My friend fears Anonymous...

[thedonofzagreb]

just tell him he should go on with his life and that he will laugh at this a year later

 

[Wicky_42]

The people here going with the 'don't mess with them' stance are EXACTLY the same as people who back down in the face of terrorist threats. No matter how you look at it, anonymous is known for its terror tactics. Just because they're harder to find doesn't make their attacks against freedoms of speech any more forgiveable.

The main core of Anonymous makes more attacks against anti-freedom of speech acts, such as with the Australian government.

That being said, its ambiguity (as their statement says, the members have massively differing views) makes it a little harder to pin the blame on than "Bomb the west" fundamentalists.

None the less, a group that subdues its critics with terror tactics is no better than Scientology and Islamic fundamentalists. We can criticise our leaders, the Christian religion and internet forums, but Scientology, Islam and Anonymous are exempt from the same freedoms of speech? Because they intimidate us? That's my point. Just because anonymous attacks some who impinge on others' freedoms doesn't make their hypocrisy tolerable.

But as pointed out before, they have driven vulnerable people to suicide and can cause real-world damage to your life through incriminating you, destroying your credit rating and getting you fired. They are also known to disable websites for periods. Those are all still attacks. It's still a form of terrorism.

Anyone who killed themselves over prank phone calls (which is in actuality the worst that Anonymous have ever done) had some issues to begin with.

Ah yes - they were vulnerable to begin with, so driving them over the edge doesn't really count! In fact, it should be almost compulsory to find depressed people and rub in just how shit their life really is. After all, they already had issues, it's not like you're doing anything of consequence. *roll eyes*

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I always thought Anon were a group who went after the idiots of the internet like godhatesfags and the like. It's very sad if they're bothering individual people, especially if he's just a kid. If they want any respect at all for making life hard for the extremist groups of the world, they're not going to get it by pushing kids around and demanding their dinner money.

However, it's quite possible it's just more of 4chan using Anon as a cover to be dicks, I've heard occasionally 4chan members can be like that.

Having said that, I'd say if you have their attention and they're mad at you, don't do anything to make it worse and they'll probably swiftly move on, and I know IRL, if I see someone looking angry when I'm walking home at night, I cross the road to pass them and avoid eye contact. Same deal for those guys.

IF however the bit on FOX was true about them calling individual's homes and leaving death threats(and damn that's a big 'if', I believe more of Cartoon Network's output than Fox), then that's a long way from 'prank phone calls', that's not asking if your fridge is running, or if I.P. Freely is there. I think most people would be unsettled at least, if not scared outright, if they suffered a year of abuse like that. It's the difference between the school bully saying 'you smell' and showing a knife and saying 'I'm going to enjoy watching you bleed'.

IF they can quit harrassing the little people, and carry on making life hard for Scientology and the WB church, then they'll gain a lot more respect, however, I imagine 4chan finds it far more interesting to harrass Myspace users, I hope Anon directs it's attention to bigger issues. They'll never be accepted by mainstream media, but they could earn the respect of a fair chunk of the internet, if they use their power in numbers for good, instead of just for 'lulz'.

 

[FolkLikePanda]

The thing I like them for is being anti-scientology but besides that my feelings for them are neutral. I just don't agree with them hacking everything, cool masks though...

 

[crudus]

Anonymous is(are?) like that bear that is your roommate. You have three options: Join it in its quest to do what he does, ignore him completely, or punch him in the face. Guess which one your friend did.

Yes, you should. Insulting Anonymous is a terrible idea for anyone.

OH yeah baby. Big time.

Remember the last time Fox did a story on 4chan? Good times.

 

[Skeleton Jelly]

Pfft. Please. With the boxxy incident, people were saying some pretty bad shit about her. I think that whole "civil war" showed exactly how mad some people get. They even found her name, high school, and where she lived. but SHE'S STILL ALIVE.

/b/ is cruel. But only cause they're anonymous. In real life, I'm positive they don't act nearly as cruel. And no, they're not all nerds. There's every type of person in /b/.

They're not going to do anything. Remove the video, and it'll blow over. Show no damn fear and they'll know it's not getting to you. Because this isn't all of /b/ working together. It's probably 2-4 individuals that just so happened to see your video and lived in your area. So as soon as they see that you're not scared, they'll get bored. They're not murderers.

