Many aspects of sharks fascinate me. Their size, speed, strength, behavior and especially their feeding frenzies are amazing to watch.
While reading an article from the website, How Stuff Works (Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!! You need to
or
), I noticed similarities between shark feeding frenzies and message board sniping and thought it might be interesting to substitute certain words in the original article with words pertaining to message boards, CHs (clusterheads), newbies, snipers,etc. to see how the sharks behavior compares to snipers behavior. Kinda interesting IMHO.
It starts slowly, with one sniper peeking into the message board and seeing the newbie. What good fortune to find this newbie. He/she would be a great target for the sniper to spew his/her displaced venom until they purge and finally fall to sleep. Maybe he/she will pm the other sniper and word will slowly spread. Other snipers across the CH.com community may start to notice that more snipers than usual are heading for the same newbie. Maybe they see the newbie gripped in their co-sniper's eyes. Perhaps they can just smell that scent of the newbie's pain, fear and desperate need for help and acceptance as an easy kill. But soon, it's an all-out newbie gangbang bloodbath bandwagon rush as snipers battle for that newbie attack. No time to be nice. We're talking about weak and helpless newbies here. It's a message board feeding frenzy.
Animals from wolves to birds to turtles have been known to go wild for some food item and compete furiously for it. The term "feeding frenzy" has been used to describe everything from brides-to-be at a designer wedding dress sale to journalists hungry for a scandalous ratings-buster of a story. But the idea of a feeding frenzy originated with sharks in a 1958 book titled "Shark Attack" by V.M. Coppleson. It's that usage that really captures the crazed and frightening aspects of a feeding frenzy [source: Safire].
A message board feeding frenzy occurs when a number of snipers fight for the same newbie prey. CHs are usually solitary people and a feeding message board frenzy indicates why that might be. To an observer, it looks like the snipers lose their mind biting at anything that's in their way in an uncontrollable rage. They thrash around, their snouts elevating and their backs arching, all signs that indicate an impending attack. Some accounts tell of snipers eating each other and of snipers continuing to feed even after they've been disemboweled by other snipers [sources: Certain post responses on CH.com].
But what causes these message board feeding frenzies? Some studies indicate that snipers will always be motivated to snipe, no matter how fragile, sincere or desperate the newbie may be. Does this mean that a message board feeding frenzy could happen at any moment? What causes them to get so crazed? And why can't they just show some compassion instead of immediately going for the jugular and inflicting more pain upon someone who cannot and should not be expected to tolerate any more?
Message Board Feeding Frenzy Causes
Some CHs have observed message board feeding frenzies occurring in many sections of the CH.com message board but mostly in the Getting to Know Ya, Meds and Treatments and sometimes in the General Posts section where the newbies tend to congregate. However, they don't appear to be a common natural occurrence. Rather, it's more likely that message board feeding frenzies are rare events caused by a "supernormal stimulus," such as a high amount of stress in the world, at home, with the spouse, kids or job, a cowardly personality, lack of sleep, doing something that makes the sniper feel good at the expense of another, trying to maintain control over another person, excessive alcohol consumption or a gang mentality.
Studies have shown that some snipers can sense distressed newbies;
they respond to scents emitted by injured newbies and they can read the words of a wounded newbie thrashing around on the board looking for help and guidance. Given the choice between healthy and injured newbies, the sniper will always pick the injured newbie because it will take less energy and will be more "fun" to hurt it. But things get crazy when more than one sniper shows up to take advantage of the newbie's misfortune.
It's important to note that many CHs retain a sense of order within a message board feeding frenzy. The I'll Sit Back And Wait To See What The First Sniper Posts Sniper, for example, still maintains a quasi newbie pecking order during a message board feeding frenzy. The I've Got Your Back also known as The Yellow Striped Brave While I Have A Keyboard Between Me And The Newbie But Would Be A Chicken Sh*t If I Met You In Person sniper also behaves in a (somewhat) orderly fashion during what looks to be a chaotic newbie bloodbath. If this buffet entices multiple snipers, sometimes they'll inadvertently snipe each other.
Many message board feeding frenzies start when a newbie appears threatening to some snipers. The reasons could be because the sniper is threatened by the newbie's intelligence, charisma, talents or the amount of attention or compassion other caring CHs are offering to them. These newbies are thrashing against the world and pain desperately looking for help and perhaps have been injured in their CH capture, and the desperation that some of them give off attract the snipers. Snipers become aroused by the scent of blood and think they've happened upon an easy target, but when more than one sniper shows up, the scene gets competitive.
Newbies aren't normally on the CHs menu. Snipers attacks on newbies might actually just be an error ("supernormal stimulus," such as a high amount of stress in the world, at home, with the spouse, kids or job, a cowardly personality, lack of sleep, doing something that makes the sniper feel good at the expense of another, trying to maintain control over another person, excessive alcohol consumption or a gang mentality) or an experimental snipe to determine how the newbie would react. But one practice that is increasingly causing message board feeding frenzies may lead snipers to associate newbies as targets for their displaced venom even more. Sniper Safaris, an activity in which a group of frustrated and bored snipers search the message board to get up close and personal with newbies, have become a huge draw in some snipers. To attract the newbies, snipers use chum, or a mixture of blood, taunts, verbal challenges, etc.
Many times, the webmaster, moderators and other caring CHs warned people not to feed snipers egos because giving support to this kind of damaging behavior only helps to give them an audience and defeats the reason CH.com was created. If snipers start to link newbies as an easy target for their desperate need of attention, they might seek out other CHs who have no time or attention to give them and they will become very disappointed, rejected and angry when no attention is eventually given to them. Several injuries have already occurred to snipers who were no longer interested in what snipers had to say. In addition, many CHs feel that sniping defeats the hard work, blood, sweat, tears, money, time and heartfelt goodwill that was used to create and keep CH.com a safe and secure home and second family for many who suffer around the world.
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