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I went and read the forum in question. It's full of nontechnical people who are obviously teenagers. It reminds me a lot of video game forums I used to visit, w

by gosu 14y ago

I went and read the forum in question. It's full of nontechnical people who are obviously teenagers. It reminds me a lot of video game forums I used to visit, with gaudy image signatures and all, except here the competition is to collect (and trade) the best "slaves" and spy on them. My guess is that these people started out with video game cheats and, without anything better to do or anyone to stop them, it spiralled into this. One interesting tidbit is that people seem to often post stories of interactions with their "slaves". It usually involves them trying to seem powerful and scary, but at the same time there's an undertone of wanting to connect with the people that they spy on. For instance, after one guy intentionally outs himself by posting on his "slave's" facebook profile, he chats with her and keeps trying to convince her (in a threatening way) to skype him so that he can show her how to install an antivirus. There are also a lot of interactions of the "put a shoe on your head and hold this sign and I'll stop hacking you" variety. Edit: Also, don't miss that bit at the end about the RAT software author quitting in part because of the Syrian government's use of his software against rebels. Scary stuff.

satori99 14y ago
> without anything better to do or anyone to stop them, it spiralled into this Surely the basis for not being evil, is to not do bad things to other people by the command of your conscience? I understand that the majority of the offenders are likely children, and I hope that most of them will remember themselves doing this with feelings of shame for a very long time, because these sort of acts are not merely pranks. They may affect their targets in seriously negative ways.
- gosu 14y ago
  I was just trying to give interesting details, not so much to excuse or accuse. I just meant that, from the tone of discussion and my general impression of the people, that's how I assume that they wound up there. I imagine that it also has to do with amateur porn (not all of which is obviously released with consent) and reality TV making voyeurism a familiar thing. I guess I mostly think of them as dumb and immoral, but I do think that it's evil to have those kinds of interactions with people. I don't understand why people consented to holding up signs that said "pwned by...." - to me, that looks like bullying. Actually, I guess I do kind of understand. I got prank called regularly on high school, and that felt pretty terrible. But I tried to along with it in the hope of defusing it amicably, and it took me a long time to admit that I was a victim and go to a third party to make it stop (the equivalent here would be to reinstall windows).
tomjen3 14y ago
They want to interact with them because they feel alone and this is as far as their ability to handle social interactions go. It used to be that such people would eventually develop the skills to interact with adult society, but hey why do all that work when you can just put a hacked copy of Sims 3 on pirate bay. It makes me want to counter hack them (which wouldn't be very difficult) but I won't, because it would be illegal (and would potentially cause harm to third party).
- brador 14y ago
  They want to interact with them because the 'slaves' are above their social position. It's the only way they have to interact, if you can call it interacting, with that 'hot girl from facebook' who wouldn't give them a look in real It's that same reason most forum posters go crazy when a girl posts.
skeletonjelly 14y ago
I think it's a bit presumptuous to say the "gateway activity" if you will, to ratting innocent people was video game cheats. There are plenty of websites that use this forum style. There are plenty of bored people in the world.

by gosu 14y ago

satori99 14y ago

> without anything better to do or anyone to stop them, it spiralled into this Surely the basis for not being evil, is to not do bad things to other people by the command of your conscience? I understand that the majority of the offenders are likely children, and I hope that most of them will remember themselves doing this with feelings of shame for a very long time, because these sort of acts are not merely pranks. They may affect their targets in seriously negative ways.

gosu 14y ago
I was just trying to give interesting details, not so much to excuse or accuse. I just meant that, from the tone of discussion and my general impression of the people, that's how I assume that they wound up there. I imagine that it also has to do with amateur porn (not all of which is obviously released with consent) and reality TV making voyeurism a familiar thing. I guess I mostly think of them as dumb and immoral, but I do think that it's evil to have those kinds of interactions with people. I don't understand why people consented to holding up signs that said "pwned by...." - to me, that looks like bullying. Actually, I guess I do kind of understand. I got prank called regularly on high school, and that felt pretty terrible. But I tried to along with it in the hope of defusing it amicably, and it took me a long time to admit that I was a victim and go to a third party to make it stop (the equivalent here would be to reinstall windows).

tomjen3 14y ago

They want to interact with them because they feel alone and this is as far as their ability to handle social interactions go. It used to be that such people would eventually develop the skills to interact with adult society, but hey why do all that work when you can just put a hacked copy of Sims 3 on pirate bay. It makes me want to counter hack them (which wouldn't be very difficult) but I won't, because it would be illegal (and would potentially cause harm to third party).

brador 14y ago
They want to interact with them because the 'slaves' are above their social position. It's the only way they have to interact, if you can call it interacting, with that 'hot girl from facebook' who wouldn't give them a look in real It's that same reason most forum posters go crazy when a girl posts.

skeletonjelly 14y ago

I think it's a bit presumptuous to say the "gateway activity" if you will, to ratting innocent people was video game cheats. There are plenty of websites that use this forum style. There are plenty of bored people in the world.