Scott Pringle
he/him In 2013, I began cataloguing online incidents as a personal research project. At the time, the field of digital humiliation studies did not exist. In many respects, it still doesn't. I am, to my knowledge, the only person maintaining a comprehensive database of main character moments, viral ratio events, and self-inflicted posting disasters.
The archive currently contains 10,247 documented incidents across 14 platforms, classified by severity tier, escalation pattern, and contributing factors. I do not editorialize. I do not offer opinions on whether a post was "good" or "bad." I document what happened, identify the structural factors that caused it, and publish the findings.
People sometimes ask if this work has changed how I post. I don't post. I stopped in 2016 after reviewing my own data.
Articles by Pringle
The Poster's Threat Matrix
A risk assessment framework for classifying posts by their probability of going catastrophically wrong.
Scott Pringle
Anatomy of a Main Character Moment
A forensic reconstruction of how an ordinary person becomes the internet's main character.
Scott Pringle How Owned Are You?
Take the quiz and find out what Pringle would say about your posting habits.
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