The Proper Authoritah

One thing we must do when faced with Internet goons (or government goons) is to always make sure to notify the proper authorities. It doesn’t always work. In fact, it usually doesn’t work. But that’s part of having civilized interactions.

In regard to the Fark goons, I wrote an e-mail to Drew Curtis. After describing the situation and my normal admiration for Fark, I said:

Again, I realize that not all Farkers are like this. There has been a small group of people protesting this immature behavior. But the overall tone has been one of “he got what he deserved and screw you for calling us on it.” (In a bit more graphic terms)

I just thought you’d like to know that these people are ruining your reputation as a cool place to find funny links and photos on the web. If the name of Fark doesn’t mean more than this, then be prepared for your support to slowly trickle away or become the first place people think of when they mention unabashed idiots on the Web. I like Fark, and I don’t want to see that happen. But I won’t promote the site with any of my meager power until something is done about its goon squads.

To which, I received this reply:

We ban people constantly on Fark, up to 10 a day, for behavior like this. We get rid of them as soon as they show themselves. The good news is these people are truly in the minority, Fark has 1.4 million readers.

Drew Curtis

I thanked him for his response, and told him that the owner of the blog in question might have a lengthy list of IP’s for him to investigate. He said he would contact them and find out.

Hopefully, things will get better, not worse, because of my meddling. We shall see.

On a side note that Statia is just gonna love, one of the main wKen defenders in the Fark forums was Wil Wheaton…