Ramaraunt
WALL OF TEXT INCOMING! If you don't feel like reading this, then don't reply to this thread.
This thread is meant to be a constructive one. If you don't have anything constructive to say, and you post too much, I may decide to lock this thread.
It is obvious to me that there exists inherent problems with most online communities. This is simply due to the fact that online, one can maintain complete anonymity so there is no responsibility required for ones actions. I will go over a few scenarios that will happen in today's online society, and together we can brainstorm ways to handle these issues constructively. Together, we can possibly achieve a more positive outcome in many of these extremely negative situations, as long as we act in the proper manner.
The reason this is in the guild hall, and not the off-topic section, is that in this thread, I will be talking about the Taleworld's community in specific. Please do not take my words as naming and shaming, since I am firmly against holding grudges against people, and instead I think that everyone deserves another chance, though once trust is lost it is incredibly hard to regain. While I myself have not committed any of the crimes I am about to mention, I am not saying that people who have committed these crimes should be bared from the community entirely. Blocking people is possible in some regards, but completely removing someone, in the modern age of proxies and VPNs, is all but impossible. Though, creating a personal "block list" of individuals you refuse to talk with, and warning others about these people, is not a bad thing.
Since this is not a naming and shaming thread, I will refrain from using actual names in these discussions, and I hope that other people will do the same. This is NOT a thread about warning your friends about certain people, or explaining about a certain thing that has happened in the past so you can shame the people involved. This thread is more about GENERAL things that may happen, and how to deal with these situations as they appear.
I will now begin to discuss a few situations that occurred in my past, so that we can begin our conversation on this fascinating but depressing topic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first major thing we should talk about is, of course, the script kiddie. Believe it or not, "script kiddie" is a professional term in the realm of computer security, which reefers to an individual who has little knowledge of computer hacking, but still commits crimes by using tools that other people have provided for them to use. The primary, and most frightening, kind of script kiddie in the Taleworld's community, we must all agree, is the DDoSer. A DDoS attack, or a Distributed Denial of Service attack, is a childish way of turning of someone's internet for a short period of time, by spamming them with conection requests. Most DDoSers know little to nothing about how this process is actually done, and instead use free tools that they find from online on sketchy websites to do it for them. Because of this, unfortunately, most DDoSers are well underage, some of them only 12 years old or even less.
The main issue, is not people who DDoS just to be trolls, but is when people DDoS as a form of "Frontier Justice." Not long ago, I was wronged by someone. Many of my friends, even some of them who were older than me, asked me the same question: "Can I get this person DDoSed for you?" Universally, I said one thing. A big, fat, NO. Telling your buddies that DDoSing is stupid is a good way to convince them that it is, so they don't do it. Because in the end, DDoSing just causes a circle of hate, and the DDoSer can become even more guilty of wrong doing than the original perpetrator of whatever crime it was. When fighting fire, the best solution is never to use fire, but to instead use other tactics like water. Another way to look at this, is through a statement I learned long ago. "Never become your enemy." By DDoSing to get revenge or to get "justice," you are ironically becoming the very thing you are fighting against: a wrongdoer.
Ways to Fight DDoSers:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Avoid situations where you will be DDoSed. Don't hang around people who are known to DDoS, no matter how much you like them.
[*]Tell your friends that DDoSing is bad, and get mad at them if they DDoS other people.
[*]Never join a teamspeak where your IP isn't safe. Teamspeaks can be set up so that only the owner can see your IP. This is how it should always be. Discourage your friends from joining unsafe communities.
[*]Never join a gameserver where the owner is a known DDoSer. Gameserver admins are known to DDoS people from time to time, depending on the individual in charge, using the IPs which they can gain access to when you join the server. Discourage your friends from joining these communities.
[*]Never DDoS anyone yourself. It only encourages those around you to do the same, and can get you in jail for three years if caught.
[/list]
Of course, the script kiddie is not the only kind of online criminal. There are phishers as well: those who want your money. I was recently scammed into helping a person with their mod. He asked the community for donations, and gained hundreds of dollars, then ran off with all the money. Needless to say, this kind of situation is upsetting to me, after I put in so much effort. I learned, that you need to always be vigilant of who you do business with, and make sure that you have something to hold them accountable with. Since they can easily remain anonymous online, it is too easy for them to disappear into the shadows. Trust noone, even your best friend. In this kind of environment, where it is easy to take advantage of people, the worst aspects of human nature will become disgustingly apparent in even the nicest of people.
Ways to Fight Phishers:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Be vocal. If you see a phisher, be sure to tell everyone you can to warn them.
[*]Ask around. Ask people if the individual is trustworthy who you want to do business with. Think of past experiences with the person, and use that to decide as well.
[*]Keep your wallet protected. Make sure you can trust someone before you give them your money. Make sure they can be held accountable if they do something wrong.
[*]Even if someone looks like they are an official group/company, don't trust them right away. Some of the worst phishers in the community right now are working behind the face of a corporate name.
[*]Report phishers to authorities. If they are caught, they can face up to twenty years of jail time.
[/list]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's all I will post to start this discussion. If you have other kinds of things you want to post about related to the subject of online crime, please mention it bellow. I will update this thread with more tips and tricks as the discussion develops. Thanks for reading this far!
