Ah yes, 1993. The year after AOL granted internet access to their users and ruined the place.

Before then, if you were an asshole on the net, somebody could complain to your school or company and you'd get spoken to about your behavior.

Even sites like I was using for internet access in 1987 (*nix boxes run by folks who let friends dial in) would make you behave because you being a jerk might result in them losing their connection to the net.

So normally, there'd be a big influx of clueless idiots and jerks in September as new college students got access and it'd die off as they got slapped down by administrators.

Then came AOL. Who didn't even *pretend* to keep any sort of control on their users... :-(

So now we have trolls and spammers and many other things that are a pain.

no, the spammers and trolls should be the sacrifice.

Edited at 2009-01-31 12:49 am (UTC)