Opinion on internet idiocy please

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is a truely enormous thread. Warning: vaguely sexual content and some enthusiasic-if-poorly-executed foul language.

Basic background: Person by name of Ceciliantas was (allegedly) cyber-sexing in an online game (EverQuest, for those who’ve any idea what that means). Someone saw it and posted screenshots. 40 pages later, the list of people who jumped on the bandwagon to make fun of him covers the globe, from gaming forums to weightlifting sites. Most are along the lines of “haha you suck, I saw this at www.thingie.com forum”. Some say he should be ashamed and go hang himself, etc. Eventually they guy stops responding (only thing to do, really), so for all I know, he did go hang himself. One or two people suggested that perhaps the whole thing should be over and done with and that perhaps defaming the guy to the far corners of the electronic world was going to far. They were summarily flammed. Twice at least it was suggested that a Psych major could do a thesis paper on the whole thing. It was speculated that an interesting test case might result from the guy suing to have the thread locked/deleted or extract damages from those responsible. Clearly something is/was going on, since a single discussion thread became so widely-read that the entire site was essentially hijacked by it.

You lot are pretty smart. The people in the linked thread are (mostly) amazingly stupid. (my opinion.) Whatever’s going on is beyond the mental capacity of this sleep-deprived individual. What do you think of it all?

My question: Which of the following does the whole thing demonstrate?

A. Wow, that that guy is an idiot and a perv. I’m going to go post there to make fun of him too!

B. Goes to show that people really are just as horrible as I always thought.

C. Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Complete and utter scum.

D. This is a fascinating study on the nature of the human psyche… etc etc etc.

E. Hm, this would make an interesting legal test case for Internet laws.

F. Other. It’s 7 am and I haven’t slept tonight, there’s something I’m missing. Tell me what it is.

Yours in bafflement at the strangeness that is humanity,
The Sea Otter

P.S. Someone even went so far as to say that Cecil is a stupid name. I suggest that they are ill-informed, and suspect you will agree.

P.P.S. There’s somthing horribly ironic about the fact that I’m responsible for even more people seeing this thing simply by posting this link to it. I can’t think what. As I said, I’m a bit short on sleep.

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I’m gonna go for “c.” Anonymity on the part of the poster and the victim takes a lot of empathy out of the situation. After all, “it’s just the internet.” People just figure that since it’s not in the real world feelings do not apply.

This was something definitely taken way too far if it spread as far as posted.

3

I’m going to add a G.

G. Do your parents know what you do on the internet?

Or an H.

H. Grow up everybody. Geez!

4

I’ll add options

I. I have no idea what that thread is about but it seems like someone got made fun of for getting caught having cybersex and actually TOOK OFFENSE, AND someone actually thinks this is interesting enough for a psychology paper?

J. :rolleyes:

5

There was also a pit thread concerning the Ceciliantas case. You might find some answers there.

6

Since you’re polling for opinions, here’s mine:

I agree, there’s a lot of idiocy on the internet.

7

Ok, it been a while since I read this thread, but from what I remember…

Someone caught Mr. Ceciliantas cybering someone in a computer game, and found it amusing enough to post to a message board. Slightly amusing, rather standard fare. Posts to the effect of “Haha, owned” follows. About a page worth. Thread is doing fairly decently, but nothing special.

Then the hilarity starts as Mr Ceciliantas storms head first into the thread to defend himself. First he tries the standard silliness. “It was photoshopped”, “I’ve been framed”. Also mentioned is how his girlfriend who he was cybering with is mortified by this whole thing. The audience, of course, weighs in with analyses on whether it looks photoshopped etc, as well as mild snickering on Ceciliantas’ behalf. Beforementioned “girlfriend” weighs in expressing surprise that Ceciliantas thinks she is his girlfriend, and outright denial of such. Thread is doing well at this point. Tension, drama, piquant love triangles. Much amusement is had by all.

At this point the rational person will decide it is time to take advantage of the anonymity of the internet and slinker somewhat shamed into the shadows. A week later, very few people would remember this rather embarassing incident. But our friend Ceciliantas knows better. Now it’s time to bring in the lawyers! From the top of my head, his lawyer was going to have this thread deleted and everyone involved could look forward to a hefty lawsuit. At this point I don’t think anyone can feel guilty about laughing. Legal minds weigh in of course, with further good analyses on exactly how many seconds this case might hold up in court, and our audience is roaring with laughter at this hapless twit. Thread is absolutely on fire.

From all over the internet people are chiming in to inform our hero what a moron he has been, and as the star of the show has finally stopped digging his grave the thread is looking at dozens of pages, and people all over the world know about the dumbass of the week

And the really funny part is, of course, if Ceciliantas had just kept his big mouth shut, or said something like “haha, very funny, screw you guys”. This thread would be lucky to reach 2 pages, and no one would give a rat’s ass about Ceciliantas’ sexual escapades. Personally, I think this thread showcases the immaturity and stupidity of exactly one person (the guy who actually took the pics/logs being a bit too clever to be eligible).

8

K There’s a whole side of the internet out there that I didn’t really know existed, with messageboards that are hard on the eyes, that have lots of flashy-blinky stuff on them and people with completely different grammar and spelling choices.

Apparently I am old, and I need to get out more. Or not get out more.
Oh yeah, and holy cow. I read the first 6 pages and the last 3; I couldn’t take any more.