What Drives People to Create Hydras?

[Guest scottishguy]

I'm sure everybody is well aware that a few individuals often have a number of different IDs within a board. LMTU is often quoted as a prime example.

 

I have never understood the need for this myself.

 

Today (on another board) I noticed a prominent member of that board not only double posting on a thread he had himself created - but actually using his two IDs to "talk" to each other and back each other up. It's far from the first time I have observed this person doing this and it's all a bit Norman Bates if you ask me.

 

The name of the board and the member is immaterial and "exposing" them is not the purpose of my post - I just wondered if any amateur psychologists out there have a theory as to why anybody would carry on in such a bizarre and unbalanced way (or have I just answered my own question?)

 

[kokopelli]

You raise a good question Scotty; but I have no idea of the answer. Obviously, to me, very disturbed people. I believe such posters are known as "sock puppets".

[NIrishGuy]

I've always presumed there is no one reason for that and there are more likely to be several reasons, which might include :

 

Sheer boredom on the persons part with them simply not having anything else productive to do in their lives ( even if they are not aware of that) and the internet ends up taking the place of them having a real life.

 

Or perhaps a desire to keep a thread running and ( for their own twisted reasons) make it look like it's interesting and or create a debate where none perhaps previously existed all to suit their own (again usually twisted) ends.

 

A desire to make a thread or a board appear busier than it actually it, either for commercial reasons or just to massage their own delicate ego.

 

Or maybe a desire to "stir the pot" and create tension between other posters in a way they would not be able to do under their own name as they could not speak so freely and openly and say what they REALLY think about issues and fellow posters on whatever board they happen to be on, again either for maybe commercial reasons if they sell advertising as most boards seem to do these days or even for legal reasons ( as its not unknown I believe for some people online to actually use threats of legal action against other board members or internet users, even thought these individuals are the same people who frequently carry out the same actions they are so quick to threaten to sue others about but their new profile name/s allows them to do this with a measure of impunity (so they think anyway) - whilst they forget of course that this is still only the internet and they should perhaps just get a life and get over themselves - but again this goes back to my first point about them not actually having much of life in the first place perhaps and so using whatever tools they need to make them feel better about themselves and achieve the end result they desire in every situation)

 

And finally the main reason of course - that they're probably just a little bit nuts and most sane people will never be able to work out the reasoning in their twisted minds so we really shouldn't even bother trying and once their fake Hydras are identified ) even if they do use fake spelling mistakes etc to cover their tracks as they are usually quite obvious to spot anyway) they should probably be just best ignored or pitied.

 

Although it is sad state of affairs when what appears to be a very few number of people who do carry out this practice end up affecting the overall tone and sometimes even moderation of whatever board they happen to be on at that time and again as stated above the worst thing is that their actions are usually just to aid and achieve their own twisted motives, thankfully however this is something that we don't see here on this board to often now I believe, so that to me is in itself a big plus for being here as far as I'm concerned anyway.

 

So, that's my best guess anyway.

[TotallyOz]

This is an excellent question and it is one I don't know the answer to. I have NEVER understood the need for anyone to have more than one handle on a board. I have been running message boards for over 20 years and it is still one thing I don't understand.

[kokopelli]

NIrishguy; you do make an excellent presentation and I agree they are a little bit nuts. Having said that, I congratulate on one of the longest sentence I have ever seen written on this forum.

[NIrishGuy]

Thank you Kokopeilli and yes it has been known that I look down, type, then hit post and then go MY GOD THAT LONG ! but hopefully people can both get the gist and also understand that not all of us are so careful / care so much about proof reading and double checking each and every line written.

 

Believe it or not I do pay more attention than I used to to such matters, but only in passing it has to be said and thankfully the world keeps revolving either way it appears :-) Thankfully for the rest of you my lets say unique (i.e poor apparent) writing "style" means any hydra idea I would toy with would no doubt be spotted in seconds !

