Epid ends in suicide

[stang]

http://www.mediatakeout.com/2008/283...age_board.html

The same message board where we got the EPID thread from... (bodybuilding.com) taunted a poster to commit suicide. The young man set up a channel on Justin.tv and took a bunch of pills and layed down and hours later the video caught police kicking in the door, and finding his body...

Link to BB.com where they are talking abotu it after the fact

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=112099901

Horrible

[Ironhorse]

That could get nasty for that forum and their users...

[Jayems]

Originally thought it might have been that 18 year old guy asking if he had potential.. but seriously... who taunts someone to commit suicide? The guy was clearly reaching out.

edit: so, come to think of it, that was 3 separate threads where they were relentless in their pursuit of destroying someone. I'm surprised that car posing chick is taking it with (apparent) stride.

And where the hell were the mods to shut that thread down?

Original thread link not responding. Is this for real?

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Jayems

Originally thought it might have been that 18 year old guy asking if he had potential.. but seriously... who taunts someone to commit suicide?

I've seen a few here before, I've been told by a regular poster here that before.

There are just jerks in this world.

[Ozy_Flame]

This is going to get worse before it gets better...

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Jayems

Original thread link not responding. Is this for real?

No idea if it's for real, but the entire BB.com site is down now, personally after something like this i would hope it does not reappear.

Shocking from both the lack of morals of the other posters and the complete lack of moderation.

[REDVAN]

I'll admit I laughed at the car and girl thread, and even the military guy thread. But I am a laugher, not a -disturber. I can't imagine telling someone to commit suicide.

[Thor]

I've had a few people committ suicide over the last 10 years on my forum, one famously in a chat room of ours 'Ripper' as he was called.

Any community and all communities will face unstable people and its very sad that it happens. Its hard to put guilt on people over the faceless internet and anonymous chatrooms.

However this is horrible media sensationalism as it was for me when I had to deal with reporters over my friends suicide that became internet legend at the time. They could care less about anything other than getting a sensationalist story, all the while forgetting how it would affect the family and friends of the departed.

Its hard to discern as forum moderators/administrators what is a real threat and what isn't, I can't tell you how often people have faked suicide, claimed they were going to kill themselves and of course the few who have.

In our website we tell our moderators how to deal with such users, we get notified via emergency contact if the threat seems at all credible, if necessary we will do all we can to notify the ISP of the persons threat to kill themselves, albeit this is sketchy at best, ISPs will tend to do nothing for fear of getting sued.

The worst part is the family will get to see what these people said to their kid, and that will probably haunt them for the rest of their lives.

[Gozer]

I'd like to feign outrage, but this doesn't shock me.

There's not a lot of messageboards that have the conscious of a CP. The guy was mentally unstable, random internet boards are not the place for comfort.

[Boblobla]

I read some forums that are not really moderated at all. I find it pretty tame some of the stuff that people here get really bent out of shape about. I am not really surprised that people on the internet were that cruel.

[Jayems]

Whats not sensational about it though? No matter what, it's going to be a sensational story. And sure, this may happen everywhere, but you'd never see a group of people standing around a guy with a gun to his mouth challenging him to pull the trigger out on the streets. You're right, the anonymity of the internet. But that's where the mod responsibility comes in to play. They just can't assume 'oh, this one is a hoax and that the guy won't go through with it.'

Granted, I can't see the thread, so I don't know how far it got before, if at all, mods got involved (it would be a likely assumption that nothing was done). You'd think there would be a zero tolerance for goading someone into taking their own life on their forums, whether the likelihood of them doing it is slim to none or not.

Although I guess it's not much different than school kids goading a classmate to do it, and then he does. But what I'm saying is that teachers wouldn't turn a blind eye.

[metallicat]

Damn, that's sad.

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by Jayems

No matter what, it's going to be a sensational story.

Suicides are really played down in the news. They don't want to give that person the spotlight to encourage others to do the same.

[koop]

The thread title was "Ask a guy who is gonna OD (again) tonight anything," and he was telling people what he had taken in the 9th post of the thread. I haven't read more than the first page of the thread, but it doesn't look like he was talked into anything.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

Suicides are really played down in the news. They don't want to give that person the spotlight to encourage others to do the same.

I know, but this particular story is reported because of the circumstances behind it. And the circumstances are going to be naturally sensational to begin with.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

I read some forums that are not really moderated at all. I find it pretty tame some of the stuff that people here get really bent out of shape about. I am not really surprised that people on the internet were that cruel.

Sadly I totally agree with you. Anonymity is a hell of a thing.

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by Thor

I've had a few people committ suicide over the last 10 years on my forum, one famously in a chat room of ours 'Ripper' as he was called.

Any community and all communities will face unstable people and its very sad that it happens. Its hard to put guilt on people over the faceless internet and anonymous chatrooms.

However this is horrible media sensationalism as it was for me when I had to deal with reporters over my friends suicide that became internet legend at the time. They could care less about anything other than getting a sensationalist story, all the while forgetting how it would affect the family and friends of the departed.

Its hard to discern as forum moderators/administrators what is a real threat and what isn't, I can't tell you how often people have faked suicide, claimed they were going to kill themselves and of course the few who have.

In our website we tell our moderators how to deal with such users, we get notified via emergency contact if the threat seems at all credible, if necessary we will do all we can to notify the ISP of the persons threat to kill themselves, albeit this is sketchy at best, ISPs will tend to do nothing for fear of getting sued.

The worst part is the family will get to see what these people said to their kid, and that will probably haunt them for the rest of their lives.

What is your forum?

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by koop

The thread title was "Ask a guy who is gonna OD (again) tonight anything," and he was telling people what he had taken in the 9th post of the thread. I haven't read more than the first page of the thread, but it doesn't look like he was talked into anything.

Do you have another link? I'm sitting here making wild assumptions as to what was said in the thread, and did not, admittedly, read the thread.

[koop]

Originally Posted by Jayems

Do you have another link? I'm sitting here making wild assumptions as to what was said in the thread, and did not, admittedly, read the thread.

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache...safari&strip=1

It's cached (don't know if that's the correct term) found it on google.

[flip]

Pretty disturbing if you ask me.

Can't say that the posters are necessarily at fault but I hope they do feel like the pieces of s*** that they are for ripping on a suicidal guy.