC Forums, it is a fantastic place because of top-notch moderation (as far as I can tell! ) and also because of extremely nice members.

Sorry to hear of these issues across the net though. There are a great number of really nasty people out there and those people are looking for reactions. If you don't react as they expect, they leave, for the most part. However, there are a few people who can latch on who want to attack others for no reason (they want a target, and it doesn't matter how the target reacts).

So, your friend might have had the "want a reaction" group attacking before... but now may have a "I want a target" person or two spicing things up.

Don't let your friend take any of this personally, talk to the moderation team and see what options there are. If the moderation team is willing to help... then perhaps that forum, despite the topics of conversation, isn't worth being a part of. However, the key is... don't take any evil comments on the internet personally, even though that is much easier typed (and posted) than done.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by nerdlogic

People are uneducated about sexuality and listen to old wives' tales that it's contagious, a disorder, etc. because they don't know any better and don't want to. Instead of getting mad, feel sorry for them.

That and most people in general are jerks. They get off on being self righteous and act condescending towards others. Everyone does it but smarter people keep shut about it.

That and people will do just about anything to get a rise out of other people. If you ignore them, they'll get even more mad but they'll stop once they realize you don't care.

yup that is exactly what we started doing and most of them gave up but one still was doing it and some things were said and my freind has been banned for 24 hours... but it will give him and the other person a good amount of time to calm down and forget what happened.

BTW, Love the Avatar Nerd!

[tom10167]

Originally Posted by nerdlogic

People are uneducated.

(period)

[Richard]

Even educated people can be mean.

What your friend ran into is an, e-thug. E-thugs, are easy to beat. Just ignore them. If one must reply. Keep it short and to the point.

"That is incorrect. I am heterosexual."

If you'd like to add a parting line. Something like this should be funny.

"If you're looking for homosexuals; perhaps, you should use a matchmaker service."

[Dragonprince]

Originally Posted by gt24

So, in other words, I love OC Forums, it is a fantastic place because of top-notch moderation (as far as I can tell! ) and also because of extremely nice members.

The OC forums are no better or worse than anywhere else, we have our share of people that post rants and flames at others. One of the biggest things that get me are the "superior" people that want to slam people that might ask a question to learn something. That stupid "use the search feature, we put it there for a reasn" line is so lame its not even funny.