Quote Originally Posted by Searious View Post
All of this sounds like a minor annoyance at best. Compared to real bullying it doesn't seem like a big deal.

When I was in highschool I saw real bullying. People physically assaulting people. Taking their money..their bus passes. Taking thier food during lunch or knocking it on the floor for no reason. Throwing stuff at them during class. Ripping their clothes or book bags for fun. Or dumping the contents of their bookbags in the trash. Breaking their belongings. All that in addition to the "emotional" stuff like name calling. All this was pre Columbine when telling the teachers didn't help much. I used to see people go through that everyday and it's not like a game where you can just log off.

You really thing someone spamming /laugh really compares to that?
First off, no some people can say really awful things and it's not really a "minor annoyance" to have your feelings hurt. Other people's words do have more of an impact than "oh man this guy is annoying". It is very stressful to be the focus of someone who makes it their goal to make you unhappy.

Secondly, this is a video game. No one is really comparing it to real life bullying. Neither are close to one another and they both are handled completely different and any "back in my day" examples do not discredit the harm that online bullying does. Saying you can "turn it off" is also an invalid argument because now you have an issue where other people are forcing you to not be able to use a service that you pay for. It's like telling a kid who's bullied in school "Well you can always just drop out".

And lastly, no. /laugh spam does not compare to real life bullying but when done to harass someone In Conjunction With My Other Examples only adds to the emotional stress. Also, that type of argument you made is a complete fallacy anyways.