Web 2.0 Asia :: A sad day for Korea, and how the internet played its part

I learned about this sad story through Twitter. We've to be kind and respecting to people or the social media on Internet will also suffer. There is a lot of evil in the world. Celebrities have to face a lot of negative copy from both press and the grassroots media.

Web 2.0 Asia :: A sad day for Korea, and how the internet played its part: "Yesterday was a truly sad day for all Koreans. Jin-sil Choi, Korea's top actress, was found dead, as she apparently committed a suicide. To put this in perspective, imagine this morning you just saw the headline 'Angelina Jolie committed a suicide'. Yes, Choi was THE most loved Korean actress of our times.

What makes it even sadder is the stories eminating from this tragedy, that she was suffering from depression, and much of it came from the 'bad comments on the internet.' It was found Choi actually cared about the comments about her, often spending hours reading all thousands of comments, many of which I assume were worthless piece of garbage.

Most news sites in Korea (I guess elsewhere too) allow anonymous comments that are rarely moderated. I mean moderation is there, but it's usually post-moderation meaning the really offensive comments are taken out only after damages are already done. Taking advantage of these anonymous comment system, some weirdos make all kinds of personal attacks to public figures. But yesterday's Choi incident shows that comments can kill people, literally.

I believe the web we should all strive to create is one where people have respect to each other, not a dark dungeon denizened by some freak trollers. For that, I think we need a better online reputation system..."