Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Goodreads Could Learn From ESPN: How To deal With Bullying

Internet bullying is just not relegated to Goodreads and the like. Bullying runs rampant in every corner of the world wide web. From video gamers, to Youtube, and yes, even in fantasy football.

I posted about a bully in my ESPN fantasy league here on The Glass last year, but this year, it has boiled over. I draft ten teams a year on ESPN for fantasy football. On Monday, June 1st, I began drafting my teams. The first two drafts went without incident, but then came the next three drafts later that day and the first two drafts on Tuesday, June 2nd. Five straight drafts that saw seven people, none of whom I have ever interacted with before, come after me like they were lions and I was meat. From name calling, to more harsher insults and at the end of one draft, a threat to do me bodily harm.

I actually told the guy if he wanted to send me an email request for my address, I would gladly give it to him in so he could achieve his butt-kicking goals at my expense. He has yet to take me up on that offer, however, I did think to teach him a lesson about "keyboard" tough guy behavior, and I reported him to ESPN.

I did this early Tuesday afternoon, and within 24 hours, this man was banned for a year. Next time he shows his ass like that, he will be banned for life from ever playing ESPN leagues again. This man also was bullying another guy too, but I don't know if that guy reported him or not.

But I was very surprised by how quickly ESPN addressed the issue and took swift action. I also noticed how they were not treating me like the problem, as Goodreads treated me when I got attacked on their website. ESPN did not make me a victim twice, and this is where Goodreads could learn a thing or two on how to deal with bullies. It is Goodreads nature to punish the victims more than the aggressors. But it is nice to know that there are places out there on the internet who know how to distinguish bullies from victims.

But I won't hold my breath waiting for Goodreads to figure it out. 

Thank you ESPN for acting quickly, and properly. Hopefully, others will follow your example and together, we can crack down on these internet thugs. One bully at a time. 


 

4 comments:

  1. Did you have to report him? Just seems to me you could have let it go. You need to learn how to let things go, Carroll.

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    1. For your information, I did let it go. When the draft concluded, I had no intention to report him for the threat. However, after the draft, the guy changed the name of his team to my name and a short insult. He did not let it go! And because of this, I decided to report him. But this is the thing with people like him (bullies). They never know when to stop. They can never tell when enough is enough. And forget about trying to negotiate with them.

      But this would have been good to put into my article because it resembles the bullies and their "book shelf naming" on Goodreads. The bullies will use their book shelf name to attack and insult authors just like this guy used his team name to attack me. It is not the appropriate place to vent your frustrations or anger. And rest assured, these bullies are riddled with anger. Anger at their life, and the world around them. There's just no pleasing these kinds of people.

      Anyhow, ESPN knows the difference between the guilty and the innocence and for that, Goodreads could take a page from their book. Then again, perhaps the people at Goodreads are much too ignorant to recognize the difference between bullies and victims. Perhaps they haven't been trained properly, I don't know. But to again address your question, I did let it go and I had every intention to keep letting it go. It was this idiot's continuance to keep pushing it that led him to his own fate.

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    2. It's also comparable to bullies reviewing (and judging) author behavior in book reviews.

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    3. Another good point. The Goodreads bullies are notorious for writing author reviews where book reviews should be. It's how the bullies attack authors. That is comparable to this guy attacking me where his team name should be.

      Isn't it funny though how bullies do that? They know they are never going to be anyone that anybody else is going to care about, knowing that "their" space isn't going to be viewed nearly as much as the "author" space on their books so they do their attack on their review space, which in truth, is actually the author's space too. (Because it's the author's book) At least they stay consistent. lol

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