[KhorTose]

NIrishguy; you do make an excellent presentation and I agree they are a little bit nuts. Having said that, I congratulate on one of the longest sentence I have ever seen written on this forum.

Trust me, his sentence is miniscule compared to some of LMTUs.

 

The question is just to vague. First off people are really only nuts when they fail to see reality and lose all sense of right and wrong. We generally put these people in a hospital. Your question is like: Why are some people gay and others straight? Why do some people drink themselves drunk each night? Why are some people drug addicts and others not? Why do some people like men instead of women or children instead of adults? Why do some people tell jokes that no one laughs at or make quips that aren't really funny? Etc.

The truth is that while some of the things people do can be explained by a tag like personality disorder, human nature is vastly different from person to person and there really is no easy answers for most NORMAL human behavior (opposite the definition of nuts above). I too know the board you are referring too and the person and his many names on that board. I will admit he is one odd bird. However, consider another person on that board who may run it, who also has multiple names and personalities and she/he seems perfectly normal but likes to sound profound, and yet not have her name the only one on the board so she has at least five names she post under. Is she as nuts as the first guy, or is she being logical realizing it does not appear good that she dominates the board.

No easy answers. I, just like Michael, have never used another identity, but there have been times when i wish I had. I once commented on another board about a board owner and it got me thrown off his board. I have also heard some people who I have a good relationship on a board tell an untruth that I know to be wrong, and would love to have challenged them, but did not want to damage the relationship. It is tempting however to wish I had another name to call them on that. The BB board has been mentioned at times and I am reminded of Neal coming on that board under another name to defend himself, and monitor what was being said. Hardly anything that sounds nuts. Sorry Scottish guy, but this is the type of question you ask when you have an answer you yourself are trying to supply. I am not saying you are wrong in this case about this person, but definitely wrong for every case.

[a447a]

Nirish, you have hit the nail on the head.

 

Or perhaps a desire to keep a thread running and ( for their own twisted reasons) make it look like it's interesting and or create a debate where none perhaps previously existed all to suit their own (again usually twisted) ends.

On another forum, one guy posted that he is looking for guys from that very forum to meet up with in Bangkok. When there was only one reply, another member - who just happened to join later on the same day replied!  So funny.  Sooooo transparent! And one can even guess with 99% certainty as to who the poster is. But even that failed to keep the thread running.

 

A desire to make a thread or a board appear busier than it actually it, either for commercial reasons or just to massage their own delicate ego.

Exactly.  Especially if the board is continually up for sale.  hehe

 

as its not unknown I believe for some people online to actually use threats of legal action against other board members

 

No! Surely you can't be serious!

 

a very few number of people who do carry out this practice end up affecting the overall tone and sometimes even moderation of whatever board they happen to be on

 

How true! A board should have a certain tone and integrity.  It's what the members deserve. Although this is the internet and, ergo, anonymous, that doesn't mean an administrator should take an "anything goes" approach to what (and who) appears on his board.  He does have some responsibility to his members and advertisers.

 

The difference between boards and their standards (or lack thereof) is startling.

[Guest fountainhall]

I am surprised this topic has not come up before as a thread, because it is one that has been constantly referred to for quite some time in various posts.

 

Aren't there two issues here? One is the reason why anyone should wish to have more than one handle. The other is how they go about achieving that and seemingly fooling at least some moderators/board owners.

 

As to the second, I have been told in the past that ip addresses are usually the way to spot hydras or people who claim to be what they are not. There was a case on this Board when one poster, Beachlover, angered just about every other member for well over half a year. The supposed mid-20s, successful business executive based in Sydney was very obviously not what he spent hundreds, if not thousands, of posts proclaiming, and his attitude to other posters (and sometimes to Thailand and Thais) resulted in a great deal of antagonism – and not just on this Board. When complaints were made to a Moderator, one answer was that the ip addresses always matched the locations from which he was supposedly making posts! Eventually, and for a different reason, that poster was banned, but months after he should have been - in the view of many.

