[davidm]

Originally Posted by thedoc

Online everyone is anonymous, in real live you can confront the other person for real. If that other person is exhibiting irrational behavior there are things that can be done by interested 3rd parties, even if just reporting to authorities and letting events take their course. On the internet there is usually no way to know who you are dealing with, Peacegirl is the exception as someone could track her down if desired, but what do you do then, her posts are online, not screaming on a street corner. She could easily claim that she is playing with us or trolling, and then what can you do? we are only left with countering her posts with reality, I don't believe there is any way for anyone here to get her the help she needs.

That isn't really what I'm getting at, though. I'm not asking for anyone to do anything, as if anything could be done. I'm actually wondering why we don't stop doing stuff -- namely, laughing at the crazy person.

I'm saying, I'm pretty sure that none of us would spend two and a half years laughing at a crazy person standing a soapbox on a street corner IRL. And I bet none of us would spend two and a half years pestering such a person with questions, knowing, after the first day or two, that we would receive only duplicitous or incoherent responses. So why do we do it online? What is it about the online environment that makes us do what we would never do IRL?

My point is that the other rationalizations for posting -- that we are educating peacegirl, or educating lurkers -- are really empty claims. So why are we doing this?