Internet Relay Chat ‘Snuff’ Boards

[Tom504]

I am far from an expert on the evolution and demise of various IRC boards, some of which have had ‘snuff’ related channels, but they continue to have an existence. They are part of the ‘venting’ system for people to vicariously place their toe in the lake of ‘snuff roleplay.’ Channels like snuffsex, shot-dead, necro babes, and others.

I’ve been a participant over the years on these channels. I’ve never quite got the hang (no pun intended) of IRC, but enough to get on, and to roleplay when such was possible. To be on IRC, one has to ‘suspend disbelief’ and see IRC has a relief valve on a pressure cooker, as a vent, and not take it all that seriously. That’s because most of the people on IRC are hiding.

People would love someone to get to know them and co-participate in their fantasy, but that is contradicted by their unwillingness to be really and authentically known. Women are played by men because women get more attention on such channels. Men create elaborate fantasies they might like to discuss but are afraid to role-play because someone might ‘do it’ slightly differently than their fantasy. We might respect that but the reality is that there is little emotional flexibility in most people with detailed fantasies — they don’t have the resiliency that comes with interpersonal maturity. Hiding behind a nickname on a text-only network is self-shaming.

I have said this many times to (former) clients, that people yearn to be known for who they ‘really’ are (to the extent people know who they really are) BUT they are more afraid of being known because they fear that someone else (the imaginary someone else) will ‘weaponize’ knowledge about them. To find someone in your life who knows you and accepts you is perhaps the greatest gift. But to ask that person to role-play your snuff fantasies with you is a bridge too far. Rejection is too close at hand. So, people go onto IRC to pretend, and be in-authentic, which is like chasing the dragon, trying to find the first high after years of (drug) use.

Yet, IRC becomes addictive. Many people spend years and years allowing IRC to dominate aspects of their lives. There are lovely people there. I think of one Fenton, a professor (I think) who ran several of these snuff channels. Quick witted and perceptive and, well, kind, to the extent he was willing to be authentic. The IRC boards do not invite authenticity, indeed, the opposite. They make it easy not to be honest, and to flame others, and to exercise the emotional immaturity which a lot of society would frown upon. But now and then one might meet an exception. Needle in a haystack mostly though.

My various attempts to be engaged in IRC were wrong-headed. I wanted IRC to be something it could not be. I tried being myself (male), and tried being a female, and always tried to engage people in conversation. As a result, I was or became an excellent role-player, but found people were so avoidant about what they really wanted / needed, that good role-play was very difficult to find. A text only medium with people who were and are largely not self-aware emotionally. You could be in a lively open channel chat and someone would take offense at the smallest comment. In public that same person would say nothing. IRC incentivized people to be fakes, and often unkind fakes.

You will see and agree or disagree with my thesis, that open and authentic discussion of who we are, what we want, with the ability to disagree in an agreeable fashion, will achieve more goals — in soccer, yes?, more ‘shots on goal’ will yield more goals. Especially with the grade school and youth leagues. IRC wasn’t the right place for that, and I suspect this board isn’t the right place for that. Not sure there is a right place for that.

I remember, once, suggesting to a number of IRC snuff fans that we all meet in some hotel in the middle of the country for a three or four day get-together. Plan some set role-plays for viewing. Have some moderated discussions. Get to know one another as people over beer or one’s favorite drink of choice. People loved the idea in principle. No one was remotely willing to meet anyone else face to face in a setting like that. It would have met needs and scared the shit of the same people.

Now and then you would here someone meeting someone else, but it was usually a one-time meeting. Because you then had to show up and work through all of these hard to work through things. It did happen though.

So, thanks to Bluestone whoever that is, for having a good board for discussion and sharing.