Ten Dumb Things

I spend a lot of time on Internet messageboards and e-mail listservs because I like getting opinions on things like games, books, and politics without having them go through the filters of “professional” media outlets. There’s also details and insights on messageboards and e-mails that you only get from people passionately interested and educated on a particular topic.
That said, it’s not always all that great. These boards and lists are magnets for nitwits, children, and zealots. So I either grin and bear it or move on to another source if the signal-to-noise ratio gets too bad. I’ve noticed, though, that these irritating antics often take the same form. Here’s 10 dumb things that idiots do on messageboards, listservs, and newsgroups.
One: pigeon-holing
I see people assume after a few dozen words that they know enough about each other to apply broad labels like “liberal” or “fanboy”. They usually go on to disparage them and attribute opinions on their basis, despite whatever the other person may or may not have said. This also tends to turn things into pointless and oversimplified “us vs. them” or “me vs. you” threads.
Two: Falling to the confirmatory information bias
Humans tend to ignore information that contradicts our assumptions and cling to information that supports it. I’ve seen people ignore scientific, widely replicated data (not to mention logic) because it contradicts what their friend once told them. A sample of one is bad statistics.
Three: Poor or unorthodox spelling/punctuation
All the l337 sp3ak gets to me. So does excessive punctuation and abuse of acronyms (“LOL!!!!!!” comes to mind). It makes you look stupid and incapable of expressing your meager thoughts. The people I listen to the most are the ones who take time to organize their responses and make them legible.
Four: Use of tired, trite, and unimaginative puns
I have a rule: I automatically stop reading a post when I come across the first use of a phrase like GaySpot, Micro$oft, VilePlanet, etc. Some think that replacing “S” with “$” is equivalent to making some biting social commentary and serves as evidence of their superior wit. No.
Five: Trolling for insults
For some, any attention is good attention and they’ll do anything to get it. This could include baiting others into arguments, but most often it’s just slinging insults and hoping for a counter-attack. It doesn’t matter how dumb or socially retarded the troll looks; it’s the attention that matters. So lonely.
Six: Spamming for post count
Some forums track how many posts you’ve made, and the inhabitants of these messageboards tend to use these numbers in establishing a pecking order. It’s like digital penis waving. All the inane posts make the forums cluttered and off-topic.
Seven: Pointless railing against The Man
Some people seem to need something to fight against. They usually pick targets of convenience like successful businesses, community figures, or products. This kind of arbitrary iconoclasm leads to lots of “I hate Company X”, even though Company X is just doing their job or may even make great products. It’s only an opportunity for unity through hatred of an easily recognizable target. (That’s not to say that some companies don’t deserve the spite; I just suspect that their detractors’ hatereds are often uninformed.)
Eight: Beating the dead horse
On gaming boards, everybody knows how to hate, and hating is easy. Do we really need to hear you celebrate the failure of that high-profile development house from six years ago? Not really.
Nine: Using obnoxious icons or signatures
Many users think they can become admired by using obnoxious, animated images as their icons and creating page-long signature files full of obscure quotes and more animated graphics. They also overuse animated smiley faces in the body of their psts. You can put a bonnet on a pig, but nobody’s going want to kiss it.
Ten: Stereotyping
I’m not talking about overt racial or gender stereotyping here. The places I visit are free of that. Amazingly, though, people will still apply the same broken logic of bigotry by making unfounded overgeneralizations. All liberals are closet communists. All console gamers are simpletons. It’s amazing that you’d get flamed for making stupid statements like “All Blacks are bad at math”, but the same people have no compunctions about phrases like “all publishers are greedy” or “all Americans are arrogant.” It’s the same lazy thinking!
So anyway, I thought I’d vent my spleen a bit. It’s getting harder and harder to find good places online to talk with mature, thoughtful people about topics that interest me. There are a few left, but I’m not going to tell you about them. I don’t want word getting around. 😉