On a work call, tons of volunteers, men (boys) get on the call and start shouting the nword. Over and over and over. It lasted no more than 5 seconds, then I hung up the call.
I did have a passcode but I did not have the extra authentification. You bet your ass it is turned on now.
I knew this was a big thing during Covid but I hadn’t heard much about it lately so I wasn’t as vigilant as I could be.
It totally isn’t my fault and yet I am upset. It is the fault of terrible people.
Why are people so terrible?
Sorry this happened to you. But it’s good to see you back here.
Just happened last month to our author’s reading group. Assholes with nothing better to do came in posting porn links in the chat and shouting out whoever was trying to read their work in progress. I felt the same way you describe.
I came back for comfort. I knew I’d feel better here. Thanks Ahunter3 and Little_Nemo.
Hey. Nice to see you.
Yeah, that bites (although on a different axis, it is nice to see you again!). Just remember that the pustules in question aren’t personally targeting you or your meeting, and probably don’t even know what it was.
They’re merely a bunch of immature assholes jumping at random opportunities to pick on marginalized groups in particular, because their nasty little psyches enjoy the attention they get. It’s certainly more attention than they’ll ever earn for anything positive about themselves.
So shutting them down, venting, resenting, and getting help to cope with the consequences of their abuse are all completely justifiable ways to deal with the situation. That said, if you ever have any ambition to lay some fully deserved consequences on their horrible racist asses in a similar situation, this institutional procedure for zoombombing management contains a lot of good ideas.
Even just calmly saying (or cutting&pasting into chat) “You are being recorded to document your illegal behavior, your photographs and Zoom connection information will be shared with law enforcement, and your identities in connection with these actions will be made known to your employers and communities” can be quite cathartic as you watch the little pussywillows run away.
Insecurity, boredom, and fear of ‘missing out’ on being part of the group, mostly.
Good to see you again, ‘Mika.
Stranger
Good to see you.
Sad, so many jerks out there that would consider something like this fun.
I still lurk. I have pulled back so far from social media that I am practically in the next county. Even this place is rougher than it used to be. But I still like to look in now and then.
How does this happen? I thought that any given Zoom meeting was only accessible by invitation with the correct code? Are people cracking the code, or socially engineering an invite or what?
Hi!! I had no idea that crap was still happening on zoom, and I’m sorry it happened to you. But it’s good to see you here!
I’m so sorry that happened to you. And I’m so glad you came back to talk about it. That kind of hate is seriously shocking when you encounter it. We all see signs, small and large, of institutional racism in our daily lives. But seeing a human being consumed with baseless, unfounded hate is a whole other experience. It changes your view of people.
The key to getting through it for me is not unlike the advice that Mr. Roger’s mother gave him when viewing tragedy on the TV news. She said “Look for the helpers, there are always people helping.” Likewise, we have to look for the anti-racists, the constructive people in our lives, the kindness that surrounds us, even in strangers. That’s how you realize that you just encountered a loud minority, not the human majority.
And that is what gets me through.
hth
Hi, apparently they use algorithms to guess random password strings. There is another level of security I have enabled on our zoom account since yesterday.
Thanks Trucelt. Sometimes it’s hard to remember the kind people.
staples Anaamika to the board so she can never go away n’more What TruCelt said : people suck, but they can also be kind of awesome. My brother has to run an occasional Zoom meeting, and he’s run into this junk too. It seems to happen less than it used to so there’s that. Welcome home.
I can only hope that somewhere, in a universe that is billions of years old, there are truly advanced species that are better than us. 
ow. but appreciated. 
Welcome back! The less said of the turds ruining your day and as many other zooms as they could bomb the better.
Or the thing that scares these guys the most “You are being recorded and we will be sending a copy of this to your parents.”
A million years ago, before Zoom, I belonged to the Bronze - the online Buffy the Vampire Slayer message board. And sometimes we’d get hateful little twats trying to disrupt our cozy group. And one of us would backtrack their ISP and post something like, “I see you’re posting from the school library at XYZ school in ABC town. Here’s the phone number for the principal. Let’s give her a call, shall we? I’m sure the school can ID you with the ISP.” We’d get them nearly peeing their pants because they thought they’d get in trouble with their school or parents. I hadn’t heard about the Zoom call thing.
Remember, most people are good, doing their best in the world. Sorting their recycling, slowing at school zones, and adopting homeless pets. But just like a red dot on a white screen draws your attention, so do these creeps. They take your mind away from all the good going on around you.
eta: Glad to see you!
StG
Good to see you Anaamika .
I don’t know why that kind of mindless cruelty appeals to some people some of the time, but unfortunately it seems to be a human thing (some of them anyway). I’m not even sure it’s even always otherism - I think sometimes it just verges on mindless edgelord bullshit. Empathy does seem to be a little more learned than instinctual and I think some people didn’t learn much (or are just part of our constant little minority cohort of broken sociopaths).
It’s a one with casual animal cruelty, really. I once rescued a puppy that had been abandoned in the parking lot of a coastal park. Sweetest little dog, quite friendly. And someone had wrapped multiple rubber bands around both front legs so they were acting as tight ligatures, digging into the flesh. Why? I mean that must have taken at least mild effort. The only thing that came to mind is younger kids that just hadn’t connected the dots between playing with something and causing it pain. Or just hadn’t learned to care.