think we're all familiar with this one:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/internetdickwad.jpg

Pretty much.



The Jedi Master

LOL! A rather succinct and illuminating theory.

How true. How true...

I bet many of us have offended more people in the virtual world than in RL.

**raises hand**

I try to keep it to a minimum though.

Well, only because I rarely have the opportunity to offend 10,000 people in one shot in the real world.

My question is to the validity of the first postulate: Normal Person.

I'm only half kidding.

People I have thought were good folks from this site and later met in person, were just that. Good people. Without exception.

I don't know, and I don't want to get too deep with this, but honestly, if you go machine gun on the internet with any regularity, perhaps it's not the internet. Maybe, it's you.

Neither do I as it is a scary proposition. However, I think that assumption is only partially true. And you would know better than I as I'm sure you have plenty headaches concerning bans etc. There are many visual cues missing in forum communication that would otherwise make an offensive statement seem harmless if communicated in person. Plus personally knowing someone makes all the difference.

Yup. I am evil.

Actually, I'm just the opposite - I piss off far more people in RL. I don't know - I guess I don't want a virtual person to piss me off, so I do unto others.

I must not care about RL, though. Heh, one of my performance reviews from a couple of years ago (same company I'm at now) said that people complained that I'm "rude and abbrasive."

But in a good way.

Depends on the direction the wind is blowing that day.

Just kinda wonder how many of these "dickwads" would have the spine to act that way in RL. A person can be real tough behind a keyboard.

approximately NONE!

You mean like the Wicked Witch of the West?

Do you have the Ruby Slippers?

I've seen the same theory when applied to trucks and CB radios.

I've been told a time or two that I'm too abrasive in RL. Never my intention, though.

I remember one guy back in the Prodigy days, RB probably remembers him, named Tim or something. He would go off on these rants and get in people faces and such online all the time. If there had been mods with faces there he would've been banned no question, but instead it was automated moderating or something and you never knew when anything would ever be done.
Anyway, I met him at one of the Las Vegas get-togethers in the early 90s and he was a short, overweight, quiet guy with glasses that would never THINK about getting in someone's face. I didn't talk with him too much so I don't know if he really was a "good" guy but he certainly wasn't the thorn-in-your-side he was online.



The Jedi Master

Ask the guys who know me in real life. Skater? Do I have the spine?

No, I have rubber slippers... just in case...

Hmmm... I don't remember. There were a few guys on Prodigy who were very angry people. The biggest, baddest frakker I ever met from there, Skater, was a pretty confrontational dude. And I am just as confrontational in the real world as I am online... but what you don't see is how either Skater or I treat the people who treat us well.

A little story... Skater and I once had a big fight, in the really real world, and I think people thought it was going to come to blows. It was over something stupid and we were not being very kind to each other. It was nothing short of an Internet forum battle in the real world. But did we hit each other? No. Did we hate each other? No. In the end, it was Skater who was the bigger man and said "Why are we arguing about this? We are friends."

And so, people can be very much like they are on the Internet, but it doesn't mean they have to be willing to punch each other in the face over an argument. You can still argue like crazy and not fight... and still be friends. Just like on the Internet. Because everyone has a bad day... or 9,000.

Honestly, and I have said this in several editorials I've written on this site, it's fairly easy to treat people well who treat you well. The much more difficult task is to treat people who have actually or apparently given you insult with some degree of respect or at least restraint.

That is the basis of internet forum conflict. Someone says something you take offense to. Whether it is intended as such or not. Some people fire off the bow with both barrels, right away. Others choose not to respond. Is that a sign of weakness? I say no. It's a sign of strength. You choose not to engage with someone you don't know, will likely never know, all over what? Something in an internet forum?

Let me tell you, and if you haven't tried it, try it. It takes a lot of strength sometimes not to just hit that bow cannon keyboard and fire off. Just say "hell with it" and take a break. Maybe somebody did have a 9000 day bad day, or 1 bad day or maybe they speak a different language and the translation or the society don't mesh. Could be East coast versus West coast USA. We just do things differently.

And speaking for SimHQ, if you have a situation on these boards that you think is way too confrontational, please let us know. One of the forum moderators, myself, guod, an admin. Don't get in the mud with the pigs. You get dirty and the pigs love it.

Disclaimer: Not taking a shot at any particular mod here.

