Little nuggets of internet truth
akktri wrote:
How the internet works
Real life: "Root for the underdog." You tell someone your sob story. They listen with compassion, and side with you.
Internet: Blame the victim. You tell someone your sob story, and you get five hundred posts attacking your character and talking about how the other party was actually the injured party, whether it be a community, an object, an organization, a multi-national company, or Nazi Germany.
It's true that there are a lot of people out there who subscribe to this general outlook when on the internet. It's true also that this is especially bad on livejournal.
Also, I was recently shown this dissertation deconstructing some common "geek" social fallacies. It is written more in the form of real life social groups, but applies to many online encounters as well.