Paranoid People

Atrocities · #1 April 30th, 2002, 09:11 AM

Is it me, or is everyone a tad paranoid?

Richard · #2 April 30th, 2002, 06:47 PM

Why do you ask? What are you trying to get at?

capnq · #3 April 30th, 2002, 08:10 PM

People are still antsy since the recent exposure of a cheater on PBW.

We get lots of reports of things people are suspicious of, which turn out to be perfectly legit when we check them out.

capnq
PBW admin

Atrocities · #4 May 1st, 2002, 08:37 AM

People who are paranoid often seem too concerned that somehow, someway, someone is going to find out who they really are, and use that against them. It hinders free conversation, and is often a surprise to those who are a bit less paranoid.

I got an email from a person telling me to leave her son alone. WTF? I responded and asked her what she ment, and who her son was? She was less than friendly and threatened to call the FBI on me. I told her to go ahead, and gave her the 800 hot line number.

The point being, if just friendly emails back and forth to someone you'll never meet, talking about things like computer games and music can promote such fear, and yes, hatred, then why bother going on line? This lady formed an opinion of me because I like SEIV, and her son does as well. It took a lot of typing to get it through to this lady that her kid is safe, and that there is nothing wrong with talking about how to make a god damned ship set for Space Empires.

I guess I am just peeved because I did not expect to get yelled at for helping someone. Being a littled paranoid is a good thing, but to freak out everytime someone calling him self ATROCITIES sends your kid an email, well that is just over paranoid IMHO.

[ 01 May 2002: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Richard · #5 May 1st, 2002, 03:56 PM

Well my post below was an attempt at a joke.

However some folks are just this way, especially about things they don't understand. More than likely her son has run into someone else who is nefarious, and now she has taken it upon herself to email everyone he contacts via email with a threat to leave her son alone.

Corporate Dog · #6 May 1st, 2002, 05:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Richard:
Well my post below was an attempt at a joke.

However some folks are just this way, especially about things they don't understand. More than likely her son has run into someone else who is nefarious, and now she has taken it upon herself to email everyone he contacts via email with a threat to leave her son alone.

Actually, there's a good chance that nothing ever really happened. With all the sensationalism surrounding the Internet in the media ("Is it safe to use your credit card Online?!?", "Can identification theft happen to you?!?", "Who exactly is your child talking to in Internet chat rooms?!?"... all this and more on the 11 o'clock news) it's small wonder that anyone who has never really used the Internet thinks of it as some vast virtual den of thieves and child molesters.

It's all a part of what I call "Wal-Mart Syndrome". Ma & Pa Middle-America like things simple. Anything that's not simple is to be discarded from their thought processes as useless or (in the case of the Internet) dangerous, even if they have no real experience with said item.

Everyone's favorite department store empire gets the dubious distinction of having this syndrome named after it, because it's emblematic of such thought processes. Ma & Pa can visit the store, and take care of all their shopping needs in one fell swoop. To them, it's great. They only require simple things (which is all that Wal-Mart carries... the blandest of all items) and the purchasing process itself is made simple (no need to visit multiple stores).

Meanwhile, smaller stores which can't compete with the giant, get run out of business, even though they might carry specialty items, or things which aren't mass-produced.

Regards,
Corporate Dog