This isn’t a geocaching lesson; it’s a life-lesson. Which is, I suppose, what my book really is about – how to take what one learns geocaching and apply it to life.
Today’s lesson, then, comes from the geocaching forums (or fora, as one of my colleagues insists – correctly – on calling them). I’ve been very active on the forums since I wrote the book: having it in my signature line is free advertising, and so I’ve tried to make thoughtful posts, at least one every day.
And the things one sees …
There’s something odd about the Internet: its very anonymity can really encourage people to behave badly. We’ve all seen the recent brouhaha over the scary threats in IT professional Kathy Sierra’s blog; we’ve all seen “trolls,” people who say rude or nasty things just to get a reaction. And the geocaching forums are no exceptions.
The thread had an innocuous title: What Do You Take With You? And I was delighted to enter the conversation: it’s an ongoing topic — how much gear do you need? What’s useful to carry? What’s just deadweight?
And then I realized that when they were calling the gear “arsenal,” they were serious. These people are taking *handguns* into the woods with them.
Never mind whether or not you think that owning a handgun is a Good Thing. Let’s talk sense: a handgun isn’t going to stop a bear. It’s going to annoy the bear. It’s going to make the bear want to hurt you back. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to give a bear any additional reasons for wanting to hurt me.
And then there’s my personal aversion to handguns, and my sense that I’m not sure I want to belong to a group that thinks it’s okay to carry them. Which brings us back to my original point: no matter what group you belong to, people in that group will often exhibit behavior or make statements with which you do not agree. Sometimes you really disagree strongly, in fact, with what they say or do.
Am I going to change them? Not a chance.
I decided not to enter the conversation. It’s an old, old argument, and one that will never be resolved. As my husband Paul often says, “it will end in tears.” People make outrageous statements and then sit back and enjoy the fun of watching people rise to the bait. So I went off and helped a high school student decide how to write a paper on geocaching instead.
My conclusion? Don’t feed the trolls.
Here endeth the lesson.
– Jeannette Cezanne
Posted by: — jcezanne
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Paging Steve Hultquist! Steve is the moderator for the Epicski Forums, and constantly has to deal with forum trolls. In fact, it’s taken me many years to learn to avoid “troll feeding.”
Internet flame wars seem to be a fact of life. Yet years from now, I wonder what someone looking at these conversations will think of our culture.
Comment by lmercer — April 14, 2007 @ 11:43 am