 

Yet, we all know about proxy servers. When the PBB had its first bust up with a very public disagreement about policy between the owner and the technical person supposedly running the Board, the technical guy posted a list of multiple ip addresses used by several of the posters. lmtu had 20 different addresses (I still have the list as I printed it out)! So, if someone wants to adopt more than one handle, can ip addresses really be trusted in the case of a poster determined to disguise his identity? It seems to me the answer to that has to be a flat 'No'.

 

As to the first point, others have made some valid observations. My own view is it is principally a rather sad manifestation of the internet age. Some people accept the internet for what it is and post as they would normally talk amongst friends. Others see it as an opportunity for game-playing – adopting a personality totally different from their reality and seeing how far the game can be extended.

 

For others, though, the anonymity of the internet has created a virtual world which for some has led them to create a new reality. The longer they inhabit this unreal existence, the more real it becomes for them. Even more than that, the lack of any form of old-fashioned give-and-take, of the normal rules and niceties of daily social interaction, results in personalities which are in effect far larger than real life – and increasingly over time, less real. So, some posters effectively become two-dimensional, largely fictional characters.

 

One result of this has been to empower individuals to express their new selves far more forcibly – and sometimes aggressively. Often, I believe, they have to do this to justify their new reality. We all harbour hidden depths and in some, for all sorts of reasons, aggression is never far from the surface. Whilst the true personality will hold that aggression mostly in check, the internet persona recognises no need whatever for such limitations. Thus are internet bullies born – and there are a lot of them around.

 

That said, though, I doubt if most of those who elect to adopt multiple personalities have any sort of Jekyll and Hyde syndrome. A few may be nuts. But not many. Nor, I think, do many inhabit the sort of unreal existence I have just described. For the majority, I believe it’s just a pathetic little game. They know what they are doing. They are children playing with their latest toy. It amuses them. They enjoy upsetting the apple cart. It adds a bit of fun to what may be their rather boring existence.

 

Let me stress, though, I am not referring merely to the various gay Thailand chat rooms. Look on Thai visa and other chat sites. They all have their fair share of aggressive nutters and, I expect, hydras.

[Guest scottishguy]

Yes, Founty, I think an important aspect is that the perpetrator feels he is "playing games" with the other members, that he is somehow fooling them - therefore he's superior to them .

 

In his broken mind I guess he thinks of himself as the puppetmaster -  pulling the strings of the other members, whom he believes haven't the intelligence to spot the deceit.

[Guest timmberty]

for me there is only one reason people use more than one handle, its to be talked about, to be noticed, rather than being surprised its never been a thread before im more surprised its been talked about now, thus giving the person whom you consider nuts, the time of day?.

[Guest scottishguy]

Thank you, Brithai/Timmberty/etc. 

 

But, assuming you truly believe your argument (i.e. why give the person any attention) then it begs the question as to why you are responding at all.

[Guest timmberty]

i thought you might like the publicity ... bty well done on getting the other name correct .. im sure no one one here knew them ... hardly a secret is it ?

shame theres no a little man with a hat blowing a streamer, thats so much more you.

are you off again ?

[Guest scottishguy]

Well you see - here we were having a rational and non-personalised discussion on an interesting topic - until you arrive and it descends into the kind of no-class, snide, personal attack you are "famous" for.

 

As for being "off again" - anybody sensible knows I left a certain board on a matter of principle.

YOU on the other hand sold whatever principles you had when you joined it.

 

But I won't be playing the little games you are trying to start.

[Guest timmberty]

really and there was me thinking you started it... being as it was you who replied to my post,

read everything you have written, and work out who is being attacked? got it .. well done.

because its unlike you to attack someone on the public board much more your style to take it all to p.m. isnt it ?

no class snide ... you wear it so well.

