P3D Re: List manners

[revchas@xxxxxxxx (c d hotchkiss)]

I've been following this thread with interest because I too have noticed
a drastic decline in courtesy and respect  in many of the postings.  It
is the sort of thing that keeps me off the Internet at large. 
I nearly unsubscribed at one point because I find all the contention I
need in the world at large, I don't need it here.  I considered this an
oasis of informed and, if not genteel, at least courteously diverse
comment, but now  I'm seeing snotty jeremiads, personal attacks, half
formed ideas and half vast thoughts presented with an air of fin d'
siecle condescension.  Even worse, an increase in the kind of mindless 
insulting cliches usually found on FOX TV shows (Simpsons excepted, of
course) like the incredibly moronic and hackneyed "Duh."  Perhaps John R.
said it best, "One of the things that bothers me the most lately is the
sarcastic put-down. (Example: Somebody  posts a statement, then someone
else, instead of just disagreeing, has to make some clever comment like
"BZZT! Wrong answer", or "Guess you were dropped on the head as a child",
or similar comment intended to make that person look funny and
clever, and the original poster look stupid.) "
After considering the situation,  I went to the bookshelf and pulled down
that great volume in which I so often find solace and looked for wisdom
among the verses there.  I found it, right there in the Complete Lyrics
of Steely Dan, in "Ricki, Don"t Lose that Number."  It said, "Send it off
in a letter to yourself".  
When you are moved to insult why not write it all down, and forward it to
yourself.  Read it when it comes back and then 
decide if you want to show that unpleasant side of yourself to the list
at large.
That's my 35 cents worth.

Oh yeah, there's one more thing, that is the matter of tone.  Gabriel was
absolutely right when he wrote, " Even if the post is well thought out,
it might lose in the translation to the written word because of the lack
of other
body and vocal cues. Makes a poster's job twice as hard to convey what
and how he means it."

This is what your composition teacher was talking about when the kid in
the third row, "Why do I gotta learn is stuff, I'm gonad be a plumber?" 
It's called tone.
Well, the jokes on that kid, because now plumbers are on the Internet.  
Letters have been a major form of communication for centuries and it is
tone that has always taken care of the lack of face to face contact.  It
is not a new problem.  It requires the writer to exercise care.  On the
net you can to use those simple-minded little faces.   But if you take
your time, you can get the tone across.
What, take your time on the Internet?  Ridiculous, spelling, tone ,
syntax are all artificial values imposed by the language elite, a bas
grammar! Vive l'illiteracy!  We have no time!  We must work, work, work
our computers are harsh taskmasters.
My tone here has been part pedantic, part sardonic and a bit world-weary.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled threnody.

CharlieHotchkiss,
who  about to spend a relaxig weekend away from the computer.


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