Has your girlfriend dumped you? Your boss caused you to lose a promotion? Your so-called friend spread your secrets to the world? You could lower your head in shame -- or take revenge.
Revenge is exactly what German Bjoern Joerges and his brothers in arms had in mind when they created their Web site entitled "Revenge is Sweet."
At www.rache-ist-suess.de, the site is not just about fun. It's about revenge. According to the creators, the site holds a mirror up to the actions of some of their contemporaries -- and it's all supposed to be done in a humorous way.
But many of the victims of these send-ups aren't laughing, and they're not the only ones. Psychologist Wolfgang Schneider of Wuerzburg, Germany is unmoved. He sees the online revenge forum as an expression of a phenomenon that brings private relational issues into the public sphere for lurid consumption. It's akin, says Schneider, to the currently popular taste for a "striptease of the soul," the kind regularly delivered via sensational daytime talk shows.
Joerges's home page is a modern version of the Puritans' stocks -- putting the guilty out for all to see. If a student is mad about his fellow students, he can explain the situation in all its gory details on the Internet. In one case, a 20-something complains about his ex-girlfriend who cheated on him toward the end of their relationship. Joerges feels this is a perfect application of "revenge is sweet" -- a chance for the wronged to get satisfaction.
Joerges started the Web page seven years ago -- strictly for private consumption, he claims -- because of a "bottomless" rage he harbored toward a fellow student. The Web site was intended to let him air his feelings.
At that time, no one could have imagined that the Web site would become so popular. Today, it claims 4,300 members worldwide between the ages of 14 and 50. Police officers and lawyers are among its customers, Joerges stresses. He is himself a law student, scheduled to take his first qualifying exams in the fall.
"Legally this is completely watertight," claims Joerges. That's because nothing goes in its original form onto the Net. If the events take place in Cologne, then the story will claim it happened in Munich. The ages and names of those involved are similarly altered.
"We don't hang anyone out to dry," Joerges stresses.
It's not just that he and his partners want to protect themselves legally. They also want to distinguish themselves from "frivolous revenge sites" that will put anything onto the Internet as delivered -- even with names and addresses unfiltered.
A spot on the Web isn't the only thing the "revenge is sweet" forum offers, though. For those looking for more concrete revenge, the site can also arrange practical jokes. One example involved a group of high school students whose teacher gave too many surprise quizzes for their taste.
In cahoots with the teacher's wife, the members of the forum led the teacher to believe he had overslept his draft notice for the military reserves. The entire affair lasted a half-hour and was so realistic that the teacher had broken out into a cold sweat -- until the supposed army bus stopped in front of a bar, where the forum's actors let the cat out of the bag. The teacher apparently took the whole thing well, with no plans for further revenge.
But not all of those whose stories end up on the Web take it so well. Nasty words are the least of the problems for the club's active members. Several victims have threatened legal action, and a few have even sought an injunction on the claim that even with details altered, their story is clearly recognizable. "No one has succeeded yet," Joerges notes.
Twenty-one-year-old club member Carlos can't understand why some victims get so worked up. The practical jokes are always funny, he argues. Besides, "those involved have also earned what's coming to them."
For psychologist Schneider, however, it isn't important whether the victims have "earned" earned their comeuppance. Such publicity is suspect, for starters, but even if the site serves as a venting mechanism for aggression, these modern scarlet letters still appear "highly primitive."
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