 They have been described as /b/tards (a group affiliated with 4chan), members of SomethingAwful.com, and as an offspring of the W-Hats griefer group (itself an offshoot of the Goons).The PN make casual use of racist, sexist, and homophobic terminology which some researchers dismiss as a joke and which others have identified as "problematic" and "troubling".Whatever the true character and affiliations of the group, it has provoked commentary by critics and internet culture writers since its formation in 2005, and it has been listed as one of the central figures in the griefer culture of Second Life.