Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2010, Page 10

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10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2010
The Internets | Message Boards
Classified Iceland
It occurred to me recently that I was
in serious withdrawal from one of the
most entertaining and insane places
on the internet. For those of us unwill-
ing to cross the final frontier of 4chan,
Craigslist is basically the best website
ever. It is the seedy underbelly of your
city fully exposed on a free, anonymous,
public, interactive online forum, where
you can troll around for hours on end
reading about all the crazy things being
sold, services being offered, roommates
wanted, one-night-stand requests and,
best of all, the missed connections. It’s
sad, twisted and hilarious. But no one
uses it here.
Since Craigslist Iceland hit the web
under a year ago, the site has gotten a
paltry 125 postings—TOTAL. Most of
them are in the housing section and
none of them are funny. I asked myself,
and my friends, “Why is no one using
this!?” Well, it turns out that there al-
ready is a crazy-ass local classified site.
It’s called Barnaland, and it’s kind of a
shitstorm.
NO BABYSITTERS ALLOWED
So is it just like Craigslist? No, not ex-
actly. Barnaland (‘Babyland’) was origi-
nally started in 2000 by a couple whose
infant son fell terribly ill and they turned
to the internet for advice and help from
other parents. The site quickly gained
popularity, being the only of its kind at
the time in Iceland, and sprung up a
huge message board where families and
parents could share advice, experiences
and time-honoured gossip. The site also
became a marketplace for people look-
ing to buy or sell everything from baby
food to recreational fishing gear, to look
for employment or a new home.
Since Barnaland is only in Icelandic,
I spoke with Hildur Lilliendahl, mother
of two and avid user of the site, to find
out more. She says it is used primar-
ily by women aged 25-45 from all over
the country and from all walks of life. It
seems that the message boards, which
started off as a well-intentioned and
wholesome concept, quickly degener-
ated into a dumping ground for bored
housewives. “One reason is that basi-
cally no one monitors the board in real
time,” Hildur tells me. “A relatively high
number of users have to report a thread
before it disappears and that takes a
while. So it’s an unmonitored message
board updated every few seconds with
thousands of women online. You do the
math.”
CHILD’S PLAY AND TAx EvASION
Of course this lack of supervision and
moderation generated the time-old
tradition of trolling. Some women who
logged on in distress to seek genuine
advice have found themselves the butt
of ridicule. “In 2007 a mortified young
mother sought the help of the admit-
tedly nasty population of Barnaland
after her teacher mocked her baby for
resembling Chucky,” Hildur recalls. “Her
signature contained a link to her blog
which contained pictures of the baby,
and the teacher had been right. Her
three year old daughter did resemble
Chucky. Quite a lot. So everybody LOL-
ed and ROFL-ed and told the poor girl
they agreed with the teacher. Someone
was even kind enough to Photoshop
the kid’s face onto Chucky’s body and
posted it.” This thread has now become
a recurring hit on the board with 16.000
hits, getting bumped to the top every
time a user gets bored.
Other friendly services have been
offered up on the board, such as evad-
ing taxes on imported online purchases
via mail-laundering them through an
Icelandic woman living in Dallas, Texas.
“They did this by having items shipped
to her house where she would re-wrap
and make them look like presents to
send back to them,” our expert explains.
“Perfectly illegal as it is, it did work for
a while. Predictably, she started keep-
ing the items for herself and stopped
returning phone calls or emails.” Unable
to report this woman to the authorities
for helping them circumvent the law, the
Barna-ladies absolutely lost their shit,
much to the amusement of non-partici-
pants like Hildur. A poorly written letter
was sent by a user as a joke to the Dallas
Police Department, urging them to im-
prison and impose the death penalty on
her. The police did not respond.
THERE’S A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
On the other hand, Hildur stresses,
there are many positive aspects to the
site that shouldn’t be forgotten. Some of
the message board threads have been
quite touching and cute, such as one
that urged users to write a letter to their
younger selves, prompting responses
such as: “Dear 15 year old me. Please
get on the pill and put that retainer back
in your mouth. Also: the person you'll
meet in an alley in Akureyri in the sum-
mer of 1996 will bring backup, beat the
crap out of you and kick you repeatedly
in the head. So bring a baseball bat and
beat her to the punch.” A great concept
for an adolescent advice book, in Hil-
dur’s opinion.
The users of the site also rally to-
gether each December to organise do-
nations for families and individuals who
are struggling during the holidays, offer-
ing up their excess belongings to those
in need. “The hardcore users really do
step up and support each other when it's
needed,” says Hildur. “When people are
troubled and ask for help, even though
they are complete beginners and even
if they don't even speak Icelandic, the
users of Barnaland help. That's what we
do. In between bitch fights and gossip-
ing.”
Go to www.er.is for your Barnaland fix
“The hardcore users really
do step up and support each
other when it's needed.
When people are troubled
and ask for help, even
though they are complete
beginners and even if they
don't even speak Icelandic,
the users of Barnaland
help.”
The crazies of Barnaland
Words
Rebecca Louder
Photography
Hörður Sveinsson