Somebody Explain Anonymous to me

[Vern5]

There seems to be a lot of disagreement about what Anonymous (the hackers) is and how they function. It is this discrepancy that becomes really bothersome as one is trying to track their movements through the news and the forums. For example, when the Sony incident occurred, a lot of people became upset that Anonymous had a rogue element suddenly stealing credit card information and causing problems for thousands of PSN users. Implications of rogue elements within a completely discreet organization suggests that Anonymous is not a typical organization with an established or official group membership. Yet people still argue over its composition.

This is where the Escapists come in. I don't know the full story behind Anonymous so I'm going to need all of you to fill in the blanks and see if we can't come to some kind of consensus on how Anonymous functions.

So, the way I see it Anonymous seems to be a cell organization, with each cell being comprised of a single hacker. These "members" have no official affiliation or complete recognition of each other due to the anonymous nature of Anonymous. Each member acts independently and only engages in activity when a message has been posted on their hub-site calling for a "mission", as it were. It reminds me a lot of Uplink in that regard; hackers acting on their own until drawn to action by a message.

Based on this cell organization would it be safe to assume that Anonymous has no official codes of conduct for its members? Also would it be safe to assume that Anonymous is not a standing army of hackers but, instead, a loose affiliation of hacking mercenaries popping in now and then to pursue whatever is posted in the Anonymous hub?

 

[Jonluw]

Seems to me like you already understand it...

I do think they have some semi-official codes of conduct, such as fighting only for causes they see as just. No trying to profit from it.

Or at least so I think.

 

[BGH122]

Basically, Anonymous is whatever you want it to be. Want to fight corporations that you personally consider evil? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to DDoS companies to tell your friends at school what a 1337 h4xx0r you are because you can both download LOIC and type in an IP? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to sit around on IRC chatting to other people and posting images to pictureboards? There's an Anonymous for that.

It isn't an organisation, it's a collective. Specific 'operations' are brought up from time to time if they get enough attention to actually do some damage, but that's typically just because someone has managed to rally enough people to a particular raid. Everything is fair game since there's no leadership to officially decide what is or isn't fair game. It just so happens that more people are interested in doing things that are 'chaotic good' than trolling for the sake of it.

 

[bdcjacko]

Anonymous seems to be completely Anonymous with no one in charge, so yeah, it is just a loose affiliation on hackers.

 

[bdcjacko]

Anonymous is basically a very LOOSE group of hackers who delight in being pricks to everyone else. They've begun in-fighting, as groups such as their's always do, and will soon fall apart. Either that, or the FBI kicks in their door and no one sees them again.

This implies people have seen them before and they have left their mom's basements.


*I kid, I know they don't all live in the basements at their mom's. Some rent the attic from their dad.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Anonymous is a group of people on the net who say they're Anonymous. They do things for teh lulz, whether it be abuse people or companies. Before they were in the public eye, they did random attacks for no reason other than having fun, but recently, their attacks have had purpose, but this change has not affected at all the fact that there attacks are brutal, and people are never happy to be attacked by them.

At least, the hacker side of them.

Anonymous' main activities is just trolling or generally talking. Why? Because if you say "I'm a member of Anonymous" you are now a member of Anonymous, unless you sacrifice your anonymity, in which case your doing it wrong.

They have no rules or official position on anything but lulz. They do hate Animal Abuse though. That much has shown that they will plough the internet to find those hurting animals and hand them over to proper authorities, and those who are post CP.

Oh and one more thing, they aren't mercenaries. Can't stress that enough. You go to their websites and ask for help, you'll get a lot of people saying that they aren't your personal army.

Calumon: They look silly. :3

 

[FalloutJack]

Well basically...picture a bunch of guys who read V For Vendetta and liked Alan Moore's take on the anarchist. Then...realize that they were never really suited to take this role themselves, because they are not like the man in the Guy Fawkes mask at all. To be honest, I could only see them misusing what they've got going for them, because they're only human. And look what's happened. Somebody went off half-cocked and screwed it up for them.

 

[Sabinfrost]

Anonymous is what would happen if a large percentage of this forum decided to all send an excessive amount of hate mail to someone over an issue and call it activism. They just do it with denial of service and in the case of a few slightly more skilled individuals among the masses, hacking net coding.

 

[AzzA-D]

This is the best description Ive ever seen of anonymous (credit to Devils Due, from a long time ago):

Anonymous is like a collective group of ideals and morals merged into one. To give an idea, lets use an example of say, a mob. This mob has hundreds of random people mashed up together, milling about doing absolutely nothing. Suddenly, someone wants to move, and they shout "Hey, let's move over to the next street!" Suddenly, the mob begins to do this due to not having anything else to do to occupy itself, or it feels like it should morally move there, for whatever reason. Along the way, lets say there's some obstructions, such as trash cans. No one has to shout "move the trash cans," because when they reach it, the closest members already begin to move it without thought. They do this mainly because of "the group is more important than the individual" mentality.

But along the way, there are some that shout "lets kick some trash cans along the way to the street!" Suddenly some begin to kick trash cans just because they can, or because it amuses them, while the rest continue on to the street.

It's a unified mass that has no leader, that has no goals, but is a collective. One thought is passed around, and should anyone believe it's a worthwhile thought, then they'll commit to it and soon it gives them a reason and objective to complete. So for the one that posted the open letter is one of the people that has to "move the trash can" along the way, as it is a necessity for the overall goal they're working on.

Mob mentality (for the lulz).

