Why did I know this article had to do with #gamergate, can we get this shit out of here? This is a highly politicized and uninteresting topic.
Of course there are assholes in the movement, there are in any side of any movement. The problem is that they've got access to weapons which are largely unregulated.
Almost every other discussion website had the good sense to ban this topic because it only leads to flame wars and name calling.
The worst thing about the "weapons" is that they aren't even "weapons"... they're just... communication. How can we fix harassment when just plain normal usage of the relevant channels alone can be emotionally overwhelming?
Serious question for serious thought. I've got no practical answer and I've been pondering this question off and on for at least 15 years now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon this is what the word weapon means
The only way to stop online trolling is by educating people to ignore stuff on the internet. If some anonymous nobody starts saying weird stuff to you, ignore them. If they threaten you, call the police and ignore them. It's that simple.
edit: changed weapon to comment
Err, I know what you tried to say there... but you're still wrong, because "physically" hurt is not the only relevant type of hurt.
You are not a robot. You are an emotional being, and you can be emotionally hurt by things that perhaps wouldn't hurt Spock but do hurt you. Your threshold may be much higher than many other people's. As it happens, mine is too.
But that doesn't make us "right", or better, and it doesn't mean that people don't get really hurt on the Internet when thrust into a world their brain is quite literally not prepared for. If anything, we are the freaks of nature.
Also note I didn't even limit it to insults... just perfectly normal social interaction can be quite draining. The realm of "negative feedback" is far richer than just "insults". Just receiving 4000 emails on a topic is an astonishing experience that I have but put my toe in the water of, and have little desire to experience the full blast.
>In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, material or mental advantage over an adversary.
Harassment goes beyond just "insults", and coordinated targeted harassment campaigns against an individual are absolutely capable of inflicting severe mental trauma.
If you disagree, consider the difference between me calling you a "poopy head" (insult), and me organizing a group of people to call the cell phones of you and several members of your family, multiple times per day for the next several months and leaving aggressive or threatening messages.