A brief list in no particular order:
1. Nigerian scam victims.
I’ve been involved with scamfighting groups for a number of years now, often assisting victims who were taken for a ride by online scam artists. Lately, it seems like I’m running low on compassion. Major news outlets have been warning people about this scam for years now. Even Western Union, the money wiring service preferred by Nigerian scammers, has signs and warnings prominently displayed about this kind of scam. But people still fall for this crap … I don’t understand it anymore.
2. Digg and other Digg-like sites.
Digg is an interesting concept: users vote for the most relevant news tidbits, the most popular of which make the front page. Unfortunately, the only lesson this has taught us is that people are morons. At the time I wrote this, the front page of Digg was full of exciting stories about Wikipedia censorship, Ron Paul, global warming, and other nonsense. It’s almost as if Digg users deliberately vote for the most mindless submissions on the site.
3. Serious bloggers.
I was watching CNN a few nights ago and they were interviewing some ugly woman about the current presidential candidates. The producers prominently displayed her name and the address of her blog throughout the interview. How the hell does writing about politics on the Internet make you qualified enough to be interviwed on CNN?
4. RapidShare warez downloaders.
RapidShare really is the bottom of the barrel as far as finding warez goes. Searching dozens of forum posts to find your favorite movie is bad enough, but manually downloading 16 different files, and piecing them together is just plain retarded. It amazes me that there are huge communities full of morons who chase down RapidShare links for their favorite movie or program.
5. Web 2.0
I have no idea what this means, but I hate it. I read the Wikipedia entry on Web 2.0 but doing so only made me hate it even more.
6. Fan Fiction sites.
Fan Fiction stuff really creeps me out. Fantasizing about running away into the sunset with your favorite celebrity is OK, but forming huge communities where thousands of users discuss their odd fantasies about B-list celebrities? Writing 5 page short stories about having sex with some baseball player? That’s just sad.
7. AdSense.
I really, really hate the belief some people have about Google AdSense being some magic moneymaking machine. At my previous job, we hosted hundreds of sites that promised visitors that they can easily make $2000 per week just by hosting some sites that had little on them other than some prewritten articles, and some AdSense code. Believe it or not, the only people making $2000 per week off this nonsense were the ones selling these moneymaking packages to suckers who were willing to buy them.
8. “Rating” Sites
FaceTheJury and similar sites are really strange. Do people really need to be reassured by 1000 viewers that they have a symmetrical face, nice lips, or a cute ass? FTJ has been online for years now, and hundreds of similar sites are up as well, so I guess that answers my question… ![]()
9. Craigslist
I’ve probably sold over $5,000 worth of stuff on Craigslist over the last few years, but I still hate it. Selling a car for $2500? You’ll get at least half a dozen offers for $1000. Selling a phone for $200? You’ll get at least half a dozen offers for $90-105. Do some of these people really think that someone is going to accept half the asking price for an item!?
This was originally going to be a list of 11 things I hate about the Internet, but I got bored and stopped writing, so it looks like 9 points will do for now. I certainly don’t want to become a “Number 3″.

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