Some day,
I will write a paper on self-referential jokes and meta-humour, with particular focus on the phenomenon of "trolling". It's by no means exclusive to the internet, but online is an excellent place to observe such behaviour because it exists there in abundance and is automatically documented for future reference.

Nobody will read my paper, but I find it fascinating. Some days the layers upon layers of injokes, satire, lying, mockery and outright provocation in this place leave me reeling. After a while if I'm online too long my humour detectors break down completely and I can't tell what's serious any more - everything seems to have been written sarcastically or as a wry commentary on something else. If I'm chatting to friends online I have to keep reminding myself that they are probably taking my words seriously and at face value, and I need to do the same for them.

I think this happens to a lot of people who spend much time online. We have a means of communication that is completely lacking in tone or emotional nuance, no consequence or sometimes even reaction to your words and an almost infinite amount of information available at will. Over time that leads to a complete loss of understanding of reality. It's too easy to forget that the world is more than a keyboard where you put stuff in, and a screen where responses appear mysteriously and spontaneously out of nowhere.

If you flick through any newspaper's online archives you'll find plenty of reactionary horror stories about some teen driven to violence or suicide by the Evil Internet. A lot of what's written is patently crap to anyone but middle-aged, out of touch journalists, but I think that people brought up online - probably most kids under 20 - are affected in their thinking to a greater or lesser extent by this weird parallel world that exists only in pixels; superficially similar but fundamentally different to the "real" thing. The Tetris effect goes a lot deeper than just dreaming about falling coloured blocks.

Anyway, enough speculative, pseudointellectual, sci-fi bollocks. I've probably strayed vastly from my main point about trolling, but it seems symptomatic of a greater, sweeping culture change to me.

You've all tl;dr this anyway. Well, fuck you retards.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 8:59, archived)

I'm not a retard *sads*
I read all of that.
In my opinion I think you're right. I often struggle to tell when people are being serious or sarcastic here.
(Poppet some assembly required., Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:01, archived)

to be honest, modern language is full of in-jokes, memes and cultural references
these take the forms of idioms, collocations and all the other stuff I have to explain to foreigners.

Did you know that the idea of boycotting comes from what Lord Boycott's farmers did to him? No, but you still use the word, what with it being a 200-year-old in-joke.
( Grrrmachine the indifference engine, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:19, archived)

See, I wasn't being serious.
It was like a nod to that essay I just wrote. Like a joke, but without a punchline or any humour value.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:22, archived)

tl;dr?

( sleepybinky, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:01, archived)

too long; didn't read

( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:02, archived)

OH I SEE.
i read it.
( sleepybinky, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:02, archived)

me too
i'm worried that MCB has gone off the rails a bit
( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:03, archived)

You're just too old to understand.
But you're probably right. I've not been sleeping much lately and spending too much time typing on keys and looking at pixels. I'll be glad when Uni finished and I can escape to France where there will be no computers and plenty of fresh air and mountains. Three weeks spent severed from the World Wide Web is exactly what I need.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:06, archived)

sounds like it.
get laid too while you're at it. Makes one of us at least. :(
(Poppet some assembly required., Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:07, archived)

am i that much older than you?
we're in the beautiful hair club together, remember?
( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:09, archived)

Yes.
No. 2 years or so I think. You have lovely hair, mine is terrible these days.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:19, archived)

oh jesus YOU CAN'T BE TOO OLD TO UNDERSTAND
you can be too YOUNG to understand - but too old? understanding is a matter of experience and an old person can still have the right combination of circumstances/thoughts to understand.
( sleepybinky, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:11, archived)

You'd know what I'm on about
if you weren't so old.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:23, archived)

I'm afraid all this
and indeed your post up there says is

"Wah Wah Wah no-one understands me and life is too hard"

Man the fuck up. No-one MAKES you spend your fucking life online, just because you have access to a computer. You don't need to go to France to do it.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:27, archived)

This is almost completely true
for a measure of "MAKES" and "need" that is too stupid to quibble about.

