Didymo spreading across the Web

As it says in this link, "Didymosphenia geminata (Didymo for short), is a single celled algae that's spreading across rivers and streams across the world."

Amongst people involved in water sports, the stuff has another name: rock snot. Follow the link and you'll see a lovely picture that explains the name.

I'm gradually weaning myself from going onto any public thread on the internet, because all of them have been gradually taken over and choked off by the Web equivalent of rock snot. The latest infestation appears in any thread involving the notorious Jim Bunning. There, you'll observe that the compassion claimed to exist for the jobless amongst the employed is largely a myth. For Web snot, it is not enough to say that it supports Bunning. It must trot out every slander in existence about unemployed people. The trouble with both forms of infestation is that anyone who tries to contain it winds up getting slimed as well.

The parallels are fascinating. Web trolls seem very much like single-celled algae that do nothing but ingest and reproduce, and choke off the discourse of all other life forms. Like didymo, Web snot is spread by carelessness, self-absorption and ignorance. Didymo can be contained by cleansing efforts but above all by preventing its spread by stupid people. We can say the same of Web snot.