Mob mentalities of internet commentators

Uploading a picture or playing a flash game on the internet is no more a big deal. It has become all about sharing and discussing. Here we look at the trends of comments on various social forums.

Facebook:

This is probably the safest place on the internet to comment. As difficult as it is to believe so, the people in your facebook profile, are your friends. Or just people you know. Ok. Or maybe that babe you found too hot not to poke. The essential goodness of facebook is apparent in the absence of a thumbs-down or unlike button.

YouTube:

A place of constant chaos. Exhaustive researches have shown us that there may not be a single video posted on YouTube that does not have an against-the-majority opinion. Put up anything, and there will be at least one person who makes a negative comment. But, the availability of a thumbs-down button for comments buries such 'derogatory' remarks, six thumbs under.

Flickr:

A great place for upcoming photographers, flickr is the equivalent of a mutual mastur........ mutual ADMIRATION society. Noone completely disses another's work. The negative remarks here goes more like, 'maybe the lighting was a bit harsh' or 'try playing with the exposure settings,' as against what you might find in YouTube -- something like, 'i can feel the heat from that steaming pile of turd all the way here in New Mexico. what a waste of internet space!'

The mutual mastur........ (why am I getting stuck on that word?) The mutual admiration society at work in flickr is also evident from the various communities formed here; notice that there are no 'The Worst Pictures Ever' community in flickr.

Digg:

The conception of digg was probably something like, 'Hey! Look at all these cronies on the net going at each other. You bet they would wanna do the same if we do it for regular pages.'

And digg was born. Here you will find YouTube like comments and comments-within-comments and comments-within-comments-within-comments and comments-within-comments-within-comments-within-comments-..........

(the original poster of this blog died here because of exhaustion. The rest of the post is made by a new guy. And coz he's kinda new to this job, ye' know. take it easy people.)

4chan:

The sub-species of the internet. Humans, but not quite. They talk in a language that is vaguely similar to English. To understand 4chan you have to become one among the sub-species. But these vastly territorial beasts of the internet can sniff a n00b (newbie for the uninitiated) from distant galaxies. A sensible way of getting into 4chan is to observe the space for at least 6 months or moar. Oxford and Cambridge have plans to start a course for 4chan-isation seeing the rising demand for such.

Well, that's all for a quick look at mob mentality and the internet.

Huh? What do you say? Rediff? Ok. Wait. Let me just check.

(Sorry to inform you about the sad demise of our new writer. His IP was last tracked to a rediff message board about Shiney Ahuja rape case. So, we have decided that,)

Rediff:

Possibly fatal. Avoid at all cost.