Forum Trolls a pox on society?

    Cyberspace and the ‘Biker’ within

I have been thinking about life in cyberspace rather a lot lately, like some I think that the World Wide Web has it’s benefits to society but it also has its downsides. Often used by people for very dark and nefarious reasons it has become a place where even angels and cherubs fear to tread. Fortunately I’m neither.

Personally I have found the Internet to be a useful tool for research and reference when writing articles and submissions for various publications and as a place to occasionally play when I need a break from writing or being the nominated driver for my young family. When not employed doing my thing I can be found hooning about on my bike or trike handing out information leaflets and generally trying to raise awareness of the National Association for Bikers with a Disability www.nabd.org.uk

I must admit that when my health gets the better of me on occasion it’s been a way to keep in touch with people I know and a way to track down old friends from my youth.

It has also been a great place for me to tell people of the great work the NABD is involved in and to showcase our fine association. I never miss an opportunity to mention NABD on just about every forum and chat room I visit.

I have to admit that occasionally the bigotry displayed can piss me off but I try to stick at it because if I can get just one person on the particular bit of cyberspace I’m visiting to look at one of the NABD websites and perhaps reavaluate their opinion I consider it a job well done.

The proliferation of websites, forums, and chat rooms has affected the way most with a computer and internet connection conduct their daily lives, some of it for the better but a lot of it is used to further peoples own agendas. Unfortunalty some are rife with so called ‘bikers’ who seem to great a great deal of perverse pleasure in ridiculing the efforts of disabled bikers to live as normal a life as possible and enjoy the freedom and independence of riding their own machine.

I know of some folk who spend all their time on the Internet, trying to find the things they feel they lack in their personal lives, many don’t realise just how dangerous this sort of fantasy life can be. The internet in it’s many forms has become a place where small narrow minded individuals can live some sort of pseudo lifestyle where they believe they are some sort of super hero that folk may look up to. They talk a great game but when it boils down to actually dragging their miserable carcasses out of their sad dark little rooms and actually riding a bike they are found out. Some of the idiots that spend time belittling others are most likely to brick it when the going gets tough and I have left one or two shaken and more than a little stirred on a blast over the Snake Pass and the Cat and Fiddle.

The ‘friendships’ I have struck up with folk on the net are tenuous at best and rarely last.

Only occasionally do you meet someone you have met online in real life that turn out to be the person they claim to be.

Most are just sad individuals who are in it for their own gain or trying to make themselves more interesting than they really are.

I have had the misfortune of having to debate several of these boneheads on my travels through the myriad of forums and websites set up by folk trying to build some sort of reputation for themselves. Sadly a lot of these useless tosspots succeed and are followed blindly by people with the mentality of sheep.

 I have recently visited one where certain sad idiots feel it is ok to ridicule bikers who despite a disability get on with their lives without let or hinderence to anyone else. I often get frustrated by the inability of some people to listen to a sensible point of view and even more so when they are only interested in talking to people that share their own views or are weak enough to be bullied into joining in with a point of view just to fit in.

 To be fair though, some folk set up websites and forums for decent enough reasons and try to genuinely help other people with a particular problem or just offer a place for a friendly chat. Some forums and chat rooms are actually quiet good at providing relevant information in a format easy to understand and with decent support. I could name a few off hand but part of the fun is finding these places for yourself.

Most chartrooms and forums ask you to sign up to a code of conduct when you register, a lot of which entails agreeing to not be abusive, racist, sexist or have a go at the various religions.

There’s a lot more IST’s I can’t be bothered to list but you get the general idea

All well and good, until you get into the chat or forum and it’s quiet evident from the off that the rules were clearly written to be broken. Often by the folk that wrote them.

Now I’m no prude as many who have the misfortune to know me will attest, but the whole point of having rules and checks in place is to ensure that people are protected to some extent and are not victimised for their beliefs, sexual orientation, religion, race colour or creed, or in my case being a disabled biker.

I happen to agree with the principle of having these checks and balances in place whilst acknowledging that most of us are grown ups and should be able to take care of ourselves but there are those in society that are vulnerable and those that thrive on preying on the vulnerable.

In some cases the Moderators on these forums are the instigators of the abuse so it’s unlikely a sensible approach would work, what should happen is the Mods on these forums should weed out the shitheads and ban them from the sites but it’s not likely if the very folk supposed to ensure the balance and checks are implemented are the tossers taking the piss the most.

I recently read a comment where disabled bikers were described as “ Wanna be’s with bad backs” now the comment as I understand it was made in jest about a person who was being a bit of a knob and deserved to take some flack, but read out of context it could have caused a lot of upset and argument. It’s about perception and unfortunatly once a comment like this is made and posted it’s hard to retract and repair bridges so to speak.

Despite the anger and despair I feel when I come across this sort of thing I try to encourage all of them to take the time to visit the NABD’s own forum www.forum.disabledbiker.co.uk.

It’s a forum with an eclectic mix of different personalities with a great sense of humour where bikers can give advice to fellow bikers about the adaptations available to all bikers with a disability to ensure they are able to enjoy the freedom and independence of riding their own machine.

I also try to encourage them to come along to our rallies to meet some of the bikers the NABD has helped back onto the road and to see that we are as much a part of the biking community as they themselves.

We like any other biking family would make them feel most welcome despite their attitude, show them round the machines with adaptations and generally ensure they have a good time and hope they leave with a different attitude towards the Association and it’s members.

When all’s said and done we are all Bikers and should all treat each other with the respect everyone deserves.

Ride safe and party hard.