It depends on which game the forum is about. Some are actually pretty tame, but even the worst ones are nothing like MATY’s forum.
Mothering Magazine or mothering.commune.
An entire forum filled with people who are anti-vaccine, regard anything less than breastfeeding until the baby is old enough to speak in full sentences as child abuse, believe administration of an epidural a sign that you are inherently a bad parent and constantly excoriate public health officials for demanding that home schooling parents actually make sure their children are learning.
Perhaps worst of all is the unassisted birthing forum. The boards are filled with people who have medical knowledge cheering on other people with no medical to do something incredibly stupid and give birth without even the assistance of a trained midwife. People routinely show up there proudly admitting their children have suffered blindness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy or even died as a result of their failure to seek medical attention. They truly believe that a pregnant woman’s first priority should be a pleasant birthing experience rather than a healthy child.
A truly evil place.
I disagree. Guys from my high school used to read Above the Law all the time and it was no big deal.
One of my guilty pleasures is to troll rightwing message boards and pretend that I’m a liberal. It’s not even really a lie. As far as they’re concerned, moderate conservatives like me might as well be flying the North Korean flag at military funerals. I’ve been banned from a few EZboard and Yuku rightwing chat forums, and there is some *stupid * douchebaggery there. Those forums are for the people who aren’t quite skinheads but aren’t really smart enough for Free Republic.
I actually think that Free Republic is worse than Stormfront in a lot of ways. The guys at Stormfront are wayyy past the point of sanity. They don’t pretend to love the American political process. Freepers will go on and on about how they love America and the flag. They love their flag and country sooooo much that they . . . want to hang it upside down and . . . secede. That’s a special kind of asshole. That’s an asshole that doesn’t even know that he’s an asshole. Stormfront Aryan brothers know they’re assholes, and strangely enough, I respect them for that more than I respect a bunch of cowardly Freeptards who want to convince us–and themselves–that they’re advocating the violent overthrow of a duly elected president and the government in general “for our own good.”
Wow, it must have changed, then. I was on their birthdate forums with my last child (now 5) and most of the women talked about how NON-militant they were about these issues. Like me, they were mostly nursing advocates who didn’t feel precisely comfortable in the mainstream but really didn’t have any idiotic radical views.
I know what you mean.
The board I’m posting is supposed to be neutral, it has become a battleground for liberals and rightwingers.
There are the Stormfront types, but there are also the ones who seethe with Tea Party anger but speak in disingenuous language. Hanging around that forum can be really depressing. Tension and conflict can liven up a board, but here, the anger is like a gastric ulcer.
City Data Politics and Controversies
Local sports message boards can be a special place. For example, here in St. Louis baseball is nearly a religion. Come on a Cardinals message board being a fan of another team and bad mouth them and prepare to be flamed without mercy.
It’s perfectly fine for the locals to whine and complain about them but not anybody else. 
From the City Data Politics and Controversies forum.
Emphasis mine.
The Aint It Cool News talkback is an embarrassing stream of self-absorbed stupidity.
There’s a local community message board that covers southern MD. I joined when I knew I’d be moving to this area, hoping to maybe meet some of my future neighbors. Silly me…
It has to be one of the most juvenile, clique-y, in-joking gaggle of morons I’ve ever encountered. One ass in particular will greet every new poster with “Are you chubby?” Others will dang-near crucify a newbie for daring to ask a question that was discussed in detail 3 years ago. The favorite insults are “ghetto” and “ghey” and for the most part, the politics are ultra-right-wing with zero tolerance for anything but.
Not only do I not participate, but I quit reading the boards years ago. At most, I’ll do a search if I’m interested in something in particular - like local businesses. On rare occasions, those answers are useful.
Just thought of a couple more:
The DIS and the Circle of Sarcasm on the UnDIS.
The former is, I believe, the biggest unofficial Walt Disney World fansite on the web, and is filled to overflowing with soccer moms, natural birth moms, and other confounding examples of the hated “Mommy” subculture (and the emasculated men who love them… and Disney, too); the latter is filled with soccer moms, natural birth moms, and other confounding examples of the hated “Mommy” subculture (and the emasculated men who love them… and Disney, too) who feel that they are somehow head and shoulders above their DIS doppelgängers when it comes to intelligence and dignity, and therefore choose to make fun of many of their DIS counterparts so that they may show us just how sophisticated and witty they really are.
I posted in the birthdate forum for my youngest as well, and my experience there was that the birthdate forums do tend to be a lot less militant and shrieky than some of the other areas on the site. I don’t post there anymore because the anti-vax fanatics and the people who think that gestational diabetes is a myth were finally just too much for me.
Even in the most liberal areas, local message boards tend to be … well, teabaggy, for some unknown reason. city-data.com local boards are rather apolitical, though, if you’re looking for an alternative. There may also be a “skyscraper board” for your region, covering mainly development issues. The skyscraper boards tend to be wonky, but with almost none of the teabagginess that infests local message boards and newspaper article comments.
Nice article. Thanks.
My favorite line:
My answer:
Because it’s fun! 
(Yes, I’ve been known to troll telemarketers 
and other richly deserving individuals, every now and then… :D:p:D )
Excellent, slightly horrifying article. Thanks.
I agree–pretty much any big-city newspaper commentary degenerates pretty quickly. The New York Post is really egregious; any crime or entertainment coverage comments turn pretty ugly when the subject is a minority. The Times moderates pretty well and has some good people. HuffPo is a mixed bag.
If you’re ever feeling proud to be an American, or feeling proud to have ever heard of America, a few minutes on the BBC “Have Your Say” boards will send your fat imperialist racist Zionist materialistic Bible-thumping ass running for cover. Those guys can drag America into a discussion of anything that can happen anywhere on the planet, and the discussion quickly degenerates into the pros and cons of the US stance on the issue, even if there isn’t one. Especially if there isn’t one.
Nah. They’ve always been like that.
The boards are also constantly censored. I was banned from anti-vax forum for daring to argue in favor of vaccination.
I am personally on the fairly crunchy side myself having gone through natural childbirth, co-slept and breastfed until my daughter was two. But they’re crazy and they take it way too far.
If you can be trolled online into feeling any sort of negative emotion, you should probably stick to reading kid’s comics.
:dubious:
If you are who I think you are, you don’t have a leg to stand on.
::::barf::::