Flamed Within An Inch of my Life

[blackbelt_jones]

I suppose that I shouldn't be so suprised, but this weekend I discovered what may be the meanest, vilest corner of the web, in the forums of a site called Portal of Evil (http://portalofevil.com/) . I've been visiting "POE" for a couple of years. It's actually a pretty amusing place, which supplies links to some of the most bizarre places on the web... but I've never really gotten involved in the forums before.

About a week ago, I was surfing POE and discovered a link to cheatinghusband.com (http://www.cheating-husband.com/), a site that was selling software that spies on the user of a computer. Everybody who had commented about this, including the editors of the site, were outraged by this, and so, I, always anxious to point out the advantages of Linux, explained how someone could guarantee their privacy by using Knoppix. vileness (http://friends.portalofevil.com/sp.php?si=3&fi=000026095&ti=1000628996&pi=1000628996) ensued. Warning: the above link contains a whole lot of profanity, and not a whole lot of wit. Ditto the two below.

I would love to see what a cultural anthopologist has to say about this place. I felt that I had fallen in with some strange tribe, and was being subjected to a bizarre and cruel ritual. I had been in countless flame wars, but I've never been the subject of such a mega mass super flaming before. I was being napalmed. Everybody joined in. No one came to my defense. Everything I said was used against me, and was usually interpreted as a lie. I was accused of lying when lying would gain me no advantage. My heterosexuality was impugned again and again and again. My nickname was mocked. I was constantly accused being fat (which is true, I suppose), and, oddest of all, of having a beard. (not true... but so what?) The taunts of "beardo" apparently have some special significance that I don't get, and I was taunted for not getting it. Plus, of course, I was attacked for using Linux.

At first I was offended, and inginantly tried to defend myself (http://friends.portalofevil.com/sp.php?si=3&fi=000026095&ti=1000629671&pi=1000629671) . Later, I just tried to exit (http://friends.portalofevil.com/sp.php?si=3&fi=LEAVING&ti=1000629794&pi=1000629794) with a little class and dignity, and I suppose I did all right. I haven't posted in about twenty-four hours and, last time I checked, I was still being flamed in absentia. The last comment against me was: "Try not to crack your beard on your way out of the forum, crapsteam."

It's pretty remarkable, really.

[bigmac99]

Blackbelt Jones,

Thanks for a good laugh early in the morning. That was hilarious.

ummm..you don't have a beard do you?

-Charles

[andycrofts]

Oh, yeah.
Imagine.
I leave my PC on, and go to work.
Someone gains (undetected) access to your house/office desktop computer (I guess everyone locks their computer when they goto lunch at work, right??), and sticks this crap on, and leaves.

You return home/to office desktop PC, seems nothing amiss. Then go to Amazon and buy a book with your credit card. Or (as we do in Finland, do ALL our banking on the web - but we do use one-time passwords here)
Nice.

They don't even need to do it with a breakin/office colleague. Nice little trojan from a pr0n site these w******* obviously visit.

Nah, only effing nutters replied (yourself excepted!)

-Andy

[BaVinic]

I don't know, based on what I read, you got what you deserved..... NOT, sounds like you got sucked into a ***** slapping fest, it happens to everyone from time to time. I think you handled yourself, better than I would have if I had been drawn in. Kudos to you BBJ!


BaVinic

[psi42]

PRIVACY FROM WHOM

YOU MAKE NO SENSE

People do not freak out about what's on their History bar or whatever unless there's a reason. Unless you think there's a good chance someone will be trying to get at your browsing habits, and unless something bad would happen if they did, why would you care?

I'm not talking about the spying technology. I'm saying that people are not concerned about privacy to the extent you are unless a) they're insane or b) they have something to hide.

Hence my question about what it is you have to hide and who it is you're hiding it from.


Um.... yeah.... this is where the big "moron alert" alarms should go off in your head and you realize these people aren't worth the effort, and that you should spend your energies talking to people who actually think for themselves.

