Jimquisition: The Wacky Harassment Blame Parade

[spartenX]

you know, it seems to me that alot of people are missing the point of this video, so let me try to help make it more clear with an analogy

imagine your in high school. your walking down a hallway when you see a group of kids bullying another kid who just recently came out of the closet. they are bullying for being gay. it's mostly verbal bullying (insults, name calling and the like), but you do hear one or two threats of violence that you aren't sure whether the bullies are serious about.
Do you:
A) go tell a teacher or other staff member whats happening, or even try to bring them to where the bullying is happening so they can see for themselves
B) go stand up to the bullies, and maybe even try to get the victim away from them
C) walk by the whole thing because its not your problem, and never think about it again
D) walk by, and then when you overhear the victim talking to his friends about what happened, tell the victim "well what did you expect for being open about your sexuality"

if you would pick A or B, then you aren't the people Jim's talking about. Your good people who probably do stand up for people who are being bullied whether online or offline. Jim is not telling you to go out and setup some sort of internet vigilante system, all he wants is for more people to act like you guys, and stand up against bullies when you see it happening in the community you are a part of.

if you would pick C or D, then you are doing nothing but being complacent while people are bullied and harassed for the pettiest of reasons, making it appear that this abuse is acceptable behavior. your deserve the scorn Jim gives you in this video

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Hell yes! One of my comments appeared in a Jimquisition!

Spoiler: The king!

And I'm sorry Jim, but what do you expect me to do? Take my craven, selfish arse over to Wizardchan and say "Hey you misogynistic wankers, stop being misogynistic wankers!"?

By distancing these people from the wider gaming community I am condemning them as much as I can. These people are not part of an "online eco-system", but part of a single, ultra-sexist echo-chamber which no sensible ideas can penetrate.

I have picked your comment, not because I think it was the worst of these, but because I like your colorful avatar.
=w= b (<- thumbs up face for the avatar) [sub](Don't worry, you're doing fine.)[/sub]

This will be made so it will be easy to read;

JIM IS NOT ASKING YOU TO BE THE POLICE OF THE INTERNET.

He is asking that people stop going into the comments of topics like this to blame the victims of harassment for said harassment, or trying to cover their own butts by saying that they "aren't jerks on the internet"/"stop talking about this issue, there's noting we can do about it".

There was no call to action, but rather Jim asking people to stop making themselves look bad, while trying to distance themselves form internet harassers.

If you really don't want to be involved in the discussion, then don't get involved.
And if you don't want to deal with this problem, then just don't.

YOU DON'T NEED TO GO OUT TO DEFEND YOURSELF FROM BLAME, OR SAVE THE INTERNET.


IF YOU DO WNAT TO HELP FIGHT AGAINST HARASSMENT IN ANYWAY YOU CAN, MORE POWER TO YA.
JIM ISN'T ASKING YOU TO IN THE VIDEO.


May you have a good day, and a better holiday.

 

[WildFire15]

I still don't get why people have to drag up female developers and make a big deal about them. If they said something incredibly stupid and/or offensive like Phil Fish or Adam Orth, then they'd deserve the scorn they'd get.

No one, anywhere, should be judged purely on their gender, race, skin colour or affiliations. Purely, they should be judged on whether they're an ass hole or not. I hold Matt "Positron" Miller (lead City of Heroes dev) with some respect, but I hold more respect for Melissa "War Witch" Bianco (another CoH dev) because when the Devs did jump onto the European servers for a FAQ session I vaguely recall (years and years ago, around the time City of Villains was released, I think), Posi didn't seem like he felt like taking the time needed to talk to the smaller Euro fan base, which to be honest could be down to a number of reasons but it was still disappointing. Melissa, on the other hand, stayed for as long as she could to answer as many questions as possible and generally gave us plenty of respect, so we gave her it in return.

The whole 'I have it hard', 'they have it easy', 'they shouldn't do that because they're X' or whatever is fucking ridiculous. We're gamers who love games, we should celebrate great games, form reasonable and constructive criticism for bad games (asking a lot there, I know), give respect to those who earn it and call out people for being ass holes, regardless of who they are.

