HBGary Hired to Take Down Anonymous, Anonymous Takes Down HBGary

I wouldn't mind anon disappearing, lots of stupid shit would quit becoming memes.

But lots of awesome shit would quit becoming memes too, so it's a mixed bag.

Anonymous disappearing would mean the Internet was no longer the Internet as we understand it. For that situation to even arise there would have to be some kind of fundamental, possibly catastrophic change. It's not a group, it's not even an ideology, it's more of a collection of related mindsets.

I don't think Barr's actual assumption that there were a smaller number of active members of Anonymous who participated in multiple activities was that stupid. What was stupid was regarding them as leaders and treating them as such, which entails treating Anonymous as an actual organisation.

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Maybe it would become awesome again, the way the internet was awesome before meme spouting adolescents started to pollute it.

-sigh- That was the golden age of the internet.

No, it was so much better before Eternal September... no, before Hipcrime... no, before the Great Renaming...

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Well, I wouldn't know; I certainly wasn't around for the much-mythologised era of Usenet, although I do recall a time when sites like YouTube were considerably more people-and-community focused. As far as I'm concerned I'm a part of the post-4chan Internet culture, even if I'm only on the fringe of that, and I wouldn't want it to go away.

But either way, I think that for the situation to even arise where Anonymous vanished or somehow got "taken down" (for better or worse), I think there would need to be some kind of drastic alteration of the nature of the Internet itself, probably in a way that made free speech more restricted, and I can't say I'd welcome that.

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^

I was more referring to pre-myspace. Back when the internet wasn't terribly accessible to kids and teens, and having cable or DSL was considered a massive luxury.

I'm not saying I want to be on 56k again, but it was nice when the community, by and large, were all people with jobs. You didn't encounter that asshole who took online games all super srs who played as many hours as I spend at work, daily. That didn't really start happening until a little ways into Counterstrike, before Valve bought it.

It was pretty cool bro. Not saying younger folks are bad, I mean I was in High School back then(And in Junior High when I played Duke Nukem 3D, Doom II, and Mechwarrior), but I was there because my dad was a blue collar internet geek back when it was just a strange and alien passing hobby that people had. Being like 28 was the norm for a gamer then.

edited 14th Feb '11 8:21:56 PM by Barkey

Anonymous= Chaotic Neutral

or is it?

I'd say Chaotic Stupid, but whatever.

Fight smart, not fair.

Chaotic stupid often applies as well but they have shown surprising intelligence at times due to the fact that they are a large group of people.

or is it?

They aren't [D&D alignment]. They aren't a person, or a philosophy, or a lifestyle, or a group. It doesn't make sense to describe them in those terms, except jokingly.

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I personally feel that the first quote on Chaotic Stupid sums up most of Anons actions.

Fight smart, not fair.

@Barkey: Fuck yeah Mechwarrior. Drunkscriblerian is running a tabletop Mechwarrior game for some friends and I.

Anyways, Anonymous has always existed, and will always exist. It goes by different names, sure. But it'll always be there like it always has.

Any time you read something online and say to yourself "Man, this guy is a moron, I want to meet him and punch him in the face" that's the voice of Anonymous. Every time you say "We need to do something" that's the voice of Anonymous. Anonymous is all of us and none of us.

It defies description.

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

@Bobby: They're a force of nature, if nothing else. Like the ocean in temperament.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

ANONYMOUS IS LEEGIUN GUYZ

No, serious. I find this discussion funny as hell

EDIT: The anonymous hand bitchslapped HB Gary!

EDIT 2: Honestly I'd rather have Encyclopedia Dramatica die instead of 'Anonymous' - as well ED is scum.

edited 15th Feb '11 12:19:20 AM by BalloonFleet

WHASSUP....... ....with lolis!

Like the end of net neutrality?

"While the group claimed to be headless, Barr believed this to be a lie; indeed, he told others that Anonymous was a tiny group."

Dumbass.

Anonymous is just a meme in and of itself, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less.

Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve

How did this guy underestimate Anonymous that much?

You got some dirt on you. Here's some more!

Oh, the poor stupid bastard. What trope pages should we put him on? Tempting Fate is a definite.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

Well forgetting Anonymous, a single black hat can take down a company given a few months no matter how secure. Anonymous is mostly made up of people who use tools already pre-crafted by black hats and since most places are nowhere near as secure as they should be, they'd succeed more than not. And if they hit some random home consumer system, they basically have no protection whatsoever other than the fact that they're an unlikely target.

So, I don't get why this guy can think people are so weak at breaking systems. A twelve year old can download some hacking tool and blow away a website.

Anonymous can handle this type of heat, even more so since they aren't even a solidified group. It'll only be problematic for them when the NSA feels like dropping the hammer of police state justice on them.

edited 15th Feb '11 9:18:24 AM by breadloaf

Wrong Genre Savvy?

What's precedent ever done for us?

And not even then, considering that they're an international thing.

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

Hubris

My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.

Oh yes.

edited 15th Feb '11 10:22:24 AM by rmctagg09

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

"I wouldn't mind anon disappearing, lots of stupid shit would quit becoming memes." - Barkey

I'd be more worried about large-scale trolling than about silly memes.

"Honestly I'd rather have Encyclopedia Dramatica die instead of 'Anonymous' - as well ED is scum." - Balloon Fleet

ED is probably worse, but really ED and anonymous are very closely connected.