28 January 2008 - 14:18Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

Ever notice that seemingly normal people transform into bitter, hate-filled dumbasses as soon as they post on an internet forum or chat room? Well, Penny Arcade has an elegant formula for this phenomena:.
Penny Arcade

I’ve been reading the comments section below youtube videos, slashdot forums and digg posts and I can’t think of a better explanation than that. A subject like, say, video game design, that over lunch comes out as a reasoned debate over pro’s and con’s of style becomes a brutal four-letter word mudfest between combating comment threads. God help you should you bring up a subject with actual consequences like politics or free speech or religion in an internet arena- you will hear more unreasoning hatred of and by both sides than you could have ever imagined. The urge to strike back, to make your own wittily caustic reply about the original poster’s clear lack of intelligence and patent evidence of inbreeding will only serve to worsen the situation.

Back in the day I used to read Warcraft 3 gaming forums (don’t even start with me), and there was a particular poster whose gameplay seemed to echo my own desires for a smaller, quick paced game. His name was Mr.FunSocks. One day he was in one of his comment wars with another regular named zz33t and I chimed in my support for Mr.FunSocks with what I thought was a well reasoned analysis of both sides- I was promptly mocked by Mr.FunSocks as a n00b (I had only been a member of the forum for months, not years) and by zz33t as totally misunderstanding everything you-idiot-fuckface-why-don’t-you-shut-up-now.

Sigh. My fellow man. Why must you suck? Why can’t we all just get along?

3 Comments | Tags: Geek, personal

Comments:

  1. Jamie says;
    31 Mar 2008 - 23:39

    What a totally unfunny post, loser. ;)

  2. Mr.Funsocks says;
    15 Aug 2008 - 23:37

    Well hello there!

    No, this isn’t “Mr.FunSocks”, but Mr.Funsocks. This is a completely different person. I found this by searching my name, and I have found numerous impostors using my name.

    I have had this screen name since ‘00, but let me tell you something funny about “Mr.FunSocks”.

    I just recently made my AOL/Compuserve account in 2000, I was young and barely knew what I was doing. Seemingly seconds later I get this instant message from a guy begging me to delete my screen name so he could have it. I said no, and he got real angry and stormed off. Come to find out, he changed his name to “Mr.FunSocks”, possibly copying me.

    I found it amusing, I hope you do too :).

  3. arin says;
    07 Feb 2009 - 19:47

    That’s actually really funny, Mr.Funsocks. Your description sounds a lot like the guy I knew on the Blizzard forums- good times, eh?

    Thanks for the story, I like it.

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