The inherent toxicity in the online space

[Scribbler]

I was reminded of this little factoid from a Q and A youtube video from the U tuber Adam Ragusea titled: Ask Adam #7: Why aren't there more female food YouTubers.

I've heard tell of people being chased or bullied away from royal road, and many people from scribblehub seem to think it's an awful place full of awful people. But that's just not true. Then why would they believe such a thing? Because that's the only part they saw of it. And of course if you're female, then you'll be given worse treatment from toxic people.

But it's like this, or at least, this is how I view it, people kill each other in real life for no good reason. Random acts of violence are a real thing. You have to accept the inherent wrongness, or madness that the world is capable of. Saying the world is wrong for being wrong, for being what it is, well that's just silly.

Is the world wrong for being wrong, or is the person wrong for expecting anything else?

I know the world should be kinder, but some people are just too sheltered.

 

[Laeyioun]

It's a personal choice.

Let's say a person, man/woman/others, have bad or traumatic experiences in a bar setting while having a blind date for example. Even though they might know what happened is not the case most of the time, the inherent fear and bad feelings associated with it makes them averse to going back to said bar, or bars in general, or having 1-on-1 dates in bars because they don't feel safe without a companion.

So they might pick another setting to have dates, but not on bars. We can't force them to change their views that easily.

Back to the topic, spreading awareness and stories goes a long way for these people who avoid certain sites (or their negative opinions in my example) because of the minority who are hurtful and toxic, yet make the most impact.

 

[minacia]

I think viewing the "world" as an aggregate entity probably differs what it's like for most people.

Rather, the Internet (and in other situations) occurs in "communities". Generally speaking, people are happy inside their own communities, but when they cross over into other communities (or other communities cross into yours), conflict arises.

People tend to think, "Why can't community A be more more like community B"?

There is sort of a comparative process going on, I think.

Like, nobody expects a place to be as perfect as heaven, but everyone's standards are established based on other experiences they've had in other places. If FedEx delivers packages slower than UPS, it's reasonable for a person to complain or ask why.

 

[Leti]

People judge things according to their standards. Sometimes we need to lower our standard to appreciate something.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

I think viewing the "world" as an aggregate entity probably differs what it's like for most people.

Rather, the Internet (and in other situations) occurs in "communities". Generally speaking, people are happy inside their own communities, but when they cross over into other communities (or other communities cross into yours), conflict arises.

People tend to think, "Why can't community A be more more like community B"?

There is sort of a comparative process going on, I think.

Like, nobody expects a place to be as perfect as heaven, but everyone's standards are established based on other experiences they've had in other places. If FedEx delivers packages slower than UPS, it's reasonable for a person to complain or ask why.

I think this is what happened to me when I came across ScribbleHub.

Like, I came from RoyalRoad, and was bullied away because of my work having no sex and a 'beta cuck' MC. Then, I came across SH and thought, why can't RR be this supportive?

Well, it's not that I'm expecting RR to change. In fact, I only went to talk about my bad experiences when someone from their forum asked me about it. The world is indeed 'f*cked up', and in my real life (that is always on the stress line because of the nature of my work), the online community where I belong is like a 'break' from the toxicity of true situations. Though some may be indeed sheltered, as for us, we don't need another source of stress, that's why we avoid sites like RR.

Sure, there are online communities that are toxic, but there are also exceptions. In my experience, SH community is more supportive to new authors (or hobbyist authors, like myself, than RR). That's why I always get suspected of planning something up, since I always offer free artwork. It's just my way of giving back to the people here.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I was reminded of this little factoid from a Q and A youtube video from the U tuber Adam Ragusea titled: Ask Adam #7: Why aren't there more female food YouTubers.

I've heard tell of people being chased or bullied away from royal road, and many people from scribblehub seem to think it's an awful place full of awful people. But that's just not true. Then why would they believe such a thing? Because that's the only part they saw of it. And of course if you're female, then you'll be given worse treatment from toxic people.

But it's like this, or at least, this is how I view it, people kill each other in real life for no good reason. Random acts of violence are a real thing. You have to accept the inherent wrongness, or madness that the world is capable of. Saying the world is wrong for being wrong, for being what it is, well that's just silly.

Is the world wrong for being wrong, or is the person wrong for expecting anything else?

I know the world should be kinder, but some people are just too sheltered.

I do think that the world should be kinder and more accomodating, but at the same time, I think that we just gotta deal with what the world is. Although I don't agree with your last sentence in particular.

I personally do not like the "too sheltered" angle because I feel that it empowers people or at least emboldens them to be assholes because "hey the world is like that, grow up and deal with it" instead of letting them be nicer with words or how they deal with others. Don't get me wrong. I'm not an advocate of people complaining over the slightest things, but I think those things being complained about goes both ways.

Then again, like I said, there really are people like that in the world and there's really nothing we can do about it than just learn to ignore them I think.

At least, on my part, I just try my best to be accomodating whoever you are and play the middleground when it comes to more combustible topics to at least not be part of the problem.

We can't expect the Internet to adjust to anyone, and I think that's the charm of it. Still, it won't be bad to be more idealistic imo.

 

[Daitengu]

Eh, it's easier to talk shit when you aren't face to face. The low risk, high reward allows both more open discussion as well as more vicious verbal attacks than you would get from irl interaction.

 

[CL]

I know the world should be kinder, but some people are just too sheltered.

