rally for regulars

• Online Communities by John Suler, 12/2/97
  • Online Communities by TWB, 12/15/97
    
    

I had the experience online where regulars of a chat room community would assault newbies for an initiation. Many of them didnt know how to resist or fight back. I didnt go along with that as I was the victim of this kind of assault, so I was continually picked on. Then, to help myself when this was happening I summoned The Guides of AOL, who would then tell me to click the ignore button. The abuse from regulars was clearly a Terms of service Violation, but that didnt have any consequence to the regs. As it happened, newbies were always given this test. Some gave in more quickly than others and they gained acceptance when they would contribute back up support to the regs against any resistance. A so what attitude was taken toward that. So what? I created a web page out of the chat log files I saved and begun a study on my own about such behaviour. The Guides would not do anything about the behaviour of the regulars harassments on myself and on Newbies. So what? I saved the chat room logs and posted them on a web site. I tried to analyse this behaviour, And sent the URL to the newbies when I saw them under attack. It was serving its purpose for me. Alot of arguing which the instigator, who Is a Fireman, told me it was all part of the fun, I did not need to do anymore. My web site showed that they do that regularly. The regulars complained of what I was doing to stop them and AOL shut down my account. I have begun re creating the site on another server. Http://www.geocities.com/southbeach/lagoon/2891/index.html

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