The radical notion that women should engage in internecine flamewars on the Internet

[nameandnature]

Oh my. The feminist bloggers have taken on the Internet Hate Machine known as Anonymous. Encyclopedia Dramatica (very NSFW and extremely offensive, don't blame me if you get fired) has the scoop on the post which might have been from Biting Beaver that started it all, as well as the on-going aftermath.

Some of the commenters on the feminist blogs get it, and actually tell them what's going on and how to weather the raids (ilyka, or Holly in this thread). Luckily for Anonymous, the rest of the commenters either ignore them or jump on them and accuse them of misogyny, while beginning the countdown which will end in them reaching Defcon 1 and launching the e-lawyers against the Patriarchy. Hint: the only winning move is not to play.

It's like the Internet perfect storm. Who brought popcorn?

Comments

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

I'm a member of feminist, and there's a lot of good, sensible interesting stuff in there. It also does have its share of trolls and posters with an apparent sense of proportion bypass, however.

[nameandnature]

My impression from when it gets linked from elsewhere is that it's mainly about the mods preventing the use of words like "niggardly" or "lame", so I wonder about their sense of proportion and how it affects the community as a whole. There's also the US-biased, "the Man is keeping you down, man" attitude: the thread linked from stupid_free is a classic example, where most of the community said you shouldn't call the cops if you hear what sounds like domestic violence, in case the cops find your neighbours have some pot or are illegal immigrants.

In the case of Anonymous, the categories imposed by their religion mean they can't see what Anonymous is about because it doesn't fit them (with the exceptions noted above), so they're reduced to denouncing the people on their own side as sell-outs.

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

My impression from when it gets linked from elsewhere is that it's mainly about the mods preventing the use of words like "niggardly" or "lame"

That's ... not a portrayal I recognise.

[nameandnature]

Have you tried calling something "lame"? :-)

I suspect my impression is partly down to only reading the bits of it I see linked to from snark communities like stupid_free, although the domestic violence episode lead directly to the formation of worldfeminism, suggesting that some of the actual members felt the atmosphere was a bit stifling.

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

Have you tried calling something "lame"? :-)

:-P

There is an expectation that comment discussion in there should be constructive, which does make a refreshing change from lots of forums, and I find makes me think a little more about what I post.

[andrewducker]

You could replace "feminist" with a vast number of LJ communities, mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc. :->

I've been in and run a large number of mailing lists, and apart from the ones I limited to close friends there were _always_ people on it who were clearly either on too many drugs or not enough.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Blah.

The blog of the person at the center of the storm has unfortunately become the Blogger equivalent of friends only.