Posted by PeterH on July 26, 2006 at 10:45:40 from 86.130.138.60 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Bullies (Was Cyber fraud; cyber-bullies) posted by Jock on July 26, 2006 at 06:00:49:
For all those who haven't been following my posts during the last 10 years
Heavens! Were we supposed to?
Seriously, I share Jock's loathing of bullying because I was bullied - at school, mercilessly. This is not as off-topic as it sounds because, to evade the bullies, I switched schools and in the new school library there were SA and WH and that's when I first discovered that magic.
bullying . . . over the Internet
I am not sure what is envisaged here, but on a discussion forum like Tarboard it is logically impossible to 'bully' someone. I speak with some feeling because I was accused of this a while ago. The essence of bullying is that the 'bully' is powerful in some way, while the victim is weak. Tarboard is a level playing field - we all have equal rights, ie we can post up messages, but we cannot interfere with other posts. As we do not have physical contact, there can be no physical threat. As we have no financial or business connections (usually), we cannot threaten in this way. Many of us are separated by oceans. No pressure can be exerted. Of course, it is possible on a forum to be unpleasant, verbose or excessively personal - all these are, rightly, against the Tarboard rules and are to be deplored, but they are not 'bullying', because the offended person has an equal right of reply. Forgive me going on about this, but I think it is vital that we don't misuse words - nearly every word in the English language has a precise meaning, and this must not be eroded.
(IMHO)