Rant! Why I don't go to the HF forums at Amazon anymore

annis · Post by **annis** » Fri December 17th, 2010, 1:34 am

Youtube commentators are amongst the most outrageously rude and abusive ever- I've come across many comments with Youtube clips that have made my jaw drop!

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Fri December 17th, 2010, 3:13 am

[quote=""annis""]Youtube commentators are amongst the most outrageously rude and abusive ever- I've come across many comments with Youtube clips that have made my jaw drop![/quote]

I didn't even watch very far on the YouTube link provided. Whatever it was, the preceding you need to get laid comment was more than enough for me.

parthianbow · Post by **parthianbow** » Fri December 17th, 2010, 12:06 pm

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]You'd think the author would at least be clever enough to find a screen name that didn't match her author name.[/quote]

Indeed. Or, as I've found out, that they don't have the wits to remove, in their profile section, the first part of their email address from public view, especially when it contains their first name! (This, when the same reviewer had reviewed about six books by someone with the same first name.) I kid you not.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Fri December 17th, 2010, 2:10 pm

[quote=""annis""]Youtube commentators are amongst the most outrageously rude and abusive ever- I've come across many comments with Youtube clips that have made my jaw drop![/quote]

Agreed about YouTube commenters. There are some nasty people online. I think on YT it's mostly teenagers though so there's a chance they'll grow out of such ridiculous behavior.

parthianbow · Post by **parthianbow** » Fri December 17th, 2010, 3:24 pm

[quote=""LoveHistory""]Agreed about YouTube commenters. There are some nasty people online. I think on YT it's mostly teenagers though so there's a chance they'll grow out of such ridiculous behavior.[/quote]

I don't think so, unfortunately. On my internet provider's news section (which is my home page), the majority of the comments on just about every news article are either racist, homophobic, anti-police, anti-immigrant, or downright cruel. I am constantly amazed by the gutter opinions of people who are happy to make such views clear only because they are anonymous. If people want to say something on the net, IMHO, they should only be allowed to do so under their real name.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Fri December 17th, 2010, 7:34 pm

[quote=""parthianbow""]If people want to say something on the net, IMHO, they should only be allowed to do so under their real name.[/quote]

That would pose a problem as those who are really nuts could go after someone with a differing opinion if they had used their real name. And there are always those few who would say the same vile things even if they had no anonymity. That's just the way the world has become now.

parthianbow · Post by **parthianbow** » Fri December 17th, 2010, 8:06 pm

[quote=""LoveHistory""]That would pose a problem as those who are really nuts could go after someone with a differing opinion if they had used their real name. And there are always those few who would say the same vile things even if they had no anonymity. That's just the way the world has become now.[/quote]

IMHO, very very few people would 'go after someone' if they had to use their real name. They'd be far too scared of being found out. Besides, that's what moderators and regulators are for: to take down any kind of statement/comment which abuses or insults someone else. Of course, very few sites have such moderators. HFO aside, of course

I'm talking the likes of Youtube, Amazon, internet news sites etc. If they had employees whose job it was to moderate actively 24/7, then such comments/people who make such comments would be rare. I'll go on dreaming...

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Sun December 19th, 2010, 1:03 am

There are a lot of angry people, I'm afraid. Or else, people who just don't know (or don't care to try) to express their anger in a civil way. I just experienced something along these lines in another forum.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sun December 19th, 2010, 1:53 pm

[quote=""parthianbow""]I don't think so, unfortunately. On my internet provider's news section (which is my home page), the majority of the comments on just about every news article are either racist, homophobic, anti-police, anti-immigrant, or downright cruel. I am constantly amazed by the gutter opinions of people who are happy to make such views clear only because they are anonymous. If people want to say something on the net, IMHO, they should only be allowed to do so under their real name.[/quote]

We have the same problem on our online paper. Where I used to find comments interesting, I now don't even bother. Whats funny is that I used to believe that such people (or trolls) were uneducated louts. But when NYT had to take down many of their forums because of their extreme ugliness, I knew that education had nothing to do with it. It is so much easier to say what you think with no filter when you are anonymous,* and hiding behind a screen. It also makes it much easier to bully, a situation that has made my friend's daughter's life hell the last few months.

*I've noticed tho that this same lack of filter is happening in face to face communications in ways I've not seen before.

I am not sure putting real names up is fair to those who honestly want to discuss issues without other people (family, boss) knowing who they are. Id also worry about freedom of speech - one person's heated conversation is another person's hate speech, so who draws the line? But something needs to be done. I know many sites require registering with your real name, allowing you to have a psuedonym. They supposedly monitor the site and remove inappropriate posts. However, I have been on sites where moderators removed posts if they disagreed with their own agendas; or sites where moderators turned a blind eye to what was happening. So maybe requiring real names would work. Just not sure how you'd monitor to make sure that the 'real name' was really the real name.

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Sun December 19th, 2010, 6:22 pm

[quote=""Michy""]There are a lot of angry people, I'm afraid. Or else, people who just don't know (or don't care to try) to express their anger in a civil way. I just experienced something along these lines in another forum.

[/quote]

Michy, me too; You find lots of them on FB!

I'm Welsh and proud of it, but I just don't buy into the unbelievably vitriolic hatred of Edward 1 described on many pages for having conquered Wales! He was just the last in a long line of English (Norman, Saxon, whatever) kings of England (or parts of it) who tried to subjugate the Welsh. He was just successful, and why? Because he was a very good war leader and his success was also due to a large part, by the treachery of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's fellow Welshmen, not least that of his own brother!

Edward 1's army in the final battles of Llywelyn's struggle, contained thousands of Welshmen (mostly, it has to be said, from South Wales) and in addition, so it is rumoured, he was led to his death by Welsh traitors! Today's Welshmen (on FB) will not (cannot) recognise these facts and continue to place all the approbrium on Edward. Any view to the contrary is treated with scorn and ridicule. Quite a bit of it in my direction! I'm actually thinking of abandoning FB as adult discussions on it seem to be impossible!