Why people are more offensive online than offline

New Scientist Technology Blog

Plus of course the fact that the person you are being jocular with can't smash their beer glass in your face.

...is the correct answer.

I prefer the Penny Arcade interpretation.

Plus children aren't generally allowed in pubs.

I was quite amused by this response earlier in the week. Something of a character assasination based on me challenging her and her getting wound up. Perhaps I pushed a little hard but if you post on an open forum you have to accept you might not like what you get back.

It's funny how people can read quite a lot into the personality of a person based on a few posts on a topic they are emotive about.

Probably really nice person losing it

I'm still waiting for my hug as well.

What wanker started this thread anyway?

Probably a moderator.

I am equally offensive offline. That's why I spend so much time online as I have no real friends.

I have always been told this, that I am harsh online and nice in person.

Oh well.

Because you'll rarely meet so many cunts in one place as you will online.

Let's be brutally honest here people. Anyone that has posted more than about 50 times on this forum clearly already has a major personality defect.

Having been to a couple of TT parties, and seen what TT'ers look like, i can safely say that it's not just the personalities that have defects...

At 4k posts and counting, you may just be FUBAR in your own mind.

because they can.

I'm just as charming, charismatic, compassionate, and disputatious in person as I am online.

And so am I.

It's just the rest of you bastards that fuck up a good forum for me.

As your profile's picture.

Possibly because people online are more likely to act like spacktards and therefore tend to elicit a more offensive reaction. Or perhaps people online have a tendency to take offense a lot more than they would offline.

I think it's just that some people have a talent with writing rather than speaking, ya know, face-to-face. Which goes right back to that intial poster's intention...

Many people on TT or on other forums do not post to "Win Friends and Influence People"... Look, if most of us were as consistantly opinionated or deliberative in our day-to-day lives as we are on a discussion forum, then we would spend most of our time alone as it's simply not socially acceptable to express everything that you think about politics, religion and other sensitive topics.

In fact, some topics like religion and politics are considered absolutely taboo to discuss in certain company in some cultures.

That is the very reason that so many people post here. It's a place for discussion and debate and some people enjoy the atmosphere more than others. True, topics that should stay at the discussion level do often digress to mud-slinging contest when people use ad hominem arguments.

I very often intentionally go into a debate mode similar to what I was accustomed to in school and I have seen others do that as well. If you view a discussion forum on the net as a place to make friends or be social in the same way you would during personal interaction, then of course you are going to be shocked by the tone of certain post.

If you want to make friends or get to know people, go out and do it personally..face-to-face. Online is simply not a place to gauge the true nature of other people. The TT forum is predominantly about the exchange of information be it in the form of practical knowledge or intellectual opinions.

Don't try to make it something it's not and you won't be disappointed.

Saint, you just raised the intellectual bar with your post. Thanks for your insight.

Part of the problem is you're missing sooo much information when only reading text. Estimates vary but I've seen it said that only 8% of the meaning of a sentence is contained in the words alone.

LR, you look to have done it with me this morning. You look to have interpreted one of my posts as me possibly being a little vindictive and petty. I was in fact trying to be jokey but didn't write it very well. Those that know me personally will probably have spotted it immediatly.You do get into a habit of assuming people will be able to put the slant on a sentence that was in your head when it's gone across the wire and they've put their personal slant on it. The chances of this actually happening are pretty small.

I see now the intention of your question was written rheotorically and not to elicit a response. However, I would like to respectfully point out the fact you would even express such a negative question after spending such a positive time with your children could it be you may have some unresolved animosity issues to address ?

Of course there is. We've just separated.I do try and keep it under control though.

Her incapacity to deal with me doing things differently to her with the kids has been one of the main stress points of our relationship.

She came around this morning and the first thing she said was 'Andreas , put some socks on' as she is of the opinion that having cold feet will make him Ill. I'm of the opinion that having cold feet will make him put socks on if he's uncomfortable. At that point I pointed out that the door is the entrance to my flat and within these walls I do with the kids what I want, or we talk about it. Her way stays in her house and if she wants them to wear socks there that's her business now.

My problem exactly. I have more or less decided my online presence is so completely distant from my true personality (hundreds of false impressions later), most likely due to that above-described assumption of a kind of bar-room, tongue-in-cheek, say-whatever approach (paired with my dislike of emoticons and things like LOL or ROTFL) that the only chance for my posting to remain positive in karma is to curb it way down, and only try to be uplifting, supportive, helpful or informative, or all of the above.

The "Add Reply" button can be a dangerous thing.

Peace everyone, and have a good one.

ps. Life has more benefits when one is not online all of one's life.
It took me a while to discover that.

Emoticons were invented to try and give people the opportinuty to try and put some of the emotion they are trying to express across. I don't understand why people are so against their use.

Oh great. Another thread full of Dale Carnegie-style pop-psychology pabulum, written by none other than someone who constantly gets her panties all bunched up over what people write and in what tone they do so, not to mention all the perceived slights whether or not they exist... which... I just mentioned.

TT navel-gazing at its finest.

woof.

It should be possible to express our meaning without the use of smilies. Writers have been successfully achieving this for centuries before they were invented. If you feel you have to use a smilie then chances are you haven't composed the sentence as clearly as you could.

You'd think that smilies would be fairly simple to understand and yet probably around half the time an inappropriate one is used, or one is used where none is needed.

Different medium for a different need.

We're in a non real time conversation not writing a story. Besides experts in the areas of literature seem to spend inane amounts of time analysing what these gods of the written word actually meant.

Yeah, it's super tough to ask someone on an internet forum to explain what they meant if it's not clear to you...

@Showem: What do you mean by that?

You're an idiot. Can't you tell.

Apparantly not, or the question would not have been asked.

He was being sarcastic. Thanks for proving his point.

We could do this all day.

But who's kidding who now.

A few smileys and all would have been clearer.

You're and idiot. Can't you tell.

Seems less aggressive to me.

Boy did I ever learn that today!

Oh Oh, this is really not my day. I mean't to quote you before I added my last comment'

It's a bit like asking why so many people turn into arseholes when they step behind the wheel of their BMW (yes, I added the make just to flush out TT's resident car bigots)? Because they can...

Well it's like saying that Porsche Cayennes are seen as phallic symbols as they are driven by pricks