This thread is meant to be a constructive one. If you don't have anything constructive to say, and you post too much, I may decide to lock this thread.
It is obvious to me that there exists inherent problems with most online communities. This is simply due to the fact that online, one can maintain complete anonymity so there is no responsibility required for ones actions. I will go over a few scenarios that will happen in today's online society, and together we can brainstorm ways to handle these issues constructively. Together, we can possibly achieve a more positive outcome in many of these extremely negative situations, as long as we act in the proper manner.
The reason this is in the guild hall, and not the off-topic section, is that in this thread, I will be talking about the Taleworld's community in specific. Please do not take my words as naming and shaming, since I am firmly against holding grudges against people, and instead I think that everyone deserves another chance, though once trust is lost it is incredibly hard to regain. While I myself have not committed any of the crimes I am about to mention, I am not saying that people who have committed these crimes should be bared from the community entirely. Blocking people is possible in some regards, but completely removing someone, in the modern age of proxies and VPNs, is all but impossible. Though, creating a personal "block list" of individuals you refuse to talk with, and warning others about these people, is not a bad thing.
Since this is not a naming and shaming thread, I will refrain from using actual names in these discussions, and I hope that other people will do the same. This is NOT a thread about warning your friends about certain people, or explaining about a certain thing that has happened in the past so you can shame the people involved. This thread is more about GENERAL things that may happen, and how to deal with these situations as they appear.
I will now begin to discuss a few situations that occurred in my past, so that we can begin our conversation on this fascinating but depressing topic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first major thing we should talk about is, of course, the script kiddie. Believe it or not, "script kiddie" is a professional term in the realm of computer security, which reefers to an individual who has little knowledge of computer hacking, but still commits crimes by using tools that other people have provided for them to use. The primary, and most frightening, kind of script kiddie in the Taleworld's community, we must all agree, is the DDoSer. A DDoS attack, or a Distributed Denial of Service attack, is a childish way of turning of someone's internet for a short period of time, by spamming them with conection requests. Most DDoSers know little to nothing about how this process is actually done, and instead use free tools that they find from online on sketchy websites to do it for them. Because of this, unfortunately, most DDoSers are well underage, some of them only 12 years old or even less.
The main issue, is not people who DDoS just to be trolls, but is when people DDoS as a form of "Frontier Justice." Not long ago, I was wronged by someone. Many of my friends, even some of them who were older than me, asked me the same question: "Can I get this person DDoSed for you?" Universally, I said one thing. A big, fat, NO. Telling your buddies that DDoSing is stupid is a good way to convince them that it is, so they don't do it. Because in the end, DDoSing just causes a circle of hate, and the DDoSer can become even more guilty of wrong doing than the original perpetrator of whatever crime it was. When fighting fire, the best solution is never to use fire, but to instead use other tactics like water. Another way to look at this, is through a statement I learned long ago. "Never become your enemy." By DDoSing to get revenge or to get "justice," you are ironically becoming the very thing you are fighting against: a wrongdoer.
Ways to Fight DDoSers:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Avoid situations where you will be DDoSed. Don't hang around people who are known to DDoS, no matter how much you like them.
[*]Tell your friends that DDoSing is bad, and get mad at them if they DDoS other people.
[*]Never join a teamspeak where your IP isn't safe. Teamspeaks can be set up so that only the owner can see your IP. This is how it should always be. Discourage your friends from joining unsafe communities.
[*]Never join a gameserver where the owner is a known DDoSer. Gameserver admins are known to DDoS people from time to time, depending on the individual in charge, using the IPs which they can gain access to when you join the server. Discourage your friends from joining these communities.
[*]Never DDoS anyone yourself. It only encourages those around you to do the same, and can get you in jail for three years if caught.
[/list]
Of course, the script kiddie is not the only kind of online criminal. There are phishers as well: those who want your money. I was recently scammed into helping a person with their mod. He asked the community for donations, and gained hundreds of dollars, then ran off with all the money. Needless to say, this kind of situation is upsetting to me, after I put in so much effort. I learned, that you need to always be vigilant of who you do business with, and make sure that you have something to hold them accountable with. Since they can easily remain anonymous online, it is too easy for them to disappear into the shadows. Trust noone, even your best friend. In this kind of environment, where it is easy to take advantage of people, the worst aspects of human nature will become disgustingly apparent in even the nicest of people.
Ways to Fight Phishers:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Be vocal. If you see a phisher, be sure to tell everyone you can to warn them.
[*]Ask around. Ask people if the individual is trustworthy who you want to do business with. Think of past experiences with the person, and use that to decide as well.
[*]Keep your wallet protected. Make sure you can trust someone before you give them your money. Make sure they can be held accountable if they do something wrong.
[*]Even if someone looks like they are an official group/company, don't trust them right away. Some of the worst phishers in the community right now are working behind the face of a corporate name.
[*]Report phishers to authorities. If they are caught, they can face up to twenty years of jail time.
[/list]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's all I will post to start this discussion. If you have other kinds of things you want to post about related to the subject of online crime, please mention it bellow. I will update this thread with more tips and tricks as the discussion develops. Thanks for reading this far!
