What is an Online Comment War?
First off, what exactly is an online “comment war”?
An online “comment war” is when a bunch of people are commenting to each other – usually several times a day – in an effort to “win” an argument. This usually is done by using bad arguments, insults, and faulty logic. “Comment wars” are pretty much useless and go nowhere fast.
I will give my latest experience of a “comment war” I ran across a couple of days ago. Please keep in mind that I was not involved in the “war”. I was just a watcher.
I have changed the names of the main people involved for privacy reasons. I am also just giving a brief explanation of what happened. Too much detail will remove anonymity as well as take too long to write (this post will already be long enough 🙂).
I also will try to keep the paraphrase in context. Sometimes paraphrasing causes the context to get warped.
The last two days I have been watching – off and on – an online “comment war” on a semi-popular news website.
To start, an online user named Betty posted a comment about a controversial video circulating around the web. In her comment, she attacked a whole group of people, which included an accusation that could not be proven just by watching the video. Basically she made a – more or less – useless comment.
Now another user named Greg responded to her and asked her if she was being genuine and why she was being prejudice. Two days later, she never responded to him. This is a sign that Greg was right in his assessment and Betty did not know what to say in reply.
Betty then proceeded to comment to another user making an even more ridiculous claim.
Someone else – named Reed – responded to Betty. He strongly disagreed with her short but inaccurate comment. While he did not do the best job in replying, he did ask her some questions that challenged her claims.
Here is where the “war” begins. Both Betty and Reed start commenting to each other. Now to be fair, Betty did say 2 or 3 things that were logical and most people would agree with. However the rest of her commenting was illogical, insulting, “smart-aleck”, and dishonest.
Basically Reed kept re-asking his (valid) questions to Betty while she continued to ignore them for basically no reason that I could tell.
Around 1 1/2 days later, Betty starts to agree with Reed and act like what he is saying is “exactly” what she was saying.
I suspect that Betty knew she lost the argument (Reed did make valid points), and did not want to admit she was wrong. So instead she decides to try and make it look like she and Reed are saying the same thing.
Another person – we will call her Lucy – responds to Betty and makes a very valid point. Betty, now being calmer and less emotional, responds to Lucy.
Betty’s response to Lucy sounded good, but there is a major problem with what she said. Betty is now claiming to have been arguing for something completely different than what she stated to begin with. In other words, Betty was contradicting herself.
There are two explanations that make sense in this situation. Either Betty did a real bad job in explaining what she originally meant, or Betty was losing the argument and started to lie to hide that fact.
My personal opinion is that she was lying. This is because:
- Betty ignored Greg’s comment asking about her genuineness and her prejudice. Several people up-voted Greg’s comment, since he made good points.
- Betty totally ignored Reed’s repeated questioning about the illogical stuff she previously said.
- After multiple people called on her illogical posting, she suddenly has a totally different argument than what she originally posted.
As you can see, an online “comment war” does not really accomplish anything.
When Betty encountered arguments that made sense and even refuted some of what she said, she quickly “moved the goal posts” – changed her context / main point – to make it look like she did not lose the argument.
These “wars” would not happen if people would just be respectful and admit when they made incorrect assumptions, wrote in a disrespectful tone, etc.
Instead people’s pride gets hurt and they want to “fight it out” instead of being logical and acting like a mature adult. Worse these people end up being dishonest and changing their arguments to prevent embarrassment from losing an argument.
Posted in General, Internet and Servers, Society
What Incognito Mode Can and Cannot Protect
A couple weeks ago, someone online posted a comment saying you can stay “safe and secure” online due to using the web browser’s incognito mode.
Is this true. Does incognito mode really prevent someone from ever tracking you online?
Short answer: no
Long answer:
People believe the myth that the incognito mode – on your web browser – will keep you safe and private. However this is not the case.
Incognito mode only does the following:
- prevents web history from being logged locally
- prevents download history from being logged locally
- prevents cookies & cache data from being stored locally
In other words, incognito mode will prevent someone from spying on you, just by opening the web browser and viewing the web history and downloads.
Now what does incognito mode not protect against?
- Malware on the system — Any malware on the system will be totally unaffected by your use of incognito mode.
- IT department — Your IT department will still be able to track your Internet usage on their network. This is especially true if you use their local DNS resolvers. They will know what websites you visit, regardless of your use of incognito mode.
- Internet Service Provider — Unless you make use of a VPN service, your ISP will definitely know where you go online, regardless of your use of incognito mode.
- Government surveillance — Of course, incognito mode will be of no use to you here. Also, even using a VPN will not help much if you are being targeted by a government.
In addition, if you have your web browser logged into a service (e.g., Google Chrome logged into Google), they can track your browsing habits regardless of being in incognito mode or not.
The link below helps prove that any browser being in “private” or “incognito” mode (whatever you want to call it) does nothing to prevent 3rd parties from spying on you.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-privacy-lawsuit-idUSKBN23933H
Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers, Security, Software, VPN
Merry Christmas 2019!
Luke 2:8-20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.
Posted in Biblical Accounts, Christian, Holiday