--- In [email protected], wrote: > > Yep, Denial-of-service-attacks.
Another form of Denial-of-service is to pick the people one doesn't like on an Internet forum and harass them with literally hundreds or thousands of posts for many years until they no longer feel it is worth posting on the forum. Because every time them do, the stalkers will start their harassment campaign again. Many of these victims finally decide that it really isn't worth it to participate any more because the constant harassment from their stalkers prevents them from contributing anything of value, so they leave. The stalkers consider this a "win." More sane people consider it a loss for the forum, because the people chased away by the stalkers were often the best and brightest posters. Others not directly targeted by the stalkers also consider it a loss, because the stalkers tend to then take over the forum and use it to post nothing but their own petty grievances and vendettas, drowning out the interesting discussions other posters originally signed up for. Many of these "secondary victims" also end up leaving the forum. The ones who stay generally avoid interacting with the stalkers, because they've seen what will happen to *them* if they say something that lands them on the stalkers' Enemies List. In the end, the only people who interact with the stalkers are the occasional well-meaning person trying to get them to lighten up and return to sanity (dangerous, because that's guaranteed to land them on the Enemies List themselves), or the toadies and groupies who suck up to the primary stalkers, kiss their asses, and try to emulate and perpetuate their sick behavior. It's a form of cyberterrorism.