 

[Eamar]

you know, it seems to me that alot of people are missing the point of this video, so let me try to help make it more clear with an analogy

imagine your in high school. your walking down a hallway when you see a group of kids bullying another kid who just recently came out of the closet. they are bullying for being gay. it's mostly verbal bullying (insults, name calling and the like), but you do hear one or two threats of violence that you aren't sure whether the bullies are serious about.
Do you:
A) go tell a teacher or other staff member whats happening, or even try to bring them to where the bullying is happening so they can see for themselves
B) go stand up to the bullies, and maybe even try to get the victim away from them
C) walk by the whole thing because its not your problem, and never think about it again
D) walk by, and then when you overhear the victim talking to his friends about what happened, tell the victim "well what did you expect for being open about your sexuality"

Very nicely put, thumbs up

 

[DrOswald]

The vast majority of the people making these horribly offensive sexist/racist/whatever comments are trolls.

It's nice to think that, and yes, the internet is full of trolls. Unfortunately, by writing off everyone who says something disgusting as a "troll" is a very good way of conveniently brushing the unsavoury characters who actually do hold these beliefs under the rug. It's basically an extension of what Jim was saying, a way of denying their legitimacy and therefore making us all feel better about ourselves and our communities. Trust me, the are PLENTY of people who actually are that hateful and ignorant.

There are two reason why I think that the vast majority are trolls in these cases.

1. While sexism has been a thing in video games for a long time, it is only recently that this level of terrible sexist comments (like "you should be raped") began appearing in such numbers and which such frequency. The pattern is very common - Something is revealed as a big issue that will get a lot of attention and it is latched onto by the trolls. It only stops when people stop giving them the attention they want.

2. In my experience real prejudice is rarely so overt - prejudice tends to be wrapped in justifications and arguments that make the person feel better about their bigotry. These take the form of arguments like "gays don't deserve marriage because it is they are never satisfied with one partner." Basically, you get the occasional Klansman but generally speaking bigotry is insidious - the people who are being bigots don't actually think they are and don't want to accept that they are. This is why "I'm not racist, some of my best friends are black!" has become such a joke.

Basically, I have no way to know for sure if these people are trolls or actual bigots. But, according to my personal experience, they act more like trolls than bigots. And I know that there is virtually no chance that the trolls would not get in on this action even if it was started by genuine bigots. I therefore believe that the majority of these people are trolls

And if what we are concerned with is stopping the harassment then the best thing we can do is discourage the trolls. We can only do this by ignoring them.

In addition, we accomplish nothing by calling out specific instances of overt and disgusting bigotry. Even if these people are not trolls none of them are going to change their opinions because we called them out on it. And even other bigots are disgusted by those comments so our calling them out will not cause these people to reconsider their own position. Bigotry is best combated by addressing the insidious nature of bigotry, not by shouting down the nut jobs.

So, between the very likely possibility of actively causing harm by responding or the less likely possibility of wasting my time and effort if I respond, I have come to the conclusion that it is just best to not respond.

 

[Ninjamedic]

There was no call to action, but rather Jim asking people to stop making themselves look bad, while trying to distance themselves form internet harassers.

If you really don't want to be involved in the discussion, then don't get involved.
And if you don't want to deal with this problem, then just don't.

YOU DON'T NEED TO GO OUT TO DEFEND YOURSELF FROM BLAME, OR SAVE THE INTERNET.

One little problem with that though, he specifically called out people who decide it's not their problem despite knowing there's nothing we can do to realistically combat/silence idiots like this. There is nothing we can do other than just say "Ignore the prats" over and over, that's what happens with a system where anyone can connect to the web and say anything they want to without long term consequence.

Unless someone has a strategy in which case I'd like to hear it.

 

[Mr.Fancy Pants]

Oh Jim. Oh Jim, Jim, Jim.

Don't you see? Harassment is completley part of the wider gamer culture. It's been ingrained since the 80's where you had to conform to the brand your parents bought for you or you were beat up in the school yard. You were allowed to do whatever you wanted and call each other names on the internet and everything was fine. Don't like a game someone else likes? Call them a homophobic slur. Everything is fine online! No one actually gets hurt when you tell the anonymous poster before you "You like Dynasty Warriors? You like rehashes? Heh, kill yourself for having no taste". And the gaming press, oh how they laughed and said "Our readers aren't like that!" and refused to address anything wrong with "Gamer culture". We had PAX! It showed we have normal people in our community!

Gamers, for so long have been told, "harassment is fine, online". And they were allowed to frollic free and troll other people. But now in an age when personal data is used much more on the internet and our real identity is online. Someone is actually being affected by psychopaths who have never been told "No. This is not acceptable" and they can't let go of it. It has to be acceptable! It was acceptable all those years before wasn't it?

