Definition of "Goon"

The 90,000 registered forum users can pretty much depend on an instant Goon fraternity in almost whatever game they’re interested in. Thanks to a history of gaming exploits and the general scatologically angled humor of Something Awful, the Goons have a reputation as being a disruptive influence in many games.

2008, Jim Rossignol, “[Reykjavik] Model Living”, in This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, Ann Arbor, Mich.: The University of Michigan Press, page 177

Not all the message boards celebrate the griefers in their midst: Kyanka finds griefing lame, as do many Goons and /b/tards. Nor do the griefers themselves all get along. Patriotic Nigras, /b/tards all, look on the somewhat better-behaved Goon community—in particular the W-Hats, a Second Life group open only to registered Something Awful members—as a bunch of uptight sellouts.

2008 January 18, Julian Dibbell, “Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World”, in Steven Johnson, editor, The Best Technology Writing 2009, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, published 2009, page 12

Goons posted and discussed a growing assortment of Slender Man fan art, videos, and wiki entries they had found in other digital spaces. One Goon even claimed that someone in their offline life with no connection to Something Awful had—without prompting—told them all about the Slender Man.

2023, Andrew Peck, “Circulation”, in Digital Legend and Belief: The Slender Man, Folklore, and the Media, Madison, Wis.: The University of Wisconsin Press, page 74