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Originally Posted by VINMAN
In a bit of an offshoot to the adult conversation thread...
Has the ability to be totally anonymous online, given people the ability to be complete a-holes and just vile humans in general?
You see it on forums, YouTube comments, etc.... They know the chances of repercussion is 99.9% negative. Hence, where your anonymity is basically not allowed, you tend to see pretty positive and friendly interactions.
I see comments by people that, if you would say to someone in real life, you would get your face kicked in without a second thought. Typical pussy keyboard warrior stuff.
I have a friend of mine that is on the same boating related forum. He is probably one of the nicest people you can meet. Would do anything for anyone. When he gets on the forum he turns into Jekyl and Hyde. A total d-bag. Us who know who he is, are like WTF? When confronted, he says he just likes to get a rise out of some people, but who knows.
One of my online rules is, I wont say anything online that I would't say to you face to face.
But, then again depending on the platform, I don't hide who I am online. No need to be secretive about it, especially on Pelican. Iv'e met plenty of fellow Pelicans in real life. They know my name, where I live, ( a couple have been to my home..) Where I work, some have my phone number#. Ive been to their home, etc, etc... So I tend to be pretty cordial for the most part.
I just see it getting worse and worse.
This place is not exempt unfortunately....
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Agreed, Vinny. IMO, though, PP is generally much more civil and orders of magnitude more helpful than many/most other forums or platforms.
Only thing I'd add is that while many of us wouldn't post anything online that we wouldn't be willing to say face-to-face, I fear that way of thinking may be on its way to extinction. When I think of how so many people have grown up as digital natives --- most/all interactions mediated by screens of some kind, not what I'd view as truly interpersonal -- I see that behavior change. You, I, and many others here apply our standards of in-person courtesy to our online behavior. I increasingly see so many others, however, do the opposite -- they apply their (generally fairly low) standards of online behavior to in-person interactions; the recent explosion of 'Karens' comes to mind. Truly sad, and I don't see it getting any better.