your "escape" line really resonates with me since for up until like, 2015 or so, the web really felt like a distinct separate realm from the real world and a separate place..... since then it feels like it's merged in kind of the 'worst of both worlds' way ahah....
like it was almost an abstracted state of play, kinda. to your point also, there were The Bad Places (rotten dot com, etc), but generally people online were savvy enough to not go there, at least unintentionally. there were *places* to go to - deviantart, fansites, livejournal, neopets, digg, etc.
your "killing with kindness" method also resonates... there's a buddy over on bsky who i have a sneaky feeling thinks similarily to you (heysawbones?) -- who's mentioned once or twice that apparent "trolls" sometimes really do end up being people who are autistic/oblivious enough to not get what the hubhub about a certian topic are.
and oooh that's an interesting article, if sobering. you always have good taste, thank you. :)
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like it was almost an abstracted state of play, kinda. to your point also, there were The Bad Places (rotten dot com, etc), but generally people online were savvy enough to not go there, at least unintentionally. there were *places* to go to - deviantart, fansites, livejournal, neopets, digg, etc.
your "killing with kindness" method also resonates... there's a buddy over on bsky who i have a sneaky feeling thinks similarily to you (heysawbones?) -- who's mentioned once or twice that apparent "trolls" sometimes really do end up being people who are autistic/oblivious enough to not get what the hubhub about a certian topic are.
and oooh that's an interesting article, if sobering. you always have good taste, thank you. :)