Whatever Happened to Online Etiquette?

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short excerpt:

"The real shame, though, is that the kneejerk “everyone else is an idiot” tenor is poisoning the potential the Internet once had. People used to dream of a global village, where maybe we can work out our differences, where direct communication might make us realize that we have a lot in common after all, no matter where we live or what our beliefs."

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/ ... e-email-2/

Thoughts?

I've noticed this on WrongPlanet sometimes.

How old are you?

I hate kids that make me feel like I have acted foolish and childish.

You asked for a comment, but now everyone will think that I think this post is about me and I am a self centered narcassist @sshole But I know its not me (well, not just me anyway).

Last edited by BazzaMcKenzie on 15 Dec 2006, 1:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

People in the safety of their cars turn into road raging a$$es. So I assume that same
dynamic is at play on the net. Face to face we tend to be nice to each other but in the safety of our shells (cars, homes , etc) we become alot less nice to those on the other side of the shell.

Take your bleeping netiquette and bleeping shove it where the bleeping sun don't shine, buddy!

I got your bleeping netiquette right here!

people like Hellzing for instance?

Don't you mean hellznrg?


I agree, netiquette is dying out. Not only that, but standards of spelling and grammar are dropping too. I'm a bit of a spelling/grammar nazi, and I hate l33tspeakers, hence my initial antagonism with One-Winged Angel.

I agree about the "shell" theory. I often find myself fustrated at other drivers (and I myself am a careful driver, more careful than many my age), and swear, even using the second "c" word, which I rarely use.

I disagree with the idea that "the kneejerk 'everyone else is an idiot' tenor is poisoning the potential the Internet once had."

There have always been rude and vulgar people in the world; there always will be. Skilled people know how to deal with them effectively.

The ideas of the rude and vulgar are not taken as seriously as those of the eloquent and well-spoken. Case in point: the mistaken 15-year-old cited. But it's okay. It's just part of the process. Remember, I'm very process oriented. As people mature, they learn how to better express themselves and thus better influence others. I feel the Internet facilitates this process by making experimentation with self-expression more socially acceptable.

I don't think everyone else is an idiot, I know everyone else is an idiot.


Seriously, you ought to see what happens to spammers when I go into Neopain Chia Police mode.

The whole point of speaking or posting on the internet, i believe, is that it's safe (relatively speaking).

If you say something controversial or disagree with what another says or beleives, you can discuss this without someone threatening or trying to intimidate you. You will not have someone sticking their face in yours, trying to intimidate you, physically assualiting you or making mention of your residence. This gives people the courage to say or do things that they would not otherwise do in real life, whether they fear reprecussions or others reactions. If you are looking for a good example of the extremes of beliefs then you need only look on the net.

I would like to point out that this problem does not relate exclusively to the internet, but i will make my comments relevant to the context.

Let us be honest, manners are dead, luckily there are still people trying to resurrect them. I fail to see how certain individuals find it such a struggle to display basic manners that even animals abide by; and while i understand that it is very easy to feel passionately about a particular subject or be offended by what another has said, then be driven to respond in a manner that is less than courteous, this is only acceptable up to a point and even then it is subjective.

I believe that people need to remember the proverb that says that if you have nothing nice to say, they say nothing.

Last edited by MelancholyBunny on 16 Dec 2006, 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Alex, the same was believed about television. Philo T Farnsworth invented the thing and tried to sell it to the gov't. He believed that by seeing people around the world, we would understand each other and war would be eliminated. Ironically, some of his colleagues were able to sell technology that developed from working on broadcasting science-that was used for spying and other miltary strategy.
Inventors lose the power that their inventions hold.
I think the internet has actually isolated groups from each other. I find this group of autistic people who then feel empowered. But we aren't able to form a bridge to other nonautistic people. and vice versa. I belong to various fan forums that engage in social cliques, isolation techiques.
I think that's just the nature of the Beast. People are overall too lazy to get over themselves and form bridges and try to understand other people, other ways of communicating.

I think there is still time.. I may have some things in common with someone from Russia but it wont mean our beliefs are the same. This will take time. I believe there is a right way 'deciding' things, what that is is up for debate (ok, Logic is it, debate )

You also have to factor in propaganda of those countries and their restrictive use of the internet. Its not an overnight process - adaptation is the hardest part of learning. Even when you are proven wrong, you don't automatically jump to except the new idea, you still mourn the old one before transitioning. I think its too early, still.

I want to jump in to defend my pal Hellznrg. I have never seen him post anything mean to anyone. Some of his posts may be in poor taste, but mostly said in jest and only in the adult forum. And what is poor taste is only an opinion anyway.

I suspect Alex means things more like when I went overboard at Quatermass in a gun control post, for which I am still sorry.

Or other topics where gross generalizations are made as blanket statements, rather than offered as opinions open to reasoned debate.

There never was any etiquette on the internet. Everyone is worse than Hitler.

Two possible explanations come to my mind about the knee-jerk comments that I've seen at various news websites in response to news articles: a) most people who comment are stupid b) most people who comment are emotionally imbalanced.

Example comments:

The morally reprehensible comment:



The world-would-be-a-better-place/friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend comment:



The purile comment:



The missing-the-point-and-confabulating-a-motive comment:



The must-be-racism comment:

Yeah, well, I eventually agreed to disagree, despite the fact that you are a right-wing gun-crazy lunatic. At least you could reason your arguments, unlike litigious. Now litigious, he was a master of (I think) ad hoc, Don Quixote arguments, about the ownership of things that go boom and blow people's heads off.

I think standards of spelling, grammar and punctuation are pretty poor in some posts. However, it is in chat, where seldomly do people construct it properly. Part of netiquette is using proper spelling etc. It's just respectful. Actual manners is harder.

I personally found myself disliking hellznrg recently, due to the inflammatory comments. I also did not like his recent thread positing a "what-if" scenario, of whether Michael Jackson had Asperger's Syndrome. He had a "different" childhood, due to his fame. And now, something's turned his head.

Hello Michael Jackson is a black man gone white. he's the black people's dreams, of hoping that we white people would and will accept them if they did something like that.

I'm not racist.

nor am I a religous racist who hates anyone. I hate everyone equally.