The Internet: where awful people meet
Mar. 8th, 2009 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhuzzellYesterday something happened to me that I don't think is supposed to happen with internet conversations. Though, on consideration, maybe it should.
See, St Andrews has this unofficial online message board for its students. It's called 'The Sinner' in reference to our student newspaper, 'The Saint', but the name is apt enough for its general contents. Besides hosting a few boards for practical things like finding accommodation or buying and selling kicknacks and appliances, its main purpose seems to be as an outlet for the pedantic misanthropy of our overly conservative, overly nerdy student population. I'm sure many of the people who post regularly there, even the more trollish ones, are lovely(ish) people in real life -- indeed, I know several of them personally -- but the standard modes of discourse on the main message board have a way of turning even the politest and most civil people into snide assholes. Myself included, apparently.
An acquaintaince, J, and I had both been posting on a very long and heated thread regarding the recent Gaza Solidarity occupation. I'd posted something in response to one of his posts, which had then progressed into a dialogue between me and another person. He had then made a snarky post reiterating his former points, and referencing the invervening dialogue only in such a way as to totally misconstrue it. I made a snide comment in response.
The next day, passing through the stairwell doors in the library, I saw him face to face. He looked hurt; he blanked me. Later that evening, looking at the thread again, and the timestamps, I saw that he'd made a reply to my snide comment only a few minutes before passing me on the stairs.
See, St Andrews has this unofficial online message board for its students. It's called 'The Sinner' in reference to our student newspaper, 'The Saint', but the name is apt enough for its general contents. Besides hosting a few boards for practical things like finding accommodation or buying and selling kicknacks and appliances, its main purpose seems to be as an outlet for the pedantic misanthropy of our overly conservative, overly nerdy student population. I'm sure many of the people who post regularly there, even the more trollish ones, are lovely(ish) people in real life -- indeed, I know several of them personally -- but the standard modes of discourse on the main message board have a way of turning even the politest and most civil people into snide assholes. Myself included, apparently.
An acquaintaince, J, and I had both been posting on a very long and heated thread regarding the recent Gaza Solidarity occupation. I'd posted something in response to one of his posts, which had then progressed into a dialogue between me and another person. He had then made a snarky post reiterating his former points, and referencing the invervening dialogue only in such a way as to totally misconstrue it. I made a snide comment in response.
The next day, passing through the stairwell doors in the library, I saw him face to face. He looked hurt; he blanked me. Later that evening, looking at the thread again, and the timestamps, I saw that he'd made a reply to my snide comment only a few minutes before passing me on the stairs.
