Things Annoying Me

Things Annoying Me

Several things have been annoying me lately. The first being this "protect copyrights" garbage. They are just using that as an excuse to censor internet content, like "videos make people violent" or "rock and roll makes you use drugs" it's just about controlling something that can't be controlled. All of us internet denizens know one thing, freedom of speech has a dark side that must be tolerated in order to protect freedom of speech as a whole, but pirating isn't that dark side. Pirating is a very tiny portion of the internet's content, there is more pirating by those at home who used VHS and audio cassette tapes to record their favorites from the TV and radio. But shhh, we aren't suppose to mention those because that's old tech. Well, it is relevant because the only people who are being hurt by online content are the obsolete music label and movie production companies.

Yep, music labels are being hurt the most because now musicians can not only become well known without them, they can also make more money, and still keep the rights to their music. Thanks to great places like Youtube, a musician can give their music to their fans for free and still make money by advertising, and it's easy for them. That's what scares the labels, they can no longer bully the rights away from the musicians. Music labels were a necessary evil in the past, it was the only way artists could get their art out to the world and make enough money to continue being artists. But what were the artists giving up their rights to the music for? Advertising and distribution, which is being replaced by internet websites.

So this is why they keep pushing the government in the US harder and harder for censorship of the internet, it has nothing to do with protecting the artist. Thank Sky Net that there are enough geeks, nerds, techies, and fans online to create a huge backlash. Do a search on Youtube and you can see the huge number of videos voicing against SOPA and PIPA. It's awesome to see people coming together on a massive scale to stop something like this. That's the part the government itself fears. You can't keep anything behind closed doors with the internet, it's not possible. It will get leaked, it will come forward, and though there will be a bunch of conspiracy theories as well, people will see the truth more than not.

Another thing that's been annoying me, cyber bullying and trolling. People, I just don't know how to say this any more clearly, if you don't like what someone has to say online, ignore them. Every single site has some form of ignore feature. in case you are incapable of ignoring them by just not reading what they post or they get too offensive for your tastes. On Youtube you can even block them from posting on your videos and channel! Use this. It's a tool, and tools are only good when used. In real life you can't just turn off people like that, so I do get the worry about real life bullying and such, but online you can.

That is the most beautiful thing about the internet, you can avoid everything you don't like. But as to trolling, and this is why I put a difference between trolling and flaming, most trolls are just doing it for laughs. It's not their intent to hurt your feelings. See, they have mastered the art of separating real life feelings from the internet. To them, what they post online is just online and doesn't effect how they live, and they simply cannot fathom anyone who takes things so serious. They don't troll to hurt, they troll to make the internet interesting, and they actually do accomplish that. Check out Art of Trolling ... it's really funny.

Flaming however is different from trolling, the intent of the flamer is to make themselves feel better by insulting others. Which ironically makes them the exact opposite of the troll. Flamers are incapable of letting go, while trolls can be harmless, flamers can completely destroy a conversation or thread by turning it into nothing but a stream of insults and one ups. Don't fall for these people, click ignore or block if someone does nothing but toss back personal insults after three or four responses. A "troll for lulz" will likely stop after a few (unless others play along for more lulz) but a flamer will hold a grudge and keep trying to hurt you.

The line between the two is hard to define most of the time, but for the love of Sky Net, stop taking things so hard people. It's not that bad. So what if someone thinks you suck, look into their content and I'd wager they suck more and are just trying to make themselves feel better. True example, someone posted (a while back) on my Youtube channel, saying mys stuff sucked. I have never in any way once said I was anything more than an amateur just diving into a new hobby. I clicked on his profile, and behold, not one video. Yep. They had the audacity to say I sucked at making vids but didn't even have one video of their own. They are now blocked simply because of being disruptive, until they at least post as many vids as I have with some actually creative content (I promise I will unblock them if that ever happens).

So use those buttons, on Youtube it's to the right of their name when they post.