 

[zehydra]

Basically, Anonymous is whatever you want it to be. Want to fight corporations that you personally consider evil? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to DDoS companies to tell your friends at school what a 1337 h4xx0r you are because you can both download LOIC and type in an IP? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to sit around on IRC chatting to other people and posting images to pictureboards? There's an Anonymous for that.

It isn't an organisation, it's a collective. Specific 'operations' are brought up from time to time if they get enough attention to actually do some damage, but that's typically just because someone has managed to rally enough people to a particular raid. Everything is fair game since there's no leadership to officially decide what is or isn't fair game. It just so happens that more people are interested in doing things that are 'chaotic good' than trolling for the sake of it.

OP pay attention to this person's post! This is correct!

 

[JasonKaotic]

This will explain it better than anything else, really. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)]

Well, the guy the last poster quoted is right too.

 

[mcnally86]

To my understanding every time they say on the news "anonymous did it" its like saying "someone with a computer did it." Its an extremely general term look up the definition. Akin to saying "bad guys did it".
Perhaps it would be closer to say "pirates did it" because when you say pirates you think water and when you say Anon you think internets. In the end its sometimes hard to tell a pirate from a sailor enjoying the freedom of international water and an anonymous from someone who posts opinions on forums.

"How far do you have to sail out before you watch have a monkey knife fight?"

 

[Legendsmith]

Based on this cell organization would it be safe to assume that Anonymous has no official codes of conduct for its members? Also would it be safe to assume that Anonymous is not a standing army of hackers but, instead, a loose affiliation of hacking mercenaries popping in now and then to pursue whatever is posted in the Anonymous hub?

You've pretty much got it, except that there are multiple "hubs" and not all of them are hackers. Many just use programs and scripts made by other anon hackers, usually for specific 'missions.'

I'm surprised actually, I see a lot of people who are really misinformed about anon around here, but you seem to have got it in one.

 

[Blade Chunk]

What are they? Little kids who seem to think because they can exploit a computer they are they champions of the little guy.

How do they act? Take any pathetic Tony Hawk game, where da man is evil and trying to shut down skate boarding and fun, cause you know there are not real problems. Now picture the loser main character trying to take on armed soldiers and tanks by grinding them with their skateboard.

Add in the kid power three ninja's movies now wrap those up and picture a loser hacker who thinks he's that cool when he's really just being a douche to millions of people. But that's what they do... like a Anon forum troll they can shut down your ATM and run away giggling.

Someone said before, they are dangerous, stupid dangerous as in their action in time will give the Government more than enough reason to crack down on the net and kill it's neutrality.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Think of a big group of a bunch of people who don't know each other and who all have different goals. The only thing that they all have in common is that they consider themselves to be part of this group called Anonymous.

There, that's pretty much Anonymous is. There is no leadership, there is no central direction, no overall code of conduct, no group-mind. It's a bunch of different groups and people claiming to be part of Anonymous when they pull off whatever they want. And not one of them is wrong, because that's what Anonymous is, just a big anarchic group that is willing to do whatever, even consume itself.

 

[BGH122]

Basically, Anonymous is whatever you want it to be. Want to fight corporations that you personally consider evil? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to DDoS companies to tell your friends at school what a 1337 h4xx0r you are because you can both download LOIC and type in an IP? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to sit around on IRC chatting to other people and posting images to pictureboards? There's an Anonymous for that.

It isn't an organisation, it's a collective. Specific 'operations' are brought up from time to time if they get enough attention to actually do some damage, but that's typically just because someone has managed to rally enough people to a particular raid. Everything is fair game since there's no leadership to officially decide what is or isn't fair game. It just so happens that more people are interested in doing things that are 'chaotic good' than trolling for the sake of it.

OP pay attention to this person's post! This is correct!

Plus I have the most Anonymous avatar in the world.

 

[Popido]

1 hour rant.

 

[gigastrike]

Basically, Anonymous is whatever you want it to be. Want to fight corporations that you personally consider evil? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to DDoS companies to tell your friends at school what a 1337 h4xx0r you are because you can both download LOIC and type in an IP? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to sit around on IRC chatting to other people and posting images to pictureboards? There's an Anonymous for that.

It isn't an organisation, it's a collective. Specific 'operations' are brought up from time to time if they get enough attention to actually do some damage, but that's typically just because someone has managed to rally enough people to a particular raid. Everything is fair game since there's no leadership to officially decide what is or isn't fair game. It just so happens that more people are interested in doing things that are 'chaotic good' than trolling for the sake of it.

OP pay attention to this person's post! This is correct!

Plus I have the most Anonymous avatar in the world.

Just about. All you need is a question mark in there somewhere.

 

[BGH122]

Basically, Anonymous is whatever you want it to be. Want to fight corporations that you personally consider evil? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to DDoS companies to tell your friends at school what a 1337 h4xx0r you are because you can both download LOIC and type in an IP? There's an Anonymous for that. Want to sit around on IRC chatting to other people and posting images to pictureboards? There's an Anonymous for that.

It isn't an organisation, it's a collective. Specific 'operations' are brought up from time to time if they get enough attention to actually do some damage, but that's typically just because someone has managed to rally enough people to a particular raid. Everything is fair game since there's no leadership to officially decide what is or isn't fair game. It just so happens that more people are interested in doing things that are 'chaotic good' than trolling for the sake of it.

OP pay attention to this person's post! This is correct!

Plus I have the most Anonymous avatar in the world.

Just about. All you need is a question mark in there somewhere.

Fixed and framed for ya.

 

[Judgement101]

I thought they were just a group of people who enjoy hacking, they can't be THAT sinister.