It appears to me that you simply wandered into a forum where the community was not what you expected; in this case, they were intellectually impotent. I suppose they don't call it the "portal of evil" for nothing.



On a side note:

In just one day of running the Spector program on my home PC I was able to identify my fiancées's true personality. I found all 17 of his girlfriends


Someone forgot the corporate spellchecker. Fiancé (male) has only one "e."

[Parcival]

Well, if one is running a computer of one's own where one's spouse can install unwanted software, that person almost deserves it to happen. If the guys at the forum aren't intelligent enough to shield their privacy, let it be their problem.

This thread isn't really technology related or with this community here, I guess I should lock it. Well, let's see how the discussion continues.

[Bryon Speede]

Parcival,
While not focused narrowly on Linux, it is at least loosely related through the Knoppix suggestion, and it is rather humorous. I see no flames posted as of yet either. My vote is to leave the thread open.

BBJ,
Can't win them all. :)

[blackbelt_jones]

Originally posted by bigmac99
Blackbelt Jones,

Thanks for a good laugh early in the morning. That was hilarious.

ummm..you don't have a beard do you?

-Charles

No, but I am a little fat... although at least one forum member's estimation of my body weight (9 tons) is a little on the high side.

I don't get the beard references... I mean, I get the impression that it means something else. And that bit about "Don't crack your beard on your way out "... what the hell does that mean? How do you "crack" a beard?

[GmarAppledude]

Originally posted by Parcival
This thread isn't really technology related or with this community here, I guess I should lock it. Well, let's see how the discussion continues.

IMHO Blackbelt is quite rightly pointing out some of the ignorance surrounding Linux and the utter determination to reject good ideas displayed by some people, if it means they have to put any effort whatsoever. Not a lot of effort in the case of Knoppix too.

I haven't been with this forum a long time but I have seen more example of basic humanity, advice and less flaming than any other. Even when the people here strongly dissagree with each other, they tend to demostrate their ideas with evidence rather than bad mouthing each other. That's a good thing yeah.

[BaVinic]

Originally posted by blackbelt_jones
No, but I am a little fat... although at least one forum member's estimation of my body weight (9 tons) is a little on the high side.

I don't get the beard references... I mean, I get the impression that it means something else. And that bit about "Don't crack your beard on your way out "... what the hell does that mean? How do you "crack" a beard?

BBJ, have you ever heard of the "bearded clam"? it is a refernce to a private part on a woman. I beleive that is the refernce they were making. although I could be wrong, but it does seem to fit the bill.

BaVinic

[blackbelt_jones]

Originally posted by GmarAppledude
IMHO Blackbelt is quite rightly pointing out some of the ignorance surrounding Linux and the utter determination to reject good ideas displayed by some people, if it means they have to put any effort whatsoever. Not a lot of effort in the case of Knoppix too.

I haven't been with this forum a long time but I have seen more example of basic humanity, advice and less flaming than any other. Even when the people here strongly dissagree with each other, they tend to demostrate their ideas with evidence rather than bad mouthing each other. That's a good thing yeah.

That's a lot of it. One of the things that really struck me was the idea, expressed more than once, that I couldn't possibly be a Linux user and not know how cookies worked. As "an elite linux type" (http://friends.portalofevil.com/sp.php?si=3&fi=000026095&ti=1000628996&pi=1000629894) , I must know about how every aspect of computing worked, or there's something wrong with my story.

You know, back when this site was Linuxnewbie.org, flame wars were pretty common. (Nothing approaching this of course. The format change, and the vigilence and diligence of the mods really made this a better place to get support and information... kudos!

[Jata]

I can't help but think that maybe the Linux Geek thing was the catalyst, maybe they felt threatened somehow? I'd ignore the lot if I were you. They obviously have some strange agenda that defies comprehension. Nothing of the sort would ever happen in these forums due, as you said, to the mods.

