viciouskillersquirrel
Member
The history of GAF is replete with joke characters - people who, for one reason or other, take on an exaggerated Internet persona for their own entertainment. Now, sometimes these themed antics may be funny, sometimes, they're just annoying.
I found out recently that one particular banned member, Costanza, is confirmed to have been a joke character the whole time he'd been posting here. When I found this out, I felt some relief. I actually didn't like Costanza as some of his (deliberately) obnoxious opinions grated on me something shocking. This is unusual for me and there are very few people online or in real life that I have any beef with.
Thing is that I didn't want to judge him too harshly because for all I knew, he was just some kid just finishing/barely out of high school. I certainly had some obnoxious opinions of my own at that age so I tried my best to disregard him and his blatant trolling. I try to live my life in as mellow a way as possible, so subconsciously hating on Costanza whenever I saw him post something stupid in OT was, like, messing with my cool, man.
Finding out that none of it was real, then, felt like vindication. He had been consistently stupid on purpose, so getting annoyed means that I'm less of a bad person.
My opinion on joke characters is that they're an inevitable consequence of anonymity and a forum this large and are far better than the alternative we'd get if they were cracked down on more. Also, not all joke characters are created equal.
I liked Crushed, for instance, because he had a sense of humour. It's a pity he decided to go all Don Quixote against the moderation here since apart from the occasional annoyance, he was generally entertaining and didn't troll as much as try to make people laugh. I always got the impression of his being a sad clown.
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Anyway, enough about that. Name some of the more infamous joke posters you've come across on GAF that are no longer with us. Discuss why they were notorious, how they got "outed" or what led to their downfall.
I found out recently that one particular banned member, Costanza, is confirmed to have been a joke character the whole time he'd been posting here. When I found this out, I felt some relief. I actually didn't like Costanza as some of his (deliberately) obnoxious opinions grated on me something shocking. This is unusual for me and there are very few people online or in real life that I have any beef with.
Thing is that I didn't want to judge him too harshly because for all I knew, he was just some kid just finishing/barely out of high school. I certainly had some obnoxious opinions of my own at that age so I tried my best to disregard him and his blatant trolling. I try to live my life in as mellow a way as possible, so subconsciously hating on Costanza whenever I saw him post something stupid in OT was, like, messing with my cool, man.
Finding out that none of it was real, then, felt like vindication. He had been consistently stupid on purpose, so getting annoyed means that I'm less of a bad person.
My opinion on joke characters is that they're an inevitable consequence of anonymity and a forum this large and are far better than the alternative we'd get if they were cracked down on more. Also, not all joke characters are created equal.
I liked Crushed, for instance, because he had a sense of humour. It's a pity he decided to go all Don Quixote against the moderation here since apart from the occasional annoyance, he was generally entertaining and didn't troll as much as try to make people laugh. I always got the impression of his being a sad clown.
------------
Anyway, enough about that. Name some of the more infamous joke posters you've come across on GAF that are no longer with us. Discuss why they were notorious, how they got "outed" or what led to their downfall.
However, I definitely don't miss Greatness Gone.
