ATTN: TEN TON MANTIS

[Triple Zero]

  etc

[LMNO]

Uh... the "pixels on a screen" thing was mine, and it was intended to remind Nemi not to take the Internets too seriously.

[Faust]

Uh... the "pixels on a screen" thing was mine, and it was intended to remind Nemi not to take the Internets too seriously.

I've said similar too, you people aren't real until I meet you.

[Reginald Ret]

Uh... the "pixels on a screen" thing was mine, and it was intended to remind Nemi not to take the Internets too seriously.

I've said similar too, you people aren't real until I meet you.

This.
I like you all, but until i meet you you are just figments of my imagination.
'Pixels on a screen' is a good reality check for emotional situations on the internet.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Uh... the "pixels on a screen" thing was mine, and it was intended to remind Nemi not to take the Internets too seriously.

I've said similar too, you people aren't real until I meet you.

This.
I like you all, but until i meet you you are just figments of my imagination.
'Pixels on a screen' is a good reality check for emotional situations on the internet.

I don't think TTM is capable of having reality checks for his "emotional situations" on the internet. Other than the helpless giggling at TTM's hysterical overreaction to being called boring, which I am sharing with a few other "pixels on a screen" who happen to be my friends, I am not having an "emotional situation".

Also, I'm fascinated that he seems to think that a thread where I said I think he's a woman is supposed to be insulting. Considering I started it before he freaked out on me and called me a "desperate whore"; at the time I had some respect and like for him actually. This thread seems to have been the fulcrum for his complete and utter loss of shit.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Uh... the "pixels on a screen" thing was mine, and it was intended to remind Nemi not to take the Internets too seriously.

You perhaps weren't consciously aware of this, but it predates that by a good few trolls. I thought you were riffing on it when you said it to the latest tranny/MPD/suburban emo kid.

[LMNO]

I first used it in 2005, so...  I dunno.  Seems irrelevant to the situation at hand. 

Please disregard.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

For the record, I think you are all actual warm-blooded people with feelings sitting in chairs in front of a computer somewhere. The only difference between online and IRL is that I can't always tell whether you're serious or joking, and I can "like" or "not like" you online but I won't know for sure until I either talk to you on the phone (the Devil's infernal machine) or meet you face to face, whether I really like you. For instance, I though ECH was kind of an asshole online, but in person he's a gruff-but-jovial good-natured giant and what appears to be assholery online is just directness in person. Dok Howl is just as direct on the phone, but is also HILARIOUS. Intonation and body language counts for a lot, and we don't get that online, but that doesn't make us non-persons not actually interacting with each other.

[LMNO]

That's a valid position, too.

[Lord Quantum]

So for the record, the only woman in the thread sees people on the internet as well...people and all the guys in the thread see people on the internet as "pixels on a screen". Interesting.

[LMNO]

That's a tad absolutist.


If you recall, my "pixels on a screen" comment was a remedy for taking the internet too seriously.


That's a long way from denying the existence of other people.

[Cain]

Yes Lord Quantum, it's because women have nuturing and protective natures and men are the assholes who go hunting.  Clearly evolutionary psychology is at work on the internet, right here, ITT.

OR

You're using a waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small sample to try and make a point in order to look clever.  It isn't working.

[Lord Quantum]

I'm not trying to look clever, I just thought it was interesting that Nigel (who I previously thought was a guy) claims to see people on the Internet as real people instead of just saying "oh, it's the internet". Believe or not, I don't spend all my time on here trying to make a Fraiser-like wisecracks, sometimes I just comment on things.

[Salty]

It's such a simple defensive position to fall back on, "you're not real, it's just the internets." It's more difficult to call people out on because there's not as many equivilants to stomping or slamming doors or other outward signals that indicate a need to say "Hey man, actually I don't think you're 'fine'."

To pretend that these interactions don't have an impact on your glands that send a wave of anxeity, anger, self-doubt (or happier emotions) seems self-defeating and just a little bit absurd to me.  Some people are more capable than others at taking what other people think of them in stride. But these people have this capability IRL as well as online.

That said, I thought LMNO's advice was good, and an important consideration for sensitive types.   

[LMNO]

While Alty has a good point, you need to keep the "Internet + Anonymity = Asshole" equation in mind.  IRL, I treat friend's comments as valid, and they hold worth and value to me.

On the internet, where offensive cruelty as humor is practically a requirement, I take what is said to me with a lot less seriousness.

It's all about context.