[infiniphunk]

I checked out that website and felt it was pretty lame overall. You have to be careful with some websites, guage the kind of people you will find are members of the forum and then act accordingly.
Those folks reacted to your suggestion of checking out Knoppix the way they did because they lack imagination, intelligence, and open-mindedness.
It's their loss, blackbelt_jones, not yours.
From what I saw at the website, I've decided it was a total waste of time, and now that I have enjoyed my daily dose of Justlinux, I am going outside for a nice walk and some exercise. I think off-season also made me a little bit too tubby this winter.

[belsonc]

I'm thinking the Linux+beard thing might be a reference to RMS... you guys think I'm giving these people too much credit by assuming they know who RMS is?

[blackbelt_jones]

Originally posted by belsonc
I'm thinking the Linux+beard thing might be a reference to RMS... you guys think I'm giving these people too much credit by assuming they know who RMS is?

Yes. Definitely.

I think it's a hippie thing. Or maybe it's just a marker, a secret code, a way to seperate the insiders from the outsiders. Like I'm supposed to be scratching my head and wondering what the hell it's about.

[Omnscnt(Sortof)]

I can't help but wonder: What kind of a post do the people on that site respond posativly to? I can't imagine, but I think I'll go throw rocks at the bee's nest by posting one of my long political rants and see what happens.

[Parcival]

Maybe I should top that with a post entirely writte in Swiss German. :D

Guet Nacht, ig go jetz go schloffe.

[Seven up]

Just a guess here please correct me if Im wrong but it seems to me that I have heard the term beard being refered to as a person who pretends to be a boyfriend / husband, or girlfriend / wife of someone who is gay. Maybe they were saying that you were a linux geek poser.

[blackbelt_jones]

I found this little disturbing: someone at POE has linked to this thread. Should I have anticipated that ? How does someone follow me over here? I left a brief comment at the sister site (POE NEWS) about a weird sex cult story and that seemed to open a brand new floodgate of bile. Five comments left in the past twenty minutes.

http://www.poe-news.com/forums/sfs.php?si=31&fi=000048228

So it's more of the same tiresome Junior High vileness, only now they're mocking all of us. This time, I really do deserve it for going back there. I just hope they don't start posting in here, although I'm sure that the JL mods would shut them down in a hurry.

But if it gets ugly in here for a while, please accept my apologies for whatever role I played in bringing this about.

[infiniphunk]

OK, how about locking this thread now?:eek:

[blackbelt_jones]

Here's sometinh that someone nice left:
The Dalai LLama
...Pro-Tip: calling someone a "beardo" is a way of mocking that person by implying that he is an immature child, growing his first patchy beard...you're welcome...

[blackbelt_jones]

Originally posted by infiniphunk
OK, how about locking this thread now?:eek:

Good idea.

[Dancen]

Wow, that snowballed pretty quickly.

I'll admit, if I saw that post I would wonder if you were just advertising Knoppix at first, but the first thing "melonade" did was to imply that you're a pedophile? That seems excessive, since just asking "Why are you so into privacy?" would have gotten an answer without all the flaming.

Then you had to go and answer that post with a rational explanation. What were you thinking?!

I don't get melonade though, whoever it is seems to think that it's irrelevant if someone logs all your internet activity and records everything, provided you aren't doing anything wrong. Makes me wonder how much spyware is on his/her computer.

Anyway, it's all downhill from there.

Nice try promoting Knoppix, it's just too bad the wrong people found your post first.

Edit: Hahaha, I just saw your most recent post there. Well played, staying with a good sense of humor and taking the high ground.

[Parcival]

Thread locked upon request.

How do they get here? If they are not that stupid, keep their eyes open, and check their log files what domains redirected to them in the last 24h (everytime someone clicks blackbelt's link) then they know pretty fast where to go and check.

[Parcival]

Originally messaged by blackbelt_jones
Someone in the POE News forum suggested that they traced me back through my blog, which contained a link to this thread. I put the address of the blog in my profile at POE, before I really knew what I was getting into.

If you have the time, you might want to add this post on to the end of the thread, as a cautionary tale.