No. This isn't a case of just women. Death threats and harassment are somehow widely acceptable within the industry and culture at large. It's festered for so long and cesspits like /v/ and in it's darkest hours, NeoGAF, get away with it for so long because it's "Culture". Yes, harassment, threats, bandwagoning and more are now "Culture" and widely accepted because it's a perfectly reasonable way to show displeasure in their own minds and they are completely entitled to bully and threaten till they get their way or force someone to change their opinion.

Maybe it's time to face facts and that modern gaming "Culture" is a massive stinking pile of horseshit that should be burned to the ground and the earth salted so nothing else can grow whence it came. And plant a better "Culture" elsewhere.

 

[ConanThe3rd]

The case of Anita - See every sensible levey on her productions; Budget doesn't reflect work, plays fast and loose with her evidence, refuses to engage in "conversation" becuase that might mean that her comments would have to be challenged, etc etc so on so forth. If she was male, I'd be saying the exact same thing.

So which one of those justifies rape threats, death threats, etc?

I shouldn't even have t touch the bit about how the comments being closed off only came after the threats, but it seems I'm probably going to have to, so I'll bring it up now as to not surprise you.

If she was male, that wouldn't have raised ire, so we wouldn't be having this discussion. But pretend all things are equal appears to be par for the course.

If she was male, her work would have been discredited and we'd have been done with the whole stupid affair.

And let me be perfectly clear here, no one deserves to be threatened to/be assaulted, called a *****, whore, slut etc etc etc, or anything of the sort.

However, that does not absolve her of her responsibilities to represent her arguments properly; when there's a game that had both a female and male protagonist only for the focused to be shifted slightly, that is what you report and not "This game had a female protagonist and because patriarchy, a male protagonist became the only one" amongst other things that are her fault.

She has fault in this, end of. Doesn't mean she should be drug out of the street and beaten and/or sexualy assulted for it (or be threatened as much). Just that this is very much a two way street that we're dealing with.

And before you think about it. If her videos were properly researched, properly commented on and made points that were actauly on point (there is problems in this industry but wagging your finger and spouting half truths isn't going to fix diddly damn squat) then I'd have no qualm. Infact I would probably even go "Look guy, she has a point."

3. Her art is bad.

Actually, dumb question, was that supposed to be a gender swapped Beck or just her in a Beck costume, cuz that is more akin to what probably was going on there (and is something that Japanese staff on things will do, draw themselves as characters).

No, it was not supposed to be her as the character. It was drawn a few weeks before she got the job and she specifically said that she thinks that Beck should be a woman (because we need more strong female characters in video games) and this is her take on what that would look like. In addition, it looks nothing like her (for example, different hair color and style.)

Oh. Right. Then that also counts in the stoking the fires thing she was doing then. Nothing will get the Megaman community at your throat quicker than Bad Art Megamen.

Sometimes there is cause to effect. Doesn't make the Effect any less shitty, just that there was gas on the fire before it blew up.

 

[Vegosiux]

Your slippery slope is showing. However, since our motives are already impugned (see above), I'm not particularly seeing it as an eventuality. I'm seeing it as a reality. I also think it's a touch of false equivalence, but whatever.

It was a bit of a hyperbole. My point was mostly that guessing at motives isn't the best way to go about it, but assuming motives is exactly what everyone keeps doing in order to discredit the other party before even addressing them. That needs to stop.

Especially people who go against their own self interests.

When your self interests are conflicting, you'll have to go against some of them. Take me for example. You think being accused of "tacitly supporting acts most vile" is my own self interest? Is it in your self-interest to be told that by addressing the trolls in outrage you're giving them exactly what they want?

Except you're not isolating them, you're providing tacit consent for their actions while they continue them. You can't lock them away, especially on the internet, without a rather severe overhaul in the way things are done. They will be heard, and you're not stopping them by "not feeding them."

Well, naturally it would take the collective effort of the entire community to isolate them, I can't do it on my own. I do wish such a consensus was established, that's why I'm pushing for it - they don't deserve our attention, so why are we giving them it?

Basically, I have a different idea than you have on achieving the same goal as you (not referring to you specifically here), and that somehow makes me your adversary. Or rather, the trolls are your adversary, but I'm your enemy. When did this turn into politics? >.>

This all looks like nothing more than rationalisation.

