Its a really bad sign when your behavior is beneath even moot’s standards
The pictures in Penthouse may not have been porn (It’s good to see someone else who understands that Nudity Is Not Pornography) but some of the text - especially the “Letters to Penthouse” section, was most definitely porn. (-:
1 Like
I was reading this article on doxxing, and I realized that a bunch of misogynistic assholes on the world’s most pointless crusade are doing what years of government interference, concerned moms, and telcomm oligarchies haven’t been able to: Ruin the most exciting, innovative, and risky internet ventures for years to come.
4Chan is a small part of a larger story here, and if it goes, I’m not going to be too worried about it. Still, there is something to be said for the Internet’s Wild West era, and what used to be an untameable and uncertain character that is now being gradually diluted to a few megasites and content and social aggregators. Part of the move in that direction is the rising cost of entry. It used to be that anyone could build a website and collect a following, but increasingly people are having to worry about the inevitability of harassment and legal challenges. It takes some of the fun out of building your own little corner of the online world when you’re worried about creating ironclad passwords and obscuring whois information while simultaneously making sure that you’re ready to deal with an avalanche of DMCA requests if you make a site so much as mildy interactive.
6 Likes
Serious question: is The Long Tail still a thing, or has that pretty much gone the way of the Dodo with rise of mega-aggregation? I haven’t seen any mention of it in … 12 months? 18 months?
Nudity may not necessarily be pornography, but nudity for the purposes of sexual excitement definitely is. Something doesn’t have to be hardcore or depict sexual acts in order to be porn.
1 Like
Penthouse did supposedly move to actual depictions of sex in its pictorials. Anyway, that was the reason given for its being pulled from the bookstore where I worked.
What was being pulled? The magazine? XD
I am a turtle, and therefore, have no idea what you mean…
Absolutely not. My experience is that, without considerable effort to create and maintain rules to govern discussion, you’ll not have a really “open” discussion, but one in which the malevolent will drive out all competitors.
You’ll often see people say of articles on the Internet, “never read the comments.” Here we are, on bbs.boingboing.net, reading the comments. We’ve got experienced moderators who intervene in the discussions, and general acceptance of those rules by the regular participants. Contrast this forum with, for instance, the comments section for articles on guardiannews.com, which is generally considered a more or less left news publication; the forums are barely moderated, and you’ll generally find that if an article discusses issues of racism, most of the comments will be overtly racist, if an article discusses gender inequality, most of the comments will be misogynist, and so on. I seriously doubt those commenters are representative of the readership of the Guardian.
Ideally, rules are created and enforced democratically. But if you don’t come up with your own rules, someone else will impose rules upon you.
“Public space” is contested ground in social conflict.
We’ve been talking about 4chan, which among other things, is notorious for its use of “doxxing” as a weapon: revealing private information about a person they’re targetting, such as their legal name and home address.
When I was in my 20s, I could, and occasionally did, go to bars by myself, and go home afterwards by myself. I’m white, and male, and heterosexual. I never really worried about being harassed, or stalked, or being hassled by the police, or being assaulted by homophobes. This was not the case for my friends. I was often astonished at the preparations they’d have to make for an evening out, and a few times, friends would ask me to meet them and walk with them, because somebody was following them – and this wasn’t their imagination, as I saw the person following them. For related reasons, women I know are very cautious about giving out their phone numbers, or letting slip any hint about where they live.
And that should remind you of some of the reasons why doxxing is threatening.
The reason why I wasn’t afraid of being stalked or harassed, it’s important to note, is because I wasn’t stalked or harassed – and the reason my friends, especially women, were afraid, was because they were getting stalked and harassed. And here’s a key thing to think about it: the stalkers and harassers are acting consciously and deliberately. Public space may well be “naturally” safe, except that some people deliberately make it dangerous. And they make it dangerous for specific sorts of people – people they intend to threaten, intimidate, and coerce. They are the reactionaries – literally.
And because people are making a positive effort to control public space, we have to make a positive effort to resist them and claim it.
10 Likes
You may find it hard to imagine, but I find it very easy to imagine, and if somebody with more money and ambition than me can imagine it, they’re probably going to give it a try. That’s the thing about imagination.
1 Like
The Guardian’s comment section is full of Mail readers, and vice versa.
1 Like
No, that’s the thing about dot-com bubbles in a post capitalist economy. Seriously can you imagine the sales pitch for these eyeballs? They might exact revenge on your advertisers, they’re anonymous, so you can’t track them, and they love to Claude for illegal activity. Everything you hate about facebook, without the politeness. That’s commercial 4Chan, b/tards!
1 Like
Hah you’re right, but what dope would put all that in the executive summary?
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
