Blogging is about communication.  And communication can bring out the best and the worst in people, especially in the so-called anonymity of being online.  In this scenario, bullies can appear to flourish.

My sister (never one for thinking before she speaks) has got herself involved in a bit of a flame war, with a guy well-known for using bullying tactics.

The result is that, not only has she been verbally abused, she has been openly threatened (and although I know that’s a strong word to use, I have seen the evidence).

Evidently, one loud-mouthed MMO ‘guru’ didn’t like her questioning his tactics.  So now he is saying he can affect her online income if he chooses to do so.

He has been quite specific too.  Without ever saying he will do this, of course.  The guy isn’t quite the dickhead he comes across as.

My advise to her has to be "Shut the fuck up.  This guy is an arrogant bully, who obviously gets a hardon from bullying people.  Arguing with him isn’t worth the effort."

I’ll admit that thoughts of self-preservation are high on my list here, as I share hosting and sites with my sister and have a family to feed from the proceeds.

Perhaps some serious ass licking is in order.

Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure my sister will not listen to me.  She hates bullies as much as I do.  And, although both of us need to protect our online income, whereas my answer is to keep my head down, hers is to fight back, guns blazing.  She even has an avatar for this!

The guy in question says he is pretty powerful.  I see no reason to question that.

In fact, cowardly as it may seem, I see no reason to question anyone online.  It’s just not worth it.  And the only time I did, it came back to bite both me and my sister in the ass.  She has never let me forget it, telling me to STFU.

Nevertheless, this ‘rule’ does not appear to apply to her.

My sister believes in questioning people for all their motives.  I’ve told her many times she should set up a site for this. 

Of course, that would depend on whether she has any hosting left after the bully has finished with her…

Arguing with an online bully never turns out well.  There are no winners.  Each ’side’ thinks they are in the right and cannot be persuaded otherwise.  Because the bully is more powerful, he usually ‘wins’ – at least in his eyes.  But I’m not so sure he really does.

Online bullying is usually dominated by men.  Perhaps it’s a ‘male ego’ thing?  Or just that it makes them feel hard, taking pot shots at the opposition?  Perhaps they even jerk off while thinking about how they ‘hit their target’?

I’ll go back to building my adult sites now, and hope not to get hit by the shrapnel as my sister goes into battle against the bully.

But if this site goes down, you may well assume it was taken down when it became an unwitting victim of bullying online.

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Something I really cannot stand is an idiot. 

By ‘idiot’ I do not (necessarily) mean someone with a low IQ (after all, IQ assessment relies on many factors which are relevant only to corresponding factors).  I mean someone who has no real understanding of a situation, or topic, but who insists, not only in loudly asserting their thoughts on the matter, but then ridiculing anyone who disagrees with them.

You will find the idiot (or usually a bunch of idiots) on every forum on the Internet.  In fact, there are many forums composed entirely of idiots.

From my own experience, the best way to deal with an idiot is to ignore him or her.  But sometimes that is a very difficult thing to do.

A good forum can be ruined by a bunch of idiots.  They bully other members into submission and those who refuse to submit are hounded and ridiculed, until they give up the fight and leave the forum.

The result is that the intelligent forum members move on, either out of choice or because they are hounded out.  Then the forum becomes an idiots’ playground, thus eventually leading to its own destruction.

I have left many a forum because of idiots.  Sometimes no one notices I have gone.  I have read the forum threads, watched the games being played, and moved on without comment.

At other times, I have become involved in forum arguments.  This is never a good thing.  The only ‘winner’ is the idiot.  But only in his eyes, because really there are no winners of an argument happening in hyperspace (unless it is something more sinister, but that is a whole other subject…).

All you are doing when you argue with an idiot online is wasting your precious time. 

You cannot reason with an idiot.  Idiots see things in black and white (if they bother to look at things at all).  Accepting no ’shades of grey’ means leaving no room for compromise and, in any case, to do so, in the idiot’s terms, would mean loss of face.

Why this post?

Well, I have just decided to give up entirely on another forum because of increasing  ‘idiot rule’, which is a shame, because this particular forum was once upon a time a treasure trove of friendly help and advice.  Nowadays, it is being rapidly taken over by bullying idiots.

Why bother wasting my time staying around to fight for something which isn’t mine anyhow?  It’s just a forum.

I guess as times get harder economically, many business forums will suffer the same fate.  People get frustrated.  Their tempers are short.  They bicker and fight.

It’s sad, but bickerng and bullying appear to be coming an increasingly evident part of life.

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