The Capricious Cruelty of Mean Anonymous Comments

One day, Strawberry Singh posted the cool photo above with her avatar wearing an interesting tattoo layer, and some random person hiding somewhere in the world behind a veil of anonymity posted this:

I think there is an ointment you can buy for that hive I see you have on your arms. :)

Which was not a very nice or a particularly clever thing to say, but is the kind of comment you see online every day -- especially when the user is under no obligation to share their real life details, or at the very least, a fixed pseudonym that's easy to locate*. Strawberry cites that example while discussing the phenomenon of mean anonymous comments on the Internet, and to launch a new meme post that's already provoked dozens of painful comments from readers sharing their own trials with hit-and-run nastiness.

*I say "fixed pseudonym that's easy to locate", by the way, because I do think there's a place for anonymous comments associated with a fixed online identity:

People tend to make more nasty anonymous comments when it's difficult for anyone to hold them accountable for what they write. Reddit architecture does a relatively good job with this (for its scale), because at least a nasty comment can be downvoted, while the commenter can expect some "Totally not cool, dude" messages in his or her account mailbox. When Linden Lab launched Second Life, the theory was that the fixed identity of a user's avatar account would generally nudge users to behave civilly. That hasn't worked very well in-world for a number of reasons, and works even worse outside Second Life. An SL user may use their avatar name when posting a nasty comment in a blog, but with no easy way to look up and immediately communicate with that user, or even verify that the comment was actually coming from them, accountability is hard to come by.

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Comments

[EI Consulting]

Don't mind me, I'm a bot.

[Drama Sells]

Look at SLU and the drama related on that site.

the drama that forces residents to quite second life in masses while costing linden lab thousands a year in lost revenue.

It has a positive side to it....>

(Drama Sells & very well just ask TMZ)

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Oh come on. That's a light tease. If we're making mountains out of molehills, we never get around to dealing with actual mountains.

I don't think micro-aggression theory applies to incredibly ugly tattoo layers.

[Yesplease]

I can't believe how trigged I am by the micro aggressions. God 'hives', how mean. Huddles in the corner rocking in the fetal position crying at the state of the world.

Somehow the smily face at the end is not really indicative of playful banter either, as though she was lightly taking the piss from one person with fair self esteem to another. No I imagine it is really some kind of sadistic grin akin to that found in a horror movie.

[Orca Flotta]

One avi's drama is the other avi's intense discussion. The term drama is terribly stretched out and overused in SL, it's not funny anymore. But it's often an indicator for the IQ of people. Have you noticed it's often the impatient, unintelligent, quick to judge avies who hurl around the term drama more than anyone else?

[cube republic]

Considering the pattern of the tattoo is hexagonal (like a bee hive), perhaps the post was a pun?

[Shockwave Yareach]

And having a punks real name and address would make the snarky remark less snarky? Or do you feel you need the ability to threaten someone in reality for what they said in a blog or video game?

Unlike reality, we have a block function in SL. I personally have no use for grief era or folks with virtual stones, and I speak to people the way I like to be spoken to. But just because I share a virtual world with you folks doesn't mean I want you to come share long showers with me.