Victim/Bully
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If you were to ever pick an internet bully from a crowd of people, he wouldn’t have even registered in your mind. Socially awkward, a receding hairline at 25, and a quietness that drew him to the sides of a room. Over time, his attacks on people became more vicious, more personal, and more persistent. As a moderator of the board, I’d warn and ban him – eventually he’d apologise, say he’d be nicer to others, and the cycle would start again. There was no reason for his choice of victims. It appeared that he would search out private information from other members of the website to use in his attacks. One day, one of my fellow moderators sent me a message. He said that he was going to quit because this bully had told him that he would turn me, and the other moderators, against him. This time, I didn’t warn the bully. Instead, I instructed my friend to let slip that he knew the bully’s name and where he worked. From that point on, he was never attacked again. The loss of anonymity scared him. In fact, I knew that he used IP masking software to ensure that nobody could trace his posts to his work. Still, the bully found other people to attack. But like the school playground, there is always someone who will be bigger, tougher, and dirtier than you. Someone else started to slowly reveal details of the private life of the bully. A name here, a physical description there, a link to a photo elsewhere. Eventually, he ceased to use the website.