Why is it that it seems there is no getting along in unmoderated chat rooms and forums? When I first got online lo, those many years ago, I joined what was at first a very friendly chat room. A group of people who could share ideas, conversation and lighthearted fun -- what could be more pleasant? At some point, it turned ugly when a busybody (my terminology) decided to check into the personal affairs of a fellow chatter and -gasp!- they were making up stories about their life. This person even tracked down and called our fellow chatter’s daughter and interrogated her. Now my opinion was that I could have cared less if someone portrayed themselves a little differently. They were leading a sad and lonely life.

This invasion of privacy, and the idiotic gossip that spiraled exponentially out of it, caused me and many others to leave the chat room and take to our instant messengers.

Now I find myself involved in a discussion forum in which either obsession with locating “cheaters” or complaints about “losing points” have almost overwhelmed the topics. The forum has no named moderators and has a system of self moderated user ratings and alerts for abuse.

Thus, a few zealots have not kept themselves to merely alerting the forum administrator to plagiarism and such offenses. They are shaming them within the discussion group, sometimes by their nationality: “Chinese girl” does such and such, “Indians” do such and such. And then taking it to blogs to shame them further.

Also in my opinion, personal vendettas at the forum have made some offenses serious for some zealot reporters, while their friends are indulging in the very same behavior as though for them it‘s just “loose talk“ or “friendly chatter“ if they make a threat against other users. This can result in banning from the site for some and not for others.

There is talk of “evidence” and “allocution” as though the forum is a courtroom. All of this recently culminated in an extraordinary display of childishness when vindictive users came to a discussion thread with new member i.d.s. They were there specifically to harass, by name calling and shaming, another user with whom they had an issue. An issue which was being reported to the forum admin regardless. The individual’s friends were not left out, either. I can only imagine what a new forum member would think in seeing this.

Now there is boasting and crowing about having other users banned, along with shaming at the banned person’s profile page. The forum is allowing this behavior to go on in full swing.

The forum, in my view, could use some trained and importantly, named moderators. Until such time, I plan to keep to my writing and sharing at sites that do so.