13 years of digital war against an opponent he has never met

Thirteen years fighting an anonymous rival on the internet

How much time can you devote to someone you only know through a screen? A 45-year-old man says he has spent thirteen years at open war with a single person. Even he is not sure when it started: he places the beginning in 2013 or 2014, when his adversary was operating under another name, and admits he cannot remember how it all began. His assessment of those years is anything but clean. He is embarrassed to still be doing this at his age, yet at the same time insists it has been worth it. If he were born again, he says, he would do it again, only far more efficiently and quickly.

What does thirteen years of digital war cost?

There are two bills on the table. The first is time: thirteen years. The second gets personal: he blames his rival for his baldness, convinced he still had hair when the conflict began. That is his reading of events, and there is no way to verify it. What is disconcerting is not the claim itself, but his verdict on the whole affair. Despite the embarrassment, he regrets nothing. It was worth it, he declares, adding that in a hypothetical second life he would not let the other man gain ground: he speaks of a swift and imminent ending.

An elusive adversary and a search with no end

The story paints an enemy with no face. According to his account, the rival's account has been abandoned since he first noticed it; he suspects the man is operating elsewhere under another alias and announces that he will track him down. Around them, people speculate that the account may be under a temporary suspension (a "semi-ban"), though nothing is confirmed. No one has produced a real identification. The conflict therefore rests on aliases and presumed presences: this is a war against a silhouette.

The cheering crowd and the uncomfortable warning

The stands are not neutral. Some celebrate the feud as a war lasting generations, while others deliver a painful warning: if the rival disappeared, what would remain of the digital identity of the man who has spent thirteen years chasing him? Another message mentions a third participant and takes for granted, with no evidence and in the tone of legend, that he died because of the conflict. Some even claim they pay their subscription just to witness scenes like this.

Thirteen years, by his own count, a baldness laid at his rival's door, and an opponent of whom only suspicions exist. The war goes on. And neither side has published its accounts yet.