What it all boils down to is me being shit and you being a convenient target for me to whine to.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:35, archived)

Then don't be shit.
It's easier than you think ;)
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:55, archived)

Mostly I'm fairly awesome.
Today is just an off day.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 10:11, archived)

hello binks!
how goes it?
(Poppet some assembly required., Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:05, archived)

WELL i have made a rubber band ball the size of a cricket ball.... in about 2 hours, with interruptions.

( sleepybinky, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:12, archived)

I applaud this achievement.

( broadsword, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:13, archived)

HAVE YOU SEEN THE PAINT BALL?
some guy painted a baseball so many times that it grew to the size of a boulder

HOLD ON i'll find it
*scurries off*
( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:14, archived)

LOOK!*
www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9792

*if it was possible, i'd replace the Os in LOOK with big googly eyes
( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:16, archived)

WHAT THE HELL that is awesome.
that guy must be as singleminded as a I DON'T KNOW WHAT AS.
( sleepybinky, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:26, archived)

words

( DeSpong currently knitting your suggestions - see profile, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:01, archived)

what's tl;dr?
I read all of that.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell when people are being serious round here, so I try and err on the side of 'They're joking. Hopefully.'

Or at least, I'd like to.

As an aside though, I do truly believe that the viciousness a lot of people online (not necessarily here) really does show that they've lost sight of what's funny and what isn't, and they're just....well, fuckheads. Badly raised, bitter little fuckheads that don't know how to be funny any other way.
( Captain Wow currently being a cunt in Infamous, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:02, archived)

www.b3ta.com/talk/6216640
( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:03, archived)

Ahhhh

( Captain Wow currently being a cunt in Infamous, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:03, archived)

it's not really the time of day for tl;dr because the board is slow, everyone has time to read things

( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:04, archived)

not me
I got as far as time in that post. what was your point?
(Bazongaloid, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:08, archived)

well, for the 'not me' to make sense
you had to have read to the end of my post

HAH
( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:11, archived)

ALSO, i agree with the the last point
it does seem like some people feel that the only way to get attention is to upset people.

we were talking about this the other day.
( manolith hooray for me, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:07, archived)

A bully's a bully's a bully, I think.
Or at least, I do at the moment. The more I think about it, the more occurs to me.
( Captain Wow currently being a cunt in Infamous, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:08, archived)

Maybe.
From the right perspective, that's part of the joke. Like this SSG thing. I don't know if he really has cancer. I assume not, but maybe he does. It scarcely matters for the purposes of his posts and our responses. If there is any humour, it doesn't come from the subject matter but from how people react, and the disparity between their apparent reaction and what they actually think. That's an awful explanation, but I'm incapable of putting the ideas into words, or even thinking about it coherently.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:12, archived)

I think I get you.
I do see what you mean, as I say, the more I think about it, the more occurs.
( Captain Wow currently being a cunt in Infamous, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:13, archived)

You're right though, things can go too far.
That's sort of part of what I meant up there but failed to say.

I'm so confused.
(MooCow_Byter, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:13, archived)

I read it all and I agree completely.
People who have matured and grown up using and socialising on the net do have an altered sense of emotion (for lack of a better term). MSN for instance, sometimes it takes some reading between the lines to see someone's real meaning, and if you've never had an online chat before, you might not be able to do that.

I get very rude to some people (strangers) online, and even though I don't mean to be cruel, I do sometimes need to remind myself I might be hurting feelings of real people.
( Bats, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:02, archived)

You fucking cunt.

( Edd: The Unfunny Try-Hard Edgelord, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:05, archived)

Go play in traffic.
You're nothing but a troll sat in his anime-filled bedroom covered in Wotsit dust.
( Bats, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:07, archived)

*reports to the mods*

( Edd: The Unfunny Try-Hard Edgelord, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:07, archived)

www.sickipedia.org/tag/wotsits
( broadsword, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:09, archived)

Yeah!
What?
( broadsword, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:05, archived)

It's like a hissing, seething, network of minds all working to strangle each other like murderous data snakes.

( Undulating Tentacles of Love getting fun down to acceptable levels, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:11, archived)

I'm touching my murderous data snake RIGHT now

( broadsword, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:12, archived)

That's more of a feather boa dear.

( Undulating Tentacles of Love getting fun down to acceptable levels, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 9:18, archived)