3 ms·

Blaming an entire community for individual actions is dangerous. Sometimes it is called for, but first I'd like to see a real honest analysis about why these co

• odessacubbage 8y ago
  higher rates of serious mental illnesses among the userbase. anon sites are highly appealing to people on the autistic spectrum in particular for a variety of reasons, i think that the concept of autistic burnout that was outlined in this post >https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19311970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19311970 could have a lot to do with that. but also the posting style itself is attractive to fringe personalities of all sorts. there is no cumulative reward to anything you post, you don't get karma or followers; you maybe get a few laughs or are called a retard but that's it. on the flipside, there's also virtually no disincentive since short of breaking the law, nothing you say really matters. i personally find it much easier to have positive interactions on anon sites and have made many good friends that way. however, possibly due to the high rates of comorbidity among asd individuals (depressive and anxiety disorders are the rule rather that the exception) you end up with a lot of people with varying degrees of instability and, anecdotally, a not insignificant number of people with more serious conditions like schizophrenia. iirc, both james harper mercer and elliot roger were asd; they were also both fucking losers but that goes without saying i believe that imageboards are highly valuable and that the problems that can be seen within them are reflective of greater societal issues that we refuse to acknowledge.