That word there: sheltered. I believe (aka: my opinion) that it is the opposite. They (those authors and whomever followed them) have had enough toxicity on the road and went to seek shelter. That is what this place is. The admin, Tony, had and is actually be cracking down on anyone who's been overly (not just) offensive towards those authors/readers. Royal Road's admin, when informed of these incidents, didn't do what was expected and stated they weren't going to restrict someone else's opinion because somebody else felt hurt by their words. You have any idea how that sounds from authors who use words on a daily basis? That was why there had been a migration from Royal Road to here; the shelter was nonexistent on the open royal road.

 

[Vaxel00]

People need thicker skin and realize that no one is above criticism.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Ehh, I get abused, both physically and mentally, a lot. So to be honest, I don't really get the whole "this hurts me" thing. If it hurts you, ignore it.

However, the tactic doesn't work with bullies, because they see themselves as superior and am now chasing a prey, trust me when I say that getting dragged out of your classroom to get your nose bridge broken is not fun, especially when you become a fun topic for people to talk about.

 

[Bloodysin28]

Ehh, I get abused, both physically and mentally, a lot. So to be honest, I don't really get the whole "this hurts me" thing. If it hurts you, ignore it.

However, the tactic doesn't work with bullies, because they see themselves as superior and am now chasing a prey, trust me when I say that getting dragged out of your classroom to get your nose bridge broken is not fun, especially when you become a fun topic for people to talk about.

Hey if u think bullying is bad try coming back from an actual warzone,I'm forever scared by the scenes of bombing, torture, watching a good friend s brains blow out or choking to death on their own blood, and hypocrisy justice bullshit spouted by piece of shit politicians.

 

[K5Rakitan]

*shrugs* I don't let toxicity from strangers on the internet get to me. If it's someone I know in real life, it hurts more. Otherwise, I just block and move on.

I don't like the layout of the RR forum for some reason. I can't remember why, but SH has a much cleaner layout, and I like the way the notifications work here, so that's what kept me motivated to post here, and then I met some lovely people here.

 

[Scribbler]

Yo, I know this was my fault, by this thread was soooooo depressing.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

Want another f*cked up situation?

I work in a public school, and I've seen students get bullied, abused and raped by their peers, own family members and/or my fellow teachers.

I lost my early job as a public school teacher, because my school, instead of supporting me when I fought for one of our students raped by one of my co-teachers, got angry and let me be by myself when that co-teacher of mine threatened to kill me.

What's worse, is that the parent of the child dropped the case because they 'pitied' my co-teacher, thus allowing him to go free and was punished only by his loss of job in our school. (He was still teaching today, only in private schools)

This is why I took up law courses. And started writing to relieve myself of stress.

And yes, I need thick skin to be able to get by the 'your story is shit because there' s no sex and got a beta cuck MC who won't have/is afraid of sex' criticism.

 

[OvidLemma]

Obviously, some online communities are deeply, unforgivably toxic. But in most online communities, the vast majority of people are friendly and supportive. Unfortunately, human psychology works against us.

All of us (or nearly all of us) have a negativity bias, where we perceive negative comments or critiques far more saliently than neutral or positive ones. As a result, even if only 5% of people are toxic assholes, they're the people we remember and they set the psychological tone of a community. Unless you can screen them out, it doesn't matter that 95% of the people are friendly and acting in good faith. Sociopathic trolls ruin everything because of an inherent imbalance in psychological warfare.

A good metaphor would be to think of a gallon (~4 L) of cool, pristine, filtered spring water. You'd gladly take a glass if you were a bit thirsty. But you'd probably have reservations if I told you I'd added a drop of urine to it. Online communities are the same way.

 

[CrusadeAgainstFurries]

If you feel bad just drink your problems away!

 

[Leti]

View attachment 5243

If you feel bad just drink your problems away!

Rakija is the solution to everything!

 

[Milk.Milkan]

People succ ass.
Or more like.
Humans succ ass.

Dats why it is better to hate everyone by deafult. Not openly but hate and hate a lot.

So when u see a toxic human being ud just "hah, figured".
And when u see a good person datll be a pleasant surprise.

Win-win.

 

[Scribbler]

I think viewing the "world" as an aggregate entity probably differs what it's like for most people.

Rather, the Internet (and in other situations) occurs in "communities". Generally speaking, people are happy inside their own communities, but when they cross over into other communities (or other communities cross into yours), conflict arises.

People tend to think, "Why can't community A be more more like community B"?

There is sort of a comparative process going on, I think.

Like, nobody expects a place to be as perfect as heaven, but everyone's standards are established based on other experiences they've had in other places. If FedEx delivers packages slower than UPS, it's reasonable for a person to complain or ask why.

Just because it's normal does not make it right.

That word there: sheltered. I believe (aka: my opinion) that it is the opposite. They (those authors and whomever followed them) have had enough toxicity on the road and went to seek shelter. That is what this place is. The admin, Tony, had and is actually be cracking down on anyone who's been overly (not just) offensive towards those authors/readers. Royal Road's admin, when informed of these incidents, didn't do what was expected and stated they weren't going to restrict someone else's opinion because somebody else felt hurt by their words. You have any idea how that sounds from authors who use words on a daily basis? That was why there had been a migration from Royal Road to here; the shelter was nonexistent on the open royal road.

This may be a shelter for you, but I do not think you should assume it is the same for all.

 

[CL]

This may be a shelter for you, but I do not think you should assume it is the same for all.

I'm a little lost here. Could you explain to me your goal. Not your point. You've made it clear you are gaslighting. I want to know why.