BY FERRIS O’LEARY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Liz Forrest is a working mother with a familar problem: After working all day in a real estate office, and participating heavily in her daughter’s swimming team, she struggles to connect with people socially.

And, she says, it’s her own fault. “It takes time to build lasting relationships with people. And I don’t have the kind of time I need to go to bars or the library. That’s why I’m glad I have the internet.”

Forrest is one of thousands of American women who participate in online message forums. Users from all over the internet gather there to discuss such topics as current events, fashion, cooking tips, and the latest movies.

But recently, Forrest’s forum came under attack by internet trolls, hostile users attempting to decrease the signal-to-noise ratio of the internet. “I posted a picture of my son, Roy,” she said, “and someone took the picture and added pterodactyls to it using MS Paint. The pterodactyls were eating my son!” Though the image was of exceptionally low quality, the graphic still disturbed her.

Forrest isn’t alone though. Internet Trolls have been preying on helpless internet users since the early days of the internet.

The good news is that not all of them are hostile. Some internet trolls attempt to disrupt illegal or immoral activities like child pornography and paganism. Many are just after “lulz”, a measurement of status amongst trolls.

The bad news is that now they’re banding together. A group called HIMEOBS is responsible for sinking hundreds of harmless internet forums. They specialize in turning their users against one another and decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio until regular communication cannot take place without suspicion and paranoia. HIMEOBS is currently waging war against Facebook.com, a popular social networking site.

As Facebook.com’s spokesman Mark Zuckerberg told USA Today, “People are using the internet in terrifying ways. It used to be about exchanging information and connecting with people. Now it’s becoming the battleground for a dangerous sort of game where the pieces are human beings and their relationships to one another.”

But it’s not just restless teenagers anymore. The Adam Weishaupt Society, a cabal of “Internet Infoterrorists”, are rumored to have roots in Freemasonry and Jewish Mysticism. Their motivations for challenging the signal-to-noise ratio are related to an ancient tradition possibly originating from pagan practices.

For Forrest, her internet friends are more important than her real life friends. “I talk to my friends on the message board more often than I talk to my other friends. But then I found out that over half of them were just HIMEOBS members posting from multiple accounts.” Multiple users who Forrest believed were her friends began to insult her and unanimously disagree with her. Suddenly it seemed like the whole world was turned against her. “HIMEOBS ruined my life,” said Forrest. “And I’ll make them pay.”

For Forrest, maintaining social relationships on the internet is important because it makes her happy and makes her feel more popular. She doesn’t believe that the trolls who destroyed her message board were trying to be mean, but that “like most internet users, they’re oblivious. There’s a part of me that thinks they just don’t know better and there’s a part of me that thinks they don’t want to know better.”

Have you ever been the victim of internet trolling? Email your answers to Tosha@Rep-Am.com.