Well, it's not. I'd know. But as long as you're (not you specifically) going to go into the discussion assuming that I've got a hidden agenda somewhere, and that I'm not saying what I'm saying in good faith there's simply nothing I can do other than saying you're wrong and having it fall on deaf ears. There's always another assumption you can make, true or not, but you're the one responsible for those assumptions, not me.

We've gotten where we are through the "don't feed the trolls" mentality, and that's the problem in the first place.

I don't think we ever came close to having that mentality gain enough momentum to show results, actually. The problem as I see is that not enough people seem capable of building that wall.

On the other hand, the entire "calling them out on their shit" thing doesn't seem to be making them any less active, either.

I hope we can at least agree that supporting those who get harassed is what really needs to be done. And somehow I feel they're the ones that should be getting more attention than the harassers. As long as they make valid points and stuff - like this entire "Depression Quest" thing; that needs to be green-lighted and all, because it's a really good game, as depressing as it can be. Not perfect, but it and its author both deserve support.

Captcha: mend fences
Yeah I'd love to do that. Got my hammer and nails right here; but I need someone to bring a few planks.

 

[JimB]

I am far enough removed from gaming as a hobby that this is the first I've heard of this controversy. Thank you for exposing it to me, Mr. Sterling.

And now the inevitable fight.

While we are at the subject of blaming all male gamers for what a very small minority did[snip]

Mr. Sterling did not do that. At no point in the video does the word "male," nor any synonym of it, appear. He blamed the gaming community collectively, male and female and whatever shades and variations thereupon. You are the only one who is blaming male gamers, shepardjhon. Please stop blaming others for the accusations being made by no one but your own conscience.

And what are you saying, no one is telling the harassers off?

He did not say that, either. Once again, that is your argument that you are attributing to him. He referred specifically to people who choose not to support the victim. He did not say no one is supporting her.

You want a written apology every time some idiot who happens to be my demographic does this shit?

That is a third thing he did not say. At this point, I can't tell if you're making honest mistakes or if you're deliberately misrepresenting his statements in order to feed some need to generate artificial outrage.

 

[Raioken18]

I do feel bad that a large part of the gaming community is like that. But I don't really know what to do as an individual to stop those sort of comments, or to at least let the people making those comments know it's not ok.

Having been into FPS RTS and more recently Rust, I sometimes (but not always) call people out for using racial and sexist slurs. But it's just such a bigger problem than me and I don't really want to be thrown in with those groups of people when others talk of a stereotypical gamer. Rust especially has let me know that gamers in general are willing to use every sexist or racial slur under the sun to troll someone and that using a mic people feel gives them anonymity because it isn't recorded as part of a chat log.

I still feel bad for my old guild in WoW where we had the same situation, our second in command was this girl who was constantly abused by people who raided with us and random guild members. So despite knowing more of the mechanics for raids than anyone else in our guild she seldom talked because she'd instantly get a barrage of sexist comments.

Don't even let me get started on CoD matches.

But, what is the solution? If we couldn't create a safe atmosphere within a group of 25 people who had a direct affiliation to our guild's raiding party... how do you tackle the larger problem?

 

[JimB]

I don't really know what to do as an individual to stop those sort of comments, or to at least let the people making those comments know it's not okay.

Say so. Humans are social animals, and we fear ostracism, being ejected from the pack. Express your disapproval, and it will be a pressure--perhaps a small one, perhaps larger--on that fear, that desire to conform to the rest of the social unit.

 

[Charli]

Remember everyone, when Phil Fish or Cliffy B or Jim Sterling gets harassed it's Phil Fish or Cliffy B or Jim Sterling getting harassed.

When Anita or Zoe or whoever gets harassed it's "women" being harassed.

Because reasons.

Yeah well here's the thing. I doubt Cliffy B, Phil Fish or Jim Sterling ever got harassed because they were men.

i don't know about Zoe, but what I read about Anita was far overblown. There was really moronic and insulting posts, but reality is that valid criticism of her work, which is bellow poor by any standard, is thrown on the same pile and that is just disgusting. It's politic of no criticism allowed and that is something NOBODY with the right mind should support.

captcha is "no means no". Cute

What you and several others are seemingly assuming is that the women in these circumstances DID NOT take the rational arguments and criticisms of their work on board.
But that is a complete non-issue... People should not be calling them depraved sluts or asking them to return to the kitchen, I don't care what personal affront their existence is to these people. It is not fucking alright. And that's the root of the issue. What you're doing here is derailing that argument to go 'yeah but yeah but yeah but' .

