This bullying things relates to the kind of stuff we've been having threads about recently - flamers and trolls and GUESTS who make nasty little personal attacks, but can't receive personal messages.

That's bullying. And the consensus was that it's best to just ignore it, because it just encourages them to stick around and get noticed. Which is frustrating at times, but best to stick with it...

In the 3D world, bullies damage people, and so just cutting out the attention and making it self-defeating isn't enough.

But the suggestion that only physical bullies matter isn't on. Some of the most vicious examples of persecution and bullying aren't physical at all - the kind of thing that leads to kids killing themselves. And in some cases, when you get down to it, what is seen as cases of physical bullying have at their root kids who have been taunted and teased until they struck out, and learnt how to be physical bullies. Or maybe they learn the tricks and the skills that put them into the bullying in-crowd that aren't recognised as bullies because they are careful and non-physical.

And the worst bullying of all is bullying by people in positions of power, and that continues and escalates in adult life. There are people in positions of real power who aren't bullies. I think they are probably in a minority.