![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Internet Trust Issues
Oct. 12th, 2007 09:23 amThe Internet is a strange beast. It allows us to do so much and communicate with people we might have never met in real life except due to a rare fluke in the space-time continuum. I have become friends and worked with people I have never met face to face because of it. It has allowed me to expand my horizons and giving me more information than I thought possible.
A majority of people out on the Internet are good people. They have fun with their various interests and get to know people that they would have never met before the Internet. They keep up with their families who are scattered all over the globe. I have one friend whose parents still live in India and she talks to them via her computer to keep up with them and the rest of her family still living in India. I keep up with my parents via iChat too and they have watched Caroline grow up over the web through my web log, my photo site, and the camera. Caroline knows who they are because of her interaction with them. I saw my grandparents maybe once a year. I have heard of fan groups that get together at conventions who have a website devoted to what they love. I have met members of the Lord of the Rings costuming group and the Browncoats in person who I first "talked to" on the Internet. There are artists that I first met on the Internet and then we finally meet in person at a convention or conference. It's really neat.
But there is a small minority who screw it up for many. We have trolls and Internet drama and the Drama Llama. We have flounces and flame wars. We have sock puppets and more sock puppets defending the sock puppets as real. Most of this goes on the net and stops there but sometimes it crosses over into real life and that is when it can get rather weird.
This week in the LA Weekly News there is an article by Josh Olson who wrote the screenplay for History of Violence about a strange situation he found himself in along with a friend of his.
The Life and Death of Jesse James by Josh Olson
I figured out what was going on pretty early on and I am sure that you will too but then this was not my first time at the rodeo on this sort of thing.
A number of years ago Peter was sent a book by a fan that she wrote on her experience with an individual who caused all kinds of problems for a Lord of the Rings group up in Oregon called When the Fan hits the S**t by Jeanine Renne (ISBN:0-9653136-4-6). It is like reading a train wreck. You want to look away but you also want to find out what happens to the people involved including some of the actors from the film. This whole thing started on the Internet and then moved into real life. Some of the individuals still show up on the Internet and stir things up again.
I was involved in debunking a myth of a Doctor Who animated series over 10 years ago that was reported in the Doctor Who Monthly. By the end of that a couple of people swore off the Internet and one very nice person was hounded to the point of having a nervous breakdown. Last report, which was about 6 years ago, was that she was doing better but felt that staying away from the fan groups that she enjoyed so much was best for her mental health. Too bad, I enjoyed interacting with her online and she wrote dynamite fanfic. I had a physical threat from the person who started the whole mess but she backed down on it since I had about 6 inches in height and a much longer reach than she had. My hope in all this is that she got some help to deal with her mental problems and other issues she had.
We tell our kids to be careful on the Internet but I think sometimes we need a reminder why we too need to be careful out here where things aren't always what they seem.
I am grateful to all the real people I have met through the Internet both in person and on the web.
A majority of people out on the Internet are good people. They have fun with their various interests and get to know people that they would have never met before the Internet. They keep up with their families who are scattered all over the globe. I have one friend whose parents still live in India and she talks to them via her computer to keep up with them and the rest of her family still living in India. I keep up with my parents via iChat too and they have watched Caroline grow up over the web through my web log, my photo site, and the camera. Caroline knows who they are because of her interaction with them. I saw my grandparents maybe once a year. I have heard of fan groups that get together at conventions who have a website devoted to what they love. I have met members of the Lord of the Rings costuming group and the Browncoats in person who I first "talked to" on the Internet. There are artists that I first met on the Internet and then we finally meet in person at a convention or conference. It's really neat.
But there is a small minority who screw it up for many. We have trolls and Internet drama and the Drama Llama. We have flounces and flame wars. We have sock puppets and more sock puppets defending the sock puppets as real. Most of this goes on the net and stops there but sometimes it crosses over into real life and that is when it can get rather weird.
This week in the LA Weekly News there is an article by Josh Olson who wrote the screenplay for History of Violence about a strange situation he found himself in along with a friend of his.
The Life and Death of Jesse James by Josh Olson
I figured out what was going on pretty early on and I am sure that you will too but then this was not my first time at the rodeo on this sort of thing.
A number of years ago Peter was sent a book by a fan that she wrote on her experience with an individual who caused all kinds of problems for a Lord of the Rings group up in Oregon called When the Fan hits the S**t by Jeanine Renne (ISBN:0-9653136-4-6). It is like reading a train wreck. You want to look away but you also want to find out what happens to the people involved including some of the actors from the film. This whole thing started on the Internet and then moved into real life. Some of the individuals still show up on the Internet and stir things up again.
I was involved in debunking a myth of a Doctor Who animated series over 10 years ago that was reported in the Doctor Who Monthly. By the end of that a couple of people swore off the Internet and one very nice person was hounded to the point of having a nervous breakdown. Last report, which was about 6 years ago, was that she was doing better but felt that staying away from the fan groups that she enjoyed so much was best for her mental health. Too bad, I enjoyed interacting with her online and she wrote dynamite fanfic. I had a physical threat from the person who started the whole mess but she backed down on it since I had about 6 inches in height and a much longer reach than she had. My hope in all this is that she got some help to deal with her mental problems and other issues she had.
We tell our kids to be careful on the Internet but I think sometimes we need a reminder why we too need to be careful out here where things aren't always what they seem.
I am grateful to all the real people I have met through the Internet both in person and on the web.
