Talk:To Where and Back Again - Part 2/@comment-4097069-20161224025936/@comment-24245960-20170305072409

@Austin012599

Yes. I'm a member of several different online communities focusing on things like television shows and video games and I play more than one online video game, so I'm painfully aware of those facts. Those people are what are generally known as "trolls". Unfortunately, there aren't many places you can go on the internet these days without encountering such people.

I blame the anonymity the internet provides, which these people use as a shield to hide behind. They adopt a pseudonym and suddenly find themselves with the freedom to say whatever ignorant idiotic thought that pops into their head, insulting others just for a laugh, saying things that they would not dare say to a person face-to-face on the street for fear of walking away bleeding. If they get banned from whatever forum they've made fools of themselves on, they just create another account and come back with a new pseudonym and resume where they left off. Thus they are almost impossible to be rid of.

I try to combat the internet ignorance in a sort of passive-aggressive manner in that I simply endeavor to be my own honest self wherever I go. It's true that, for obvious reasons of privacy and security, I too use a pseudonym. But for over a decade now I've used that same name in numerous communities and when possible I've used my same nekomimi avatar. While I doubt that I'm any sort of internet celebrity, this does make me potentially recognizable and it helps keep me honest. If I behave poorly in one community, it can come back to haunt me when I participate in another.

In short, the best I can do is to try to avoid entering into arguments with those who have proven themselves to be such "trolls" and to continue in my endeavor to treat others as I would hope to be treated, with the same respect and sense of fellowship that many hope to find in these communities.