YES. BUT. We get it. And yes ordinarily those circumstances would be processed quietly and professionally without issue. And do not need exploring or investigation under the umbrella of protecting filthy behaviour like this.
Legitimate critique will ALWAYS get through to the developer/creator one way or another. It is their choice to act on it. Sadly it is not up to the critic to take measures into their own hand and violently demand it be taken.

I like to assume that we as gamers ARE better than this. And Jim is right we need to show a more united front against this kind of wanton circle jerk attacks. Otherwise those 'more women in the video game industry' questions have answered themselves. Why aren't there more? Because the level of FEAR is stifling.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

There was no call to action, but rather Jim asking people to stop making themselves look bad, while trying to distance themselves form internet harassers.

If you really don't want to be involved in the discussion, then don't get involved.
And if you don't want to deal with this problem, then just don't.

YOU DON'T NEED TO GO OUT TO DEFEND YOURSELF FROM BLAME, OR SAVE THE INTERNET.

One little problem with that though, he specifically called out people who decide it's not their problem despite knowing there's nothing we can do to realistically combat/silence idiots like this. There is nothing we can do other than just say "Ignore the prats" over and over, that's what happens with a system where anyone can connect to the web and say anything they want to without long term consequence.

Unless someone has a strategy in which case I'd like to hear it.

There are a few more things that can be done than just ignoring this, if one were so inclined to do so.

We could call out harassment when we see it, or spread the word about incidents of harassment.
The second can not only help get those being harassed some support, but also can show that we in the community don't condone such behavior.

For more "long-term" help, we can give support to those harassed. This could be some funding, in this kind of case; spreading the word about the project, or just a positive comment of support.

We could also work to get more defined policies made on internet interactions. More "long-Term" consequences for extremely bad behavior.
Being able to say whatever you want, without ANY consequences is not how free speech is suppose to work.

Other than that, as long as you aren't harassing people yourself, you don't really have to do that much more at all.
Though, it would be wired to then complain about people talking about the problem.

And that's what the video was about. People possibly not doing anything to continue or stop the problem, but complaining about people talking about the problem still existing.

There are things that can be done, no matter how small they may seem. And if people just don't want to get involved, as Jim said in the video, that's fine.
But people going around saying they don't want to get involved, and asking people to shut up/ignore the problem are "doing it wrong".

 

[Ipsen]

Bullshit. I have no relation to the harassers. Gaming is a worldwide hobby now and the idea that we are a single community is absolutely nuts. I don't even consider myself a part of certain communities within the games that I play.

And have you looked at Greenlight lately? Any crappy browser game or mobile port on there gets tons of flak. No, they shouldn't have made her gender part of the criticism, but the game would have been ridiculed either way.

Bullshit on your bullshit.

You have relation to harassers, simply for the fact of them being present and you acknowledging them. Really, what's stopping harassers from 4chan, or youtube, or IGN, from coming to, and affecting the 'Escapist Community'? What's stopping the reciprocal (besides personal preference)?

There's no 'gate' to bar all the vitriol another 'community' can bring to another. At least, the 'personality' of a site serves no hindrance to it. Speaking on terms of real people treating other real people, this might as well be one community. You're just simply comparing yourself to others at any level, then claiming yourself disparate.

And that's okay to do, but realize that's hermit mentality; you don't validate your claims by posting this, a forum not only open to this community, but every community.

Bullshit on your bullshit on my bullshit.

I'm not comparing myself to anyone, just saying that they have nothing to do with me. I have as much to do with the harassers by being a game as I do with the white nationalists at stormfront by being a white guy. We are linked by being part of the same huge group of people, but that's too big of a group to be called a real community.

I'm guessing you're putting this in terms of playing games (you're not too clear in your second sentence), in which that works, but this situation? Real people problems. Taking sides isn't necessary, but if you're going to speak up in the midst of the debate, you're liable to do it anyway (and that doesn't mean one side for or against, but even that doesn't make it any more right).

And I'm not one to consider this site, or any forum-format discussion site a 'community'. Hence, I lump them all together, for why does it matter? We just tend to lack any noticable separation (at least in my eyes) in tone or attitude these days. 'Forum culture' is carved by the forum rules their moderators set, if you will. That's it.

