I recently had an experience on a small internet chat forum where I was vaguely threatened by the management with banishment if I didn’t conform to their rules.
Oh, and they also let me know that signing in through Facebook (a method they have on offer in plain view) is a way to get myself in trouble because I should’ve used my old handle, one I’d used years ago and had practically forgotten all about.
Couched in friendly language, the meaning was clear. “Watch your step, or there will be consequenses!”. Interestingly in one of the posts the moderator said, quite unnecessarily, “unfortulately we recently had to ban some longtime members for posting about their blogs on this site”, or something along those lines. Had to ban people. “Had” is such an interesting word selection here isn’t it? As if they had no other choice, it was out of their control. You “have” to call the police when someone is threatening you. You “have” to pay your taxes. You do not “have” to ban internet posters because they don’t fall into lockstep with whatever rules and regulations you have set forth for your little vitrual kingdom you’ve got going on.
This whole thing is pretty funny, it smacks of schoolyard politics and it’s so pervasive around the internets that people don’t even really have to check the rules pages on individual sites because they’ve got so much in common. Do this, don’t do that, or you’ll be punished, that’s the gist of it.
You would think the internet would be a place of free thinking and libertarian ideals, but instead it has tribalized to such an extent that it really does mirror the outside world in striking detail, and the world it mirrors is one of juvenile threats and summary retribution. Which makes it comfortable for the masses, I suppose, since most people inherently want rules and regulations to tell them what to do. It is such a function of society for people that entire religions have been founded and based on just such principles on a grander scale. I suppose that compared to eternal damnation, banishment isn’t all that bad. Although when you stop and think of it, aren’t they sort of the same idea?
