Posts on epilepsy forum trigger seizures

[Talsek]

I thought this was pretty fucked up, not sure if any of you heard about it.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...HsArgD90H3NV01

I think this guy hit the nail on the head:

"I count this in the same category of teenagers who think it's funny to put a cat in a bag and throw it over a clothesline — they don't realize how cruel it is," said Paul Ferguson, a security researcher at antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc. "It was an opportunity waiting to happen for some mean-spirited kid."

[Rosuav]

Hehehee, wouldn't it be fun to post some flashy stuff to epileptics.... heheeheeeee....

Unfortunately, this sort of "thinking" is not uncommon. This situation is the result of (1) typical poor reasoning and poor thought, coupled with (2) the ability to put this into practice. It's no different from tying a lit fuse to a cat's tail and sending it off to run through an area full of flammable things; except that maybe you're more likely to get caught in the physical world. If anyone dies as a result of someone's "hehehe" practical joke, the perpetrator would be stunned (which differentiates it from true malicious attacks (terroristic etc), where deaths would be highly satisfying), firstly because they don't intend THAT much harm, and secondly because they've just not thought things through.

(I don't know enough about epilepsy to know for sure whether a seizure can kill you or not, but I believe so. If not, just imagine another situation where the same non-thinking leads to a slightly worse result. It's not outside the realm of probability.)

[Maelgrim]

At least this guy isn't blaming anonymous. He still misses the entire point though.

I count this in the same category of teenagers who think it's funny to put a cat in a bag and throw it over a clothesline — they don't realize how cruel it is,

Um, duh? Perhaps because they ARE kids, and they WOULD do something like that, and DON'T realize how cruel it is?

What these kids did was not appropriate, it was not defensible, and it was possibly criminal, but still, if someone is going to put up an epilepsy support website, you'd think they would have learn2interwebz enough that they realize the risk that animated gifs pose to epileptics and, fuck me, I don't know... Disabled them in the forum software server-side?

I would have absolutely laughed my box off if the complaints were generated by an externally generated advertising banner. Of course in that scenario, you wouldn't have heard dick.

This is a case of irresponsible webmasters having a BAWWW for being too fucking stupid to do something simple, and are now frantically looking for someone's feet to sit the blame at, when they should be looking at themselves.

[Gromgor]

I believe the intent to post flashy things BECAUSE it was a site for epilepsy kind of makes it so they ARE to blame.

Finding a loophole in the law that allows one to kill somebody legally does NOT mean you should kill people.

I agree though. They were probably laughing about it, not expecting it to do any real harm. As someone who can't play First Person Shooter games like Halo because doing so causes me severe headaches, nausea to the point of puking and vertigo, no. It's not cool. It's not funny. I don't usually have a problem with flashy graphics, but for the people who do, they need to give those kids a good smack upside the head.

[Maelgrim]

Smack upside the head? I completely agree. But we shouldn't act so shocked when shitmouse kids act like shitmouse kids.

I'm trying to find an analogy that doesn't sound like wild hyperbole here, but seriously, you're setting up an epilepsy support forum. A visual medium, for an illness whose symptoms are often a result of specific visual stimuli. Wouldn't a risk assessment be the first fucking thing you do? Wouldn't the potential for big flashing images, images which anyone who has spent 5 minutes on the internet has no doubt encountered, be one of the first things you take steps to PREVENT?

It's like putting up a catwalk at a nightclub and then blaming the beer company when your drunken patrons fall off because you were too much of a dumbarse to think to put a safety railing on it.