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Formspring controversy

Reina

pandasaur!
337
Posts
15
Years
There's been a lot of it lately, huh?

With the formspring-related suicide of Alexis Pilkington on March 22nd, and the March 12th rumor of formspring revealing anonymous users, formspring has got a lot of controversy. My question here is what PC members think about the site and the ridiculous amount of controversy and hatred / harassment on it.

I have one, and I use it, and I personally haven't gotten any hate messages, its usually just my friends and I sending inside jokes back and forth to eachother, but I've seen some nasty stuff said to my friends. It's fun for a time, until people abuse it, I think... I wouldn't go as far to organize a huge boycott of it, but I think Facebook & other social networking sites were a bit better without it. So PC, what do you guys think?
 

otakulily

Pokemon is okay, I guess.
244
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Jul 25, 2014
Not much in term of hate messages - pretty much all I get are troll messages. And yes. People do abuse it, mostly due to the anonymous factor. People don't even use it to ask questions. They just post random crap. But I like random crap. I honestly don't mind. And the way the questions are phrased, I can usually tell who the anonymous users are since everyone who posts on my formspring are people I know from various forums. So I'm not too bothered by it.

It's a great idea. It's just very poorly executed. If people want to ask serious questions, then fine. If people want to use it to anonymously post hate mail then that's a bit of a problem. But remember, if you're seeing "nasty stuff" on other people's formspring pages, that means that the user chose to respond to that question/statement. If the user gets hate mail and chooses to expose it to the entire world, that is their choice. People are not obligated to respond to every single post on formspring. They can choose to ignore it. That doesn't change the fact that the posts are read. But if things get really bad, you can block anonymous messages. But it's nothing new, really. It's the internet. It's full of hate. And it's not like random people are choosing to hate you. It's most likely someone you know and they probably have their reasons for disliking other people. I'm sure everyone has someone they don't like and they all deal with it in different ways. Some people choose to vent their anger through the internet. I'm not saying it's a good thing, or even an "okay" thing. But the world is not ideal. Just be grateful the people who hate your friends don't choose to stab them of beat them up or something. No need to boycott formspring. Or even change it. It's not the most secure thing. But it's secure enough to also allow for some fun.
 

Stairmaster

Banned
100
Posts
14
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen May 31, 2010
I think it is pretty stupid how anonymous everything is on there. Nearly everyone on there has a Twitter so they should just make people sign in to Twitter to use Formspring. Of course, that probably wouldn't stop everyone, but would probably help alleviate things.
 

Anxiety.

Walking on sunshine.
1,670
Posts
16
Years
Oh god. Don't get me started.

I have one, all my friends have one, and sadly, so do all the people I don't like. So they spam us (Most recent spam: Taking the piss out of my sister and her girlfriend because the split up. Also, usually it is unprovoked, but yeah, we have provoked them sometimes) and at times it can get pretty bad. They made one of my friends cry indirectly because they were calling her second best to her girlfriend. But yes! I wont get into a rant about how much I hate them. Formspring does get abused, and trolling and spam is a constant thing for some. But whatever, man, you make one and you have to accept that this will happen.
 
Timbjerr

Timbjerr

[color=Indigo][i][b]T-o-X-i-C[/b][/i][/color]
7,415
Posts
20
Years
Anyone care to enlighten old farts like me that have no idea what Formspring is? XD

From what I can gather from context in this thread, it's like twitter, but with the option to post anonymously...and it's primary purpose is asking silly questions...Where does controversy come in and how does this cause a girl to kill herself? o_0

*prepares to post an "Internet - Serious Business" image macro*
 

Eeohnex

Illuminate
417
Posts
14
Years
Some of my friends have it, I find it hilarious and stupid to be honest. It's just like a free anonymous online bullying site, most of my friends get the most random crap ever, and I usually just spam them with jokes. But I have seem other peoples Formspring and they get pretty harsh comments, I think it's just stupid to have one, specially the ones who really care what other people think, which can lead to suicide and low self-stem.

That's the reason why I don't have one.
 

TheUltimateSacrifice

257
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Apr 4, 2012
What on earth are you talking about? People have committed suicide from the hate they got on the Internet? Lulz. Sounds like the site for me...
 

Aureol

Kanto/Electric-Type Enthusiast
422
Posts
14
Years
Timbjerr said:
Anyone care to enlighten old farts like me that have no idea what Formspring is? XD

From what I can gather from context in this thread, it's like twitter, but with the option to post anonymously...and it's primary purpose is asking silly questions...Where does controversy come in and how does this cause a girl to kill herself? o_0

*prepares to post an "Internet - Serious Business" image macro*
Click to expand...

Apparently, I'm not the only one to have no clue what Formspring is... haha. This does not sound like a place I want to go though.
 

Illekn

38
Posts
14
Years
  • Age 30
  • Seen May 1, 2010
My thoughts? They have an option in which you can opt out of anonymous questions, so people are forced to ask with a registered name. Something for people who dislike anonymous things to take them away, and for those that do like them to keep them.

Formspring is website where you set up a page, and people ask you question, or post random drabble.
 

Niprop

The Fighting Porygon Team
846
Posts
15
Years
Never heard of it, but sounds like the 4chan equivalent to Twitter.


Not for the faint of heart, be prepared to get taunted, teased, threatened, trolled, and otherwise spat on like crazy. It's basically a train-wreck in a box, allowing you to view the worst humanity has to offer from a click of the mouse. Delightful, isn't it?
Click to expand...
 

jerkyjoe

19
Posts
14
Years
I kept getting hate messages from a couple people in the Alexz Johnson community that hate me and my fan site... They hate the site because Alexz and her team support the site and not their's. Anyways, I just reported them for spam and the messages stopped...

It's easy to hit SPAM and block their IP.

EDIT: Oh and I don't know anyone who has me on their hit list at school to bug me with mean messages either, so I'm in the clear.
 

The Fame Monster

143
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Apr 24, 2010
my friends have one and i like to send them weird messeges but nothing mean. id never get one because people like to target me.

formspring works great in theory but has many flaws when practiced.
 

Eliminator Jr.

1,032
Posts
15
Years
If people are able to be anonymous, put simply it's only a matter of time before somebody abuses it. I don't really care about Formspring or Twitter, but if people want to use it, that's the risk they take. If you can't handle abuse, don't make an account. It's as simple as that.
 

Throat

Oldschool pokemon
346
Posts
14
Years
I know what it is, used for a short period of time and don't understand the problem related to it.
 
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