Hate mail sucks at the best of times - we’ve probably all received some from an anonymous looney at some point and we know how much it gets to you. You’ll go off and think about it for hours-on-end wondering about what the person says, and coming up with counter-arguments against every scrap of detail they put into the message (even though they probably only spent two or three minutes firing off the piece of junk). I think that hate-mail is just as big a crime as any other thing and we need to start punishing those who commit the more serious offences. Of course again, we have to draw a line between playground arguments and full-blown organized attacks on people, but something has to be done. Something has to change… Internet Community Service?

My reason for writing though, was in response to some anonymous hatemail from Chris Pirillo to… Chris Pirillo. The scary thing about hatemail is this - usually the writer is far too thick to string a sentence or two together. This guy actually seemed to have a pretty good vocabulary. *shudder* TROLLS 2.0! *shudder* So what’s the best route of tackling trolls at present? There isn’t really one… But we can start by all sending consoling messages to the person effected. The worst thing someone can do is bottle up the problem and not tell anyone. Look at all the comments in response to the article! These people think Chris is fantastic (as do I for that matter)! Here’s the email that Chris got hit with anyhow:

Chris,

What have you been up to lately? Coddling a bunch of losers while you drink wine out of single serving 187 ml bottles? You claim you are an “Entrepenuer”, a “Tech Addict”, as well as an “Idea Evangelist”, amongst other things. The truth is, you are a joke. You are marketing yourself as some form of celebrity, when in fact you are an ugly, self serving dullard who is attempting to gleam fame from a bunch of internet using toddlers. Furthermore, your comments are usually similar to the ramblings of a lobotimized turd deep in psychosis.

I really have to hand it to you. You really are making something of yourself. Of course, I mean if “making something of yourself” is making a eating utensil out of a piece of fecal matter.
You are a loser, a joke, your website is slow and unresponsive due to your ignorance, and your capacity to drink alcohol is akin to the ability of a dead rodent.

BYE!

-Chris Pirillo

P.S. I will retain this email address for my own amusement, no matter if you choose to ignore my input or even prove that you are a pussy and block this email address from futher correspondence.

P.P.S. **** YOU!

So I sent an email in reply spinning off to Chris’ inbox, using the troll/loser’s e-mail as a template…

Chris,

What have you been up to lately? You claim you are an “Entrepenuer”,
a “Tech Addict”, as well as an “Idea Evangelist”, amongst other
things. The truth is, you are all of these and MUCH MORE! You
market yourself honestly, and because of your honesty and
unconditional help your giving out, you’ve become an Internet
celebrity. Furthermore, I find your comments to be most helpful and
regularly amusing. Sometimes you even post about lobotimized trolls
deep in psychosis who go along and send you nasty messages…

I really have to hand it to you. You really are making something of
yourself! You are an idol to many on the net, a right joker at times
(see bLaugh.com), your website has a great design and always loads
quickly, due to your down right spiffy coding, and your capacity to
drink so much caffeine to keep going on, answering questions should
be applauded…

BYE!

- David Wilkinson
http://www.techzi.net/

P.S. I will retain this email address for my own amusement, in
response to this message here:
http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/04/20/mean-people-suck/

P.P.S. YOU ROCK! MEAN PEOPLE SUCK!

I’ll be frank, and to the point. Trolling/flaming has passed the stage on the Internet of simply being a nuisance. It can now go as far as being disturbing (and in some cases reported recently) suicidal. We need some kind of Internet ASBO of they’re not going to implement Net Community Service. Some enforcement needs to begin of what’s done on the net. I’m not a fan of censorship, but restricting known offenders from use of certain parts of the net seems like a viable idea. In the meantime, have a laugh at one of Chris’ latest cartoons.