Nature of interacting with people on the Internet, I suppose.

It's so easy to forget how you would talk to people in "real life" when you're talking to them like this - you can't see their faces, you can't guage tone so easily, often you don't even know the person's real name.

Which removes a lot of the constraints on what you think is an acceptable subject for humour, or banter, or what questions to ask and how far to take them, etc.

I suppose that's just something you learn. When I was younger some friends and I had that massive, long-running spat with a guy in Manchester over a messageboard which, if it had been sorted out face-to-face, could have been diffused really easily, over a few drinks.

Eventually it came to a head and I posted this really vicious pretend news article about this bloke - he saw it and went nuts - I'd known which buttons to press, pressed them hard and watched him ignite. My friends all laughed, so I posted another one, basically saying no-one would give a s**t if he was dead.

Which I probably wouldn't have said to his face. Of course, posted under a pseudonym. I'm not proud of it. He - rightly - went insane and demanded to know who'd done it.

I realised I'd gone too far, owned up and spent an hour or so posting a lengthy explanation and a sincere apology, and eventually it was all OK and we became friends again.

I'm really not proud of it, though, and I resolved there and then never to be that cruel again. There's a lesson in it for all of us, I feel ...

Posted By: Ottosson Foxtrot on April 27th 2006 at 13:06:24

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