But since OP seems to be showing a formula for a dickwad, would there be a multiplication factor added to the formula when one of these dickwads gets mod status. I haven't seen it here, but I have on other places where someone is the nicest guy online, helpfull and the moment he is given mods status he starts to get revenge on everyone that pissed him off before he had mod status.

I remember one guy who did that back in the days of the IRC channel for OFP. I remember we had a bot running in our channel to keep our + status, this guy actually tried to kill the bot so he could have the channel all to himself, it didn't work but he tried. The weird part was the main reason we gave him mod status was becuase he was buds with someone at BIS.

Dlink,
Well, that certainly is a point to be considered.

And at different sites, you would probably get different opinions about certain moderators and their predispositions. I dare say, if you asked some members who are no longer here what they thought, you'd get an earful. OK, whatever.

Would it be right? In their minds, hell yes. They would feel they were treated unfairly, rudely, intrusively, and so on. I do not agree, obviously. And I do review these matters, case by case.

And although I prowl through other sites quite a bit, the only one I can speak with authority as to the background activity, the moderation and philosophy and application, is this one.

We do our darndest to have equal application of the rules. Written and unwritten rules. And listen, there's a 10 to 1 ratio unwritten to written. It's the old salt about if you have procedure for going to the bathroom at the office. Do we? No. It just happens.

So while the scenario you point out is no doubt true, speaking for SimHQ, we try our best to maintain high standards and professionalism. I could not be, let me repeat that, could not be, more proud of our Staff.

You know, like all organizations, it starts at the top. guod is the best. Absolute best.

I think there is this holier than thou thing that many mods get once they have their power. I have been a forum mod and I was the exact opposite from my non-mod status. Actually, in the real world, when given a title or responsibility, I act according to those expectations. I adapt well to things that are demanded of me, including being a jerk (as many do expect that, or they will extract it from anything I say whether it was intentionally jerkish or not).

I have adapted to SimHQ over time. I certainly don't jump down throats the way I used to, and that is because I was asked not to by a couple of mods. I respect their authority. But I am never going to just sit there and let someone take open shots at me without any response. It wouldn't be me. I just temper the response a tad.

Sure, I dislike some things about the way SimHQ operates the forums, but it is their baby. They can do whatever they want. One either deals, leaves, or gets banned.

Plus, I think the SimHQ mods try to be very even handed overall.

Ain't that the truth!

LOL, well I guess the fact that RB doesn't remember him indicates it wasn't a big deal after all.

I do miss a lot of the regulars from back then who were gone even by the time F4 was released. I can't even remember some of their names, actually. Ones I do recall include Shebop and Bebop, JEB, the late Buzz Hoffman, Stinger (not Shepski's former name, a different Stinger), and Hardware.



The Jedi Master

Ahhh... old school names.

Mazman... Archer... my bestest bud, and the man I taught everything I learned from Skater about Falcon3 to, the late, great Black Death (sniffles)... Skater's student, the late, dude of cool, Momba... Stimpy... ummm, Robin... and oh so many names I can't pull out of my head right now.

Well, I for one think you do. I stopped posting over at FW for a couple of years (and still hardly ever post there) because I felt I was on the receiving end of an unequal application. Up to that point I had truly felt part of that community and that event made me feel like I was stabbed in the back.

I guess you could say it still stings

So, for SimHQ, whether or not I am looked upon as a part of the community (I honestly don't know - I still feel like a total newbie here ), I do feel that things are carried out in a fair manner.

So, thanks (to everyone) for that

This is just me and my opinion, but personally I reject the first premise as invalid out of hand, because, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a "normal" person. An amalgamation of averages, possibly, but no normality to be had. Everyone is different, and everyone has the potential to perform varying degrees of the Jekyll/Hyde switch between RL and OL behavior. However, the kink in the observation is that I have yet to actually meet anyone IRL that I know and have interacted with online.

Of course then there are the anomalies - people who act precisely the same on both planes of existence.

I could sit here in front of my computer and contemplate this thread, its premise, and how it applies to me for hours on end, but I'd be no nearer to a conclusion about my online vs. real-life behavior and nature then I am now. Which is to say that I'm capable of both great good and great evil (and indeed have committed both in both mediums), though some would say it wasn't "nearly as bad" as some other acts. But then, I've always considered constant self-re-evaluation to be a giant wonkathon, to borrow a phrase from Al Franken.

Well said, Goodwood. Well said.