[Guest timmberty]

p.s how funny you think a little man blowing a streamer is being to personal.. did you take to the little fella over the years, or are you trying to forget the love you lost ?

must be time for your puppet to bring on his wisdom :)

[Guest scottishguy]

Not that I accept what you say - but I'd far rather have a puppet than be one.

 

Meantime you're on ignore (if I can figure how to work it)

[Bob]

My theory for many cases is that you're dealing with a mousy personality that in real life nobody pays any attention to and/or who is actively shunned by pretty much anybody that's had the misfortune of any significant contact with them.  As Fountainhill suggests, there are various negatives or dark sides to the internet and one of those is that the internet allows these somewhat disturbed/bizarre persons to play games without risking any physical or verbal reaction by others around them.  They crave the attention real life won't give them (and/or any attention that isn't immediately threatening to them) and somehow create in their minds some cozy feeling that they "belong to" something just by posting under any name.  A negative post reacting to something stupid that such a person posts simply doesn't deter them as it means so little to them  (compared to the reactions they get in real life to their comments and antics, even a sharp criticism in a reactive posting means nothing to them).

 

But does it rise to the level of mental illness?  I'm doubtful it does in most cases although many of the hydras likely have some form of personality disorder.  But, combining the disturbed games with other traits (e.g., I know better than anyone, the world can't wait to hear what I have to say, I have secret sources you mortals don't have, etc.), one or two of the hydras we've all known probably are (and I'm using the technical term) "fucking nuts."

[Guest timmberty]

founty ... in your post you mention beachlover .. bearing in mind this is a guy that blacks out the logo on the end of his t-shirt so no one might think its him, do you really think he would allow his i.p. address to be visable thus allowing people to know where he is posting from ???

i would imagine this happened under a previous management ?

beachy international playboy ... out to the world... spends all his time travelling the world to gay venues with his lover... yet will allow nothing about him to be shown in picture, not even his bath robe !!! hydra's aint the only ones who are "fucking nuts"

[Guest scottishguy]

KT, I'm sorry you find the question "vague" - I honestly think it's quite a straightforward, open-ended question " What Drives People to Create Hydras" - and various members have had little difficulty in putting forward their views, as you yourself have.

 

Of course I have my own theories why people do this - but that does not mean I'm not interested in what others think.

Mostly my own ideas of why people behave in this way chime with what has been posted already:

 

1. A sense of inadequacy and a very lonely existance on the part of the individual, may lead to multiple ID's being created in order to "agree" with each other - thus affording some sense of others agreeing with and taking notice of him. 

 

2. A desire to be "in control" - to dictate the direction of any debate or any board.  Where an individual knows himself to be insufficiently literate or intelligent to make coherent and convincing arguments, he may invent multiple IDs to facilitate his limited contributions   . 

 

3. A desire to "play games" and manipulate people in cyberspace -  in way the individual could never do in real life.

 

 

[Guest fountainhall]

rather than being surprised its never been a thread before im more surprised its been talked about now

 

Having rather grandly announced your departure from this board barely 6 weeks ago, should we be surprised you have returned?

[Guest timmberty]

it wasnt that grand was it ?

and didnt i notice you posting on sgt board not so long ago .. the board you left because you didnt like a certain scottish poster ?

or do i take it you still think i might be LMTU ??

[Guest fountainhall]

Yes, you did notice me posting. I joined that Board years ago and have posted off and on. I have never left it! As for LMTU, I thought that discussion was about HeyGay   - or perhaps I am mistaken! 

[Guest timmberty]

you mistaken ?? can you even put those two words next to each other ??

i guess you will have to go and have a look, it wasnt that long ago was it.

[Guest scottishguy]

For the record - Founty and I had a dispute over a moderating decision on SGT wherein I moved some of his posts to a "holding" area for consideration by the moderating team - but accidentally deleted one post from that area and it could not be restored.

 

I like to think we are both fair-minded people and have got over it - so there is no point in trolls trying to stir it up.

 

Since he is still posting there, on and off, can I suggest it's self-evident he did not "leave"