4chan is so misunderstood. It's not a place of evil hackers that want to kill and terrorize the innocent. And it's not a place full of fat nerds.

 

[Marik2]

I'm going out for a meal tonight to celebrate my 16th Birthday, and I am taking two friends. One of them goes on the internet frequently, and after making one Youtube video insulting 4chan, he was attacked by anonymous.

Ever since he has been afraid. He always thinks that people are trying to get him, and when he saw a Scientology Protest in Birmingham once, he almost cried.

I need some advice for him. I started going on 4Chan shortly after this incident and found it was the worst place ever (Mainly /b/).My original plan was to show him that they just responded to criticism, but no such luck. My plan made things worse.

Calumon: The friend is not me or Jack. We need some advice for him...

Should we also fear Anonymous?

Spoiler: Anonymous

Anonymous is what is known as the most cruel group of individuals in existence. Mainly on things like the Chan websites, they describe themselves as the owners of the internet. Why? Because of all the destruction they have wrought on people.

To describe what they did, let me explain.

They first did the small things, Passive aggressive comments on the video and his channel. No biggy.

The hate mail came next. Again no biggy.

Then came the hackings, the photo's which never existed. Somehow, even though he has never put a picture of himself online, someone found one, and they released it with the words.

"We Know you."

Later came the phone calls, the calls at the door and once a package came with a guy fawkes mask inside that appeared to have been bled upon.

He still gets something every now and again a year on. A reminder of what he did.

Insulted the most dangerous people on the Web.

And by the way, he has abandoned both Youtube account and e-mail and somehow, they have still found him. The words "You cannot hide from Anonymous." Is often sent to him.

By any chance is this your friend? Or is this they type of video he made?

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Of course with all the upsides of being anonymous (note small a), there's the downside that any dick can pull a dick move and say 'Ooh I'm part of Anonymous, fear us', in fact, without wanting to put ideas in people's heads I'm surprised more people haven't used Al Qaeda as a cover to bomb places they hate.

I only hope that if I'm right, and the dick moves are coming from people just claiming to be part of Anonymous, then Anon themselves self police these dicks.

When there's the Westboro church, the KKK, and Fox News, I'd hope Anon will stop wasting their time on kids just playing around with myspace.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

The people here going with the 'don't mess with them' stance are EXACTLY the same as people who back down in the face of terrorist threats. No matter how you look at it, anonymous is known for its terror tactics. Just because they're harder to find doesn't make their attacks against freedoms of speech any more forgiveable.

The main core of Anonymous makes more attacks against anti-freedom of speech acts, such as with the Australian government.

That being said, its ambiguity (as their statement says, the members have massively differing views) makes it a little harder to pin the blame on than "Bomb the west" fundamentalists.

None the less, a group that subdues its critics with terror tactics is no better than Scientology and Islamic fundamentalists. We can criticise our leaders, the Christian religion and internet forums, but Scientology, Islam and Anonymous are exempt from the same freedoms of speech? Because they intimidate us? That's my point. Just because anonymous attacks some who impinge on others' freedoms doesn't make their hypocrisy tolerable.

Scientology is exempt? They're ridiculed the most. The army of unprincipled lawyers doesn't stop that many people.

And I don't like to exempt anything when I criticise. Anonymous just never usually comes up in conversation.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

By any chance is this your friend? Or is this they type of video he made?

I know Jack is British, so I'd assume not.

But if that was the kind of video his friend did, I'd probably join in on making him piss himself.

Honestly, wearing those stupid Kanye shades.

 

[Dapsen]

This is the first time I hear about this group of assholes, and I think it's quite absurd.

In my opinion, you shouldn't be afraid of them. They may send you threatening mail, email, and packages, but they will probably not show up on your doorstep with a weapon.
I think it's incredible how some people have so much... 'Time on their hands', to get into that kind of behavior. It's just unacceptable.

Anyway, thank you for informing me about these people.

OT: I can't really help you with your friend.
-Therapist?

 

[PyroZombie]

I'm not afraid of these internet tough-guys. They wouldn't dare do something as stupid as kill or rape a person or bomb a stadium, because that would kill their namesake. No one knows them, therefore no one cares about what they do. As soon as something serious happens, they will be investigated and found out, like anyone else.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

By any chance is this your friend? Or is this they type of video he made?

Oh my god. That kid, he is just... Sweet Jesus, he needs some luck.

