Since this is a factual question, it may need to be moved to the GQ forum. My apologies, if so.
Just curious. With the number of ruffled feathers throughout the forums and vitriol that ends up in the BBQ Pit, it would seem that someone in the past had to have gotten so pissed off at someone that they figured out how to find them IRL and tracked them down.
I remember reading several years ago about a guy (an enlisted guy on leave IIRC) on some message board that got so enraged at another poster that he announced on the board that he was leaving Virginia (his home state) and traveling to Texas (the location of another poster he was angry with). At each state line he would take a picture of himself and post it to the forum. When he made it to Waco, Tx he set the other poster’s house on fire. The board got shut down temporarily while the FBI investigated. The arsonist was arrested and convicted.
All I can provide is that I heard that story or one a lot like it. More than one, as I recall.
The opportunies surely exist at Dope Fests and if you’re known to have abused somebody who might show up at one, you’d best go armed. However, the ones I have attended have been calm and friendly. Maybe assholes stay away from such events?
See, I feel like Dopers would be the type to make a plan, then think about the effort and travel expenses, etc., that it would take to actually carry out said plan, then think “fuck it, it’s not worth it,” and have a beer instead.
Heck, there are any number of Dopers I consider to be total scumbags who I’ve had a few beers with over the years. Of course, most of them were Moderators.
There was a Dopefest that didn’t happen once, because the person who started the thread is pretty universally disliked, started putting conditions on how things would be done (incluing how the dinner bill would be split), and started dis-inviting Dopers who expressed interest in attending, because he didn’t like them. There were some threats made.
Still, people chose to stay home rather than get together and rumble. We are a smarter bunch than most.
Conceptually, I’m fascinated by the very idea that someone you’ve never met could type something so inflammatory that one would exert the energy to get off one’s ass, drive/walk/run/take a bus, and expend cash to talk shit to someone’s face (or slap them in it). Personally, I think it’s hilarious, and I would relentlessly mock an internet tough guy for doing so.
(From a distance, of course, because any mofo that crazy isn’t going to have a sense of humor.)
I dunno. For those interested, there are professionals out there to handle your online beat-down needs (but apparently only on a consultancy basis as requested by the recipient).
(The link is to a downloaded HTML page snapshot of a real eBay auction from about 10 years ago, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks - the first real laugh I had after that terrible day)
