I used to run a Minecraft server for my nephew, from 2012-2014.
Nearly killed my laptop. People of all ages would come on, but
mostly kids from like 9-25. As it became popular (I just called
it "Ken's Server" - 27,000 unique members in total if I remember
right), I'd get the occasional threat of attacks. They'd come
on, threaten to DDoS. They'd claim to be from Anonymous. Used
just about the same script. "Hi, I'm from Planet Minecraft",
trying to convince someone to give them control of the server.
My tactic was to play along for a little bit and then I'd
predict their next words, which were always the same eventually.
Invariably, they'd be "from Anonymous". "We are Legion" and all
the fun Anonymous quotes. Sometimes they'd even try. I'd tell
them, "I have no firewalls." (true). "DDoS me. I'll wait." And
they'd run some run-of-the-mill script that they thought was
exclusively theirs, and fail to knock me offline or cause any
trouble what-so-ever. If they came back (they usually did), if I
could get them to settle down a little, I'd convince them to
stay and eventually I'd make them admin or something. They just
wanted attention that's all. Of course these were kids.
Teenagers, college students, probably some young kids my
nephew's age as well. So, anytime I would see something about
Anonymous in the news or on youtube, or that funny plastic mask
somewhere, I'd have to laugh. That's not to say that they
haven't done some stuff for social justice and all of that. I'm
sure they have. But I could never take it seriously because of
the "me-toos" I encountered in my tiny pocket of the internet
Universe.