But again, you don't really fufill your goal of extracting yourself from the discussion by saying 'Look at me![footnote]This is just inherent of posting on a forum in general.[/footnote] I have nothing to do with the situation at hand!' Silence says that perfectly.




I wonder if we could all just be potentially virulent assholes when games are concerned, but dial in some fucking respect when we get to personal offense.

Ah, but where is that line drawn?

 

[jmarquiso]

Could we do a metroid with this. As in, create a game that blows everyones mind then release then end credits 1 month later and reveal it was developed exclusively by women.

Robin Hunicke - producer of Journey.

Kim Swift - A member of the original team the developed Narbacular Drop, she and the rest of the team were hired on at valve and are the individuals primarily responsible for Portal. She also played a leading role in design on Left for Dead and Left for Dead 2.

Amy Henning - Head writer and creative director for the Uncharted series. Team lead for Uncharted 2. I don't know if she was team lead for Uncharted 3.

Roberta Williams - Co-founder of Sierra Entertainment and creator the the Kings Quest series.

There are some examples for you.

Halo 4 - by 343, who's CEO is a woman (Kiki Wolfkill) one of the lead programmers (Corinne Yu) was a woman (and now went to Naughty Dog).

As for Journey - you also forgot former thatgamecompany president Kellee Santiago, who now shepardds Indie outreach for the OUYA (a console conceived and produced by a woman)

Classic Arcade game Centipede - Donna Baily

Ubisoft Montreal head - Jade Raymond, responsible for sheparding Assassin's Creed (though not the creator).

Head of Microsoft Hardware division Julie Larson-Green - you know - the woman in charge of the Xbox, basically.

Of course what's going to happen now is all the trolls are going to go - "See, women are making games despite harassment, the problem is actually really small!" When it's obvious that these are exceptions, and every single one of these women faced some sort of harassment from gamers at some point in their careers.

 

[jmarquiso]

Remember everyone, when Phil Fish or Cliffy B or Jim Sterling gets harassed it's Phil Fish or Cliffy B or Jim Sterling getting harassed.

When Anita or Zoe or whoever gets harassed it's "women" being harassed.

Because reasons.

Yeah well here's the thing. I doubt Cliffy B, Phil Fish or Jim Sterling ever got harassed because they were men.

Yep.

CliffyB was harassed for being an MS mouthpiece and saying stuff on his blog, but not because he was a man.

Phil Fish was harassed for quotes taken out of context and being pretty abraisive online.

Jim Sterling was actually harassed for being transphobic online - one of the events that Sterling talks about as part of where he started changing his attitude.

 

[Captain Sappy]

For the first time watching any Jimquisition video, I'm honestly not sure where I stand on this issue. It seems almost like a no-win situation. Your choices seem to be, one, call out the people for their harassment and comments, which either does not change their minds or actively feeds the trolls. Or two, you ignore them entirely, but arguably are silently encouraging them by NOT protesting, by just letting them go about their business. Yes, I'm aware that not all the people committing these harassments are trolls, plenty of people really ARE that bigoted and ignorant. But with how everyone is anonymous on the internet, it blurs the line between them.

 

[The Great JT]

The erection I had when I saw Zelda Dynasty Warriors could have put the Hubble Space Telescope out of orbit.

As for the topic at hand, yes, the misogyny that's being thrown at Depression Quest's dev (I am SO sorry I couldn't remember the name, my brain is currently infected with the dreaded terminal disease known as "the dumb") is abhorrent and needs to be called out for what it is. Likewise, being told "have a thicker skin" pisses me RIGHT THE HELL OFF because it's akin to saying "boys will be boys" when Billy is bullying Mikey. Have a thicker skin? How about "don't be a misogynistic asshole!"

 

[Laurie Barnes]

Who else didn't even know this was a thing until they watched this video. Please tell me it's not just me.

Personally I think the problem is that the people propagating this BS just don't have any friends. LOL IKR?

Seriously though, as social creatures human beings need the guidance of others to conduct themselves in an acceptable manner. Take away that social safeguard and then grant anonymity and you basically have the toxic pieces of crap who get up to this sort of thing.

People are always complaining about how there is no anonymity anymore, but I don't think it's a bad thing, after all it is the first step to solving this problem when the ones responsible can be identified and forced to leave a record of their misdeeds online under their own name.

LJB