He is not... my friend is 15 and actually openly insulted them, calling them "A bunch of wusses who only have reputation of what they did before the mods came in, and now there are mods, they don't do crap."

This is not true, I went on /b/ not a few minutes ago and guess what someone was doing?

They found something Called FaceBook Hacker and demonstrated it's effects on some poor kid.

Calumon: Also our friends one had nothing to do with religion. We all try and stay out of that. It can be messy.

 

[feynman_Lord_of_the_quantum]

Insulted the most dangerous people on the Web.

And by the way, he has abandoned both Youtube account and e-mail and somehow, they have still found him. The words "You cannot hide from Anonymous." Is often sent to him.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not Forgive.
We do not Forget.

he trifled with powers far exceeding his own, he was foolish, he was callous and most of all he was ignorant of anonymous. We are not your enemy unless you make us your enemy

this... this is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud, we make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons and we are labelled criminals. We explore.... and you call us criminals. We seak knowledge.... and you call us criminal. we exist without skin colour,without nationality, without religious bias... and once again you call us criminals, society build bombs, it wages wars, you murder you cheat and lie to us and try to make us believe its for our own good, however WE are the criminals the devients.

yes we are all criminals. our crime is that of curiosity. our crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not by what they look like or their social statues. our crime is that of outsmarting you, and that is something that you will never forgive me for.

you may stop the individual
but you cant stop us all..... after all we are everyone and we are no one, we are anonymous, we do not forgive and we do not forget.

 

[darfjono]

Isn't this illegal?! Seriously harassment and threats are punishable by law no? No one is anonymous on the internet. No one. Get the police involved. Lets see how tough they are against the law. I have no idea WHY he hasnt called the police.

>he thinks the police or governments have any power over the internet
>laughingwomen.jpg

to all others in the thread who think they have even clue one as to what they're talking about:

you don't. delete your posts because you look like idiots.
except the ones that DO know what they're talking about. but they know who they are. (hint: it's not you. yes, you, reading this right now)

 

[Wicky_42]

The people here going with the 'don't mess with them' stance are EXACTLY the same as people who back down in the face of terrorist threats. No matter how you look at it, anonymous is known for its terror tactics. Just because they're harder to find doesn't make their attacks against freedoms of speech any more forgiveable.

The main core of Anonymous makes more attacks against anti-freedom of speech acts, such as with the Australian government.

That being said, its ambiguity (as their statement says, the members have massively differing views) makes it a little harder to pin the blame on than "Bomb the west" fundamentalists.

None the less, a group that subdues its critics with terror tactics is no better than Scientology and Islamic fundamentalists. We can criticise our leaders, the Christian religion and internet forums, but Scientology, Islam and Anonymous are exempt from the same freedoms of speech? Because they intimidate us? That's my point. Just because anonymous attacks some who impinge on others' freedoms doesn't make their hypocrisy tolerable.

Scientology is exempt? They're ridiculed the most. The army of unprincipled lawyers doesn't stop that many people.

And I don't like to exempt anything when I criticise. Anonymous just never usually comes up in conversation.

That's kinda the point. Despite their legal actions, most people still freely ridicule them. We don't let them get away with their silencing of public critics, but we'll turn a blind eye to 4chan because they scare us? Kinda pre-school psychology here :/

 

[Tharwen]

Wow. I didn't know they did that. I feel like I should now take all of my details off facebook and never post in the behind the avatar thread. That, or make a video mocking them just to show that I don't trust them to actually do anything dangerous. They are anonymous, after all, and they can't exactly stay anonymous if they come and attack me or something.

 

[Hiphophippo]

We're legion, brotato. It's not an actual group, fyi.

Shit, did anyone post the correct answer here yet?

Buy a dog.

Oh christ, how could I have forgotten that?

 

[Martin Owlbury]

I see.

I'll just say this:
Never bend to an enemy.

Never make an enemy of someone who previously had no reason to bother you and that won't be much of a problem.

ANON is an enemy to everyone.
Therefore, everyone should make them their enemy in order to root them out.

Have you ever met one in person and actually talked to one?

I probably have without noticing.
In my mind, they're just the average joe.

Indeed they are, not all anon are bad I shall state that now unfortunately some as stated earlier in the thread act out and brand themselves anon to cause general bleh for them essentially. The ones that are at the protests are pretty awesome, good sense of humour and generally tolerable human beings.