Brandi Jasmine's Law of Internet Nuts: In every group of 100 people, there will be 10 nuts. In every group of 100 nuts, there will be 10 serious nuts. And in every group of 50 serious nuts, there will be at least one sociopath.
I came up with this "Law" after more than 10 years' observation of and participation in open, unmoderated forums on the Usenet and world wide web. I noticed that it was interesting how I could tell the number of overall subscribers (give or take a few) a list had, by counting the number of active participants. There seemed to be a mathematical formula to the mixture that didn't depend on topic matter, or the type of list.
There were some people who never posted. In fact, they were usually the majority. We called them "lurkers". Some always posted. Every day. Sometimes obsessively so. And there were those we called "trolls", people better known in "real" life as bullies.
The bad news: there are a lot of trolls in cyberspace.
The good news: it is really simple to deal with them most of the time.
Simple, yes. Easy? Not for everyone. The reality is that a lot of people really don't want to solve the problem the easy way, and that is what trolls count on to keep their nets full of victims.
A lot of targets of this kind of abuse get sucked in by the notion that the bully should be punished, should face some kind of punitive action for their abominable behavior, should be banned, TOSsed, or censured. In short, they are looking for retribution, and this entirely normal (and often understandable) reaction keeps them stuck to their tormentors like a fly in a spider's web.
The simple solution is to ignore the bully. Most Internet software permits some kind of filtering or blocking. If the list you are on does not offer that, well, you can read a subject and "from" header. Just don't click there! Delete everything they write or say. If you happen across anything they say quoted in another person's posts, respond to that person, but steadfastly refuse to rise to the bait.
If the bully is persistent, and some are, your next option is to leave the group. Yes, I said leave. The only way these kinds of bullies can become a chronic pain is when the list is poorly moderated. A lot of lists are poorly moderated. If they tolerate abuse, then show your displeasure with your feet. Invite your favorites from that list to join you in another list, or better yet, set up your own list. Check out my moderator guidelines.
Godwin's Law (also Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is an adage in Internet culture originated by Mike Godwin on Usenet in 1990 that states:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
