Forum

1) As normal bullying, but through an online medium (regular harassment, threats, cruel comments with intention to upset or cause emotional distress). The odd one line of abuse or single name calling should be distinguished from proper cases against people, as cases of bullying deal with regular occurrences.

2) Yes. One (5 month long) episode of someone I knew in person is perhaps the most interesting – because it allowed them to carry out the act in a detached way. I think he may have only said something once to me in person, otherwise just ignored me.

3) By definition, not very different. In terms of the act, quite different. The anonymity, and probably that it’s usually much easier to type something than it is to physically say it. The effects are the same though.

4) Not prevalent. There’s a lot of throwaway comments in an online gaming environment, which whilst shouldn’t be there, may affect some people and not others. I generally take most things to be quite light-hearted around here. I have heard few stories of constant harassment though (i.e. not just a few throwaway comments). It does happen, and has happened, but I imagine it’s not that widespread.

5) Probably not. If it comes with proper penalties (as is slowly becoming the case) it may make some people think twice. It won’t make a difference to some though. The policing is difficult to do though, and to be honest in the case of online communities there’s a lot of kids who aren’t that mature who think it is appropriate, because the internet is full of abuse. It becomes a war of “it was just a joke” (and why odd comments need to be distinguished from continued abuse or witch hunts)

Quoted from Morphine

1) What is your definition of cyber-bullying?
2) Have you experienced cyber-bullying?
3) In your opinion, how different is cyber-bullying from traditional bullying
4) Do you feel that cyber-bullying is a problem in the community? (TF2)
5) If anonymity on the internet was removed, do you think it will effect cyber-bullying?

1. Cyber-bullying is not really a term I have ever used. It’s seems rather vague.
It could be everthing from someone saying “you suck”, to cyber-stalking and serioius death threats.
I would say a one line insult in some emotional moment is not really enough to call it “cyber-bullying”. If it is something more systematical where one person really makes an effort to be mean to someone else, then it’s bullying in my opinion.

2. Sure, nothing really serious though.

3. It’s not really a big difference from irl bullying, except that the immature kids(or adults sometimes) can feel more safe hiding behind their screens while doing it.
This probably results in more bullies than irl, since people who are too scared to be bullies irl now can do it without risking any physical(or other type of) counter reaction.

4. Yes. It is however not something that is unique to TF2. All forms of bullying is a problem. And many communities are certainly much worse than TF2, which by comparasion is rather relaxed.
But I agree with Clark, kids higher up in the skill rankings sometimes seems to think they belong to some kind of nobler race and have the right to harass other kids with lower skill ranking.

5. To some extent I think it would make people think more about what they say to each other. However, it can also backfire. If you have some really nasty maniac bully that wants to find where you live and stalk you in real life, then they would love the non anonymity too.

Quoted from jackkai

Some call it Cyber bullying. I call it Top banter.

Quoted from HartzFartz

1) What is your definition of cyber-bullying?
Getting someone annoyed/mad for personal amusement
2) Have you experienced cyber-bullying?
http://etf2l.org/forum/league/topic-31419
3) In your opinion, how different is cyber-bullying from traditional bullying
It takes much less to bully online but it also much easier to get away from it. Like move your cursor to the top right and hit M1 once. so Its easier to walk away or just laugh it off.
4) Do you feel that cyber-bullying is a problem in the community? (TF2)
No
5) If anonymity on the internet was removed, do you think it will effect cyber-bullying?
No, theres are several cases of cyberbullying without the anonimity.

hl pleb

1) What is your definition of cyber-bullying?

Bullying done through the web

2) Have you experienced cyber-bullying?

Not first-hand, no. There are always people being asses on the internet, but just that doesn’t qualify as ‘cyber-bullying’.

3) In your opinion, how different is cyber-bullying from traditional bullying

Very little. The way I see it, it’s just another tool being use to achieve an end, bullying. It has the added benefit for the one being bullied that direct physical harm isn’t involved, but threats can still be made. Added downsides would be the lower ‘entry level’, and I suppose that, if people use the internet as their final beacon of hope and support (which, to be fair, is ill advisable, but still quite common), it takes away the last ‘safe’ place.

4) Do you feel that cyber-bullying is a problem in the community? (TF2)

I vaguely recall some dramas I thought were unnecessarily awful, and some individuals being harassed for various ‘reasons’, but nothing ridiculously out of hand (not the entire community starting some weird self-justified bullshit fest digging up personal information and all that nonsense). Bullying is always an issue in pretty much any community, and though, to my knowledge, the TF2 community doesn’t suffer from it too much, there still is some. I’d say it’s always good to strive to make it disappear entirely in any community. It might be an unrealistic goal, but the closer a community gets to it, the better. All progress would be an improvement, even if the ‘end goal’ is realistically unachievable.

5) If anonymity on the internet was removed, do you think it will effect cyber-bullying?

Not at all. It might deter some of the people who don’t really dare doing anything unless they’re anonymous, but it would also have the potential to make the cyber-bullying that does take place escalate. Anonymity might make it easier for random people to join in, but it also acts as somewhat of a shield for the one getting bullied (of course there’s always cases of people finding out personal information anyway, but let’s assume that’s exceptional and not the norm).

Good luck with your assignment, hopefully the infos from all these people is useful!

does tf2 nerds stalking my family count as cyber-bullying?

1) What is your definition of cyber-bullying?

Bullying that happens over the internet and is done by people you know IRL, or people that can somehow affect you IRL. I don’t really consider it bullying (or at least not serious bullying) if two anonymous people shit talk each other, because it doesn’t affect your real life; you can always switch your name to avoid it, or just not log on. It has to have consequences in your “real” life for me to consider it bullying.

2) Have you experienced cyber-bullying?

No, because I don’t use online services that require me to identify myself.

3) In your opinion, how different is cyber-bullying from traditional bullying?

Only the platform used for the bullying is different

4) Do you feel that cyber-bullying is a problem in the community? (TF2)

No, because most people are anonymous to some degree, so they can easily escape any perceived bullying. See 1).

5) If anonymity on the internet was removed, do you think it will effect cyber-bullying?

Not at all, because 1).