10ZenMonkeys has a profile up today on the poo-flinging Communists who assaulted presidential hopeful John Edwards in Second Life last week. Link to the email interview, and here's their earlier post on the incident. A post on the Edwards blog last week claiming credit read:
We simply did it for the lulz… The fact you were so bent out of shape to make a blog post on the OFFICIAL JOHN EDWARDS BLOG about how some people placed a bunch of shittingdicknipples on your lawn is mighty telling.
Reader comments after the jump.
An anonymous BoingBoing reader says,
The Patriotic Nigras are misrepresenting themselves as surreal liberal funsters. Here they are crashing gay clubs with homophobic AIDS jokes griefage: Video Links — one, two, three, four.
Another anonymous reader says,
The selection of catchphrases used throughout the article makes it pretty obvious, but the following quote solidifies it:
"As for the site’s identity, I have to clarify two things:
1. We’re not from Something Awful.
2. Ebaumsworld is a cover, and we’re not from there. Rule one in our book is “do not mention the site we come from.”"
These are members of 4chan's "/b/" messageboard. "Invasions" of this sort are a common pastime for members, even though they've supposedly been against forum rules since last summer. Their activities have been receiving more attention recently, especially the "Hal Turner Raid".
Re: "Here they are crashing gay clubs with homophobic AIDS jokes griefage" — The "Pools closed due to AIDS" line is another 4chan meme. I'm sure they through a few "Furfags burn in hell"s in there too. Most '/b/tards' repeat these phrases only because they are inside jokes, and to troll. As mentioned in the 10 zen monkies article, the only agenda these guys have is pissing people off. The only successful defense is immediate and thorough action by administrators, and a refusal to acknowledge any attempted griefing.
Ben says,
I disagree with the reader's conclusion that the griefers are /b/ denizens. As an avowed member of 4chan, I am aware that there is another faction of the internet community that uses such catchphrases as "Pool's closed due to AIDS", and often say things very much like:
"As for the site's identity, I have to clarify two things:
1. We're not from Something Awful.
2. Ebaumsworld is a cover, and we're not from there.Rule one in our book is "do not mention the site we come from."
They're also known for dressing as "nigras" (Black suit, dark skin, black suit). This other faction calls itself the GNAA, standing for (I kid you not) "Gay Nigger Association of America." The GNAA has a long history of griefing many messageboards and communities all over the internet, and almost always getting themselves misidentified as members of another board or organization. They're a tightly-knit group of dedicated people… one of their criteria for membership is that another GNAA member must come and meet you at your actual place of residence, so that they can come and physically abuse you if you should betray their cause. These people take themselves very seriously, and are very good at what they do. Ordinary /b/-tards (a people who post frequently in /b/ are known) are not organized or dedicated enough to do what the John Edwards defacement group did… they simply don't have the motivation or desire.
As to the remedies… I have to agree with the other poster. There is really no way to get rid of the GNAA other than just ignoring them and/ or getting a more secure means of communication or expression.
Yet another anonymous person says
In reply to Ben, I just thought I'd pass along the source of the GNAA's name. It comes from a particularly bad science fiction film, Gay Niggers From Outer Space.
For chrissakes another anonymous already says,
The truth is, the only way to understand the attack, or any of the comments on the attack, is to "LURK MOAR" (yet another meme which of course means to spend time on 4chan). This is not recommended, as 4chan is the cesspool of the internet (as horrifying as that is to imagine). I myself rarely venture to /b/. Wikipedia is a decent source of information about the bizarre culture of the site, and Encyclopedia Dramatica, a wiki maintained mainly by /b/tards, is another source of information (although, like 4chan, it can be a harrowing experience. Shock images and such abound). Another source of /b/tard culture is the now-defunct Danbooru, which has been resurrected at sagubooru.com/. A safer way to get a glimpse of the culture of the /b/tard is to lurk in 4chan's IRC channel, irc://irc.rizon.net/4chan. But ultimately, the sheer number of memes and such make /b/tards one of the hardest to understand subcultures I've ever encountered; pedophiles, trolls, amateur comedians, racists, 12-year-olds, camwhores, hipsters, slackers, and power-mad moderators are all in equal number (or so it seems, it's hard to tell how many are trolls). I've been going to 4chan for almost two years and it still baffles me. But by god, I love it nearly as much as I fear it.
Previously on BB:
