People's Behavior on the Internet

[Skip Brutale]

I've been playing alot of chess at yahoo and Im not very good. Basically 1/2 the time I make a mistake like hang a queen, my opponent will type something to me like "you so dumb" "oops", etc. When we haven't had any kind of verbal dialogue previously.

Im pretty confident that if I was playing at a real life chess club, half the time I made a mistake my opponent would not start talking crap to me, especially in a casual non-tournament environment. Is it because, they really want to but are too cowardly to do it face to face?

Is yahoo chess just full of teenagers? This has always interested me, how rudely people act when there is anonymity. Are most people rude, but afraid to show it in person or are rude people just attracted to the internet so its overran with them?

What are your thoughts?