Internet Culture, Bullying and #DoNotFeedTheTrolls

It was not quite a year ago when I posted about the seemingly downward spiral that post-modern online culture is taking (Has Gamer Culture Gone Out of Control?) and linked to Why the Trolls Will Always Win on Wired.com.

Now, following a very controversial run as interim CEO of Reddit, Ellen Pao has published an opinion piece on the Washington Post: The trolls are winning the battle for the Internet

Perhaps the Internet is not the Great Equalizer (Business Week circa 1996), as earlier speculated, but rather anonymity has brought out the worse of humanity to the online world?

Has Gamer Culture Gone Out of Control? #StopGamerGate2014

It's been simmering under the radar for quite some time, but now it's hitting the front pages of major news outlets: #GamerGate, online mobs and harassment of women (and anyone expressing critical opinion).

Here's the path that lead me down the rabbit hole:

Why the Trolls Will Always Win

Doesn't take much searching to then find:

5 Things I Learned as the Internet's Most Hated Person

Another Woman In Gaming Flees Home Following Death Threats

Searching on names that keep coming up in these articles:

Anita Sarkeesian shares the most radical thing you can do to support women online

And now the New York Times:

Feminist Critics of Video Games Facing Threats in ‘GamerGate’ Campaign

Has this reached critical mass where leaders in the multi-billion dollar industry of gaming need to step up and take a stand against harassment? Check out the new hashtag on Twitter that is getting attention: #StopGamerGate2014 - can real change start to take hold?

You Mad Bro' ... Does everything have to be controversial?

I was actually surprised to read that the giveaway of the new U2 album by Apple has managed to upset lots of people:

Free U2 album: How the most generous giveaway in music history turned PR disaster

To be honest, I think the headline is feeding the flames a bit by calling it a PR disaster. But the question is this: has the Internet community been overwhelmed by whiners, complainers and trolls?   

Perhaps there's just as many or more people that are happy about getting some free music in their iTunes account. Those stories don't get such clickable* headlines as the one above.

On the other hand, maybe it was just a bad choice of delivery:

Why the Free U2 Album is Pissing Off Apple Users

So, just dropping the free album into everyone's iTunes account is a bad way to do it.  Next time (if there is one), just give everyone the option to accept the offer?  Anyway, now there's a nifty tool from Apple to remove the offending album.  Isn't technology fun???

* The spell checker doesn't like this word ... is it legit or did I just make up a new word?