[geocrasher]

Working in web hosting, I've hosted many sites like this and had to deal with some of the people who've made them. And I have to say that while it's fun to point and laugh at the websites, there are a few of these in the ring that are borderline troubling. It is clear that their authors are suffering from some serious mental illnesses and at the very least some major delusions.

I recall a case years ago where I hosted a site for someone who appeared to be a paranoid schizophrenic. They called in one day complaining that we'd moved one of their HTML tables to the left by a few pixels. Another one was a website by somebody who was "exposing" their local municipality for doing things like charging for water and "illegally incarcerating" the website owner, who viewed their stints in a mental hospital as an attack to their freedom.

On the other hand, Lings Cars made it on this webring, and it's well deserved. That site is awesome and horrible at the same time, and it's designed to make us gawk at it for fun.

[Mediterraneo10]

At what point does appreciating content produced by the mental ill become exploitation of them? Gene Ray was clearly mentally ill, but few had any qualms about enjoying the WTF quality of the Time Cube website.

Some of the classic twentieth-century art by outsider artists like Adolf Wölfli was in large part the consequence of their illness, and yet it is appreciated nevertheless, so couldn’t the same persist today for the mentally ill’s analogous creations on the internet?

[jraines]

Some club at my university organized a talk by him (the time cube guy) and a friend invited me. I ended up walking out because it felt exploitative and the organizer chased me down and argued with me. To this day I’m not sure if it was harmless fun (the man wanted an audience after all, and I hope got some of the money from the tickets) or cruel.

[mulmen]

Surely intent matters? If a person claims to be an artist then we can appreciate their art. If a percon claims to be an investigative journalist but actually doesn't understand the concept public utilities then I'm not sure we should treat that as entertainment.

[geocrasher]

Yes I agree with this.

[geocrasher]

I think the main difference is whether what they are putting out is something beautiful and artistic, or... not. You do make an interesting point that I had not considered however. At what point does it stop becoming the ramblings of a mental patient and start becoming art? I don't know. But I do know that the sampling of what I saw on is web ring wasn't art ;)

Edit: It becomes art when the person creating it declares it as art. Otherwise it's just sad. Thank you @mulmen for brining this point out.

[jstanley]

> who viewed their stints in a mental hospital as an attack to their freedom.

In fairness, this is an attack on their freedom.

[samatman]

Indeed.

I don't have a better solution, but there has to be a better treatment for paranoid schizophrenia than kidnapping them, strapping them to a bed, transporting them in a windowless vehicle to a location they've never been, forcibly drugging them, and letting them wander around with other psychotics for a couple days.

[hedora]

The current solution in California is to fire them and strip them of health insurance, wait for them to go broke, then dump them on the streets to live with other psychotics, and worse.

A few days at the funny farm is far more humane than this, even if a sane person occasionally gets stuck in a 24 hour medical hold.

[cyberbanjo]

It's 72 hours and can be delayed if there are not enough doctors for you to be seen. YMMV thats FL, US