Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc (
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This is sort of "stream of consciousness" so it rambles a bit, but press on
to the end.
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Please try to read through this and process it. I know a newsgroup is not
the most receptive audience for
this message, but for those of you capable of independent thought, I offer
some input. Newgroups and
message boards aren't the only forums this appplies to, but as they are the
most distilled examples, I will use
them.
When I started using the Internet and usegroups, it was an amazing
discovery, even if it took a day or two for
your messages and responses to bounce between relays and hit all the boards.
It was also accompanied by a
sense of accomplishment due to the lack of software that could automate
thing for you. The boards weren't
very codified or broken down into a lot of categories, but a few messages
could usually tip you off where to
meet people with similar interests or answers to your questions.
As time and technology marched on, access to this online world of ours
became easier. As with any venue,
giving less restricted access brought with it the mixed blessings of a
greater variety of views and intellects.
I'm sure all of you know the type of people whose presence can make this
LESS of a blessing. It is very
important to us, at an early stage of social development, to gain acceptance
of the people in our lives. This
extends to any setting, be it sports, parties, or message boards.
Many people never receive the sort of challenges that they need to grow
emotionally beyond this point.
They go on in the same patterns through college, work, marriage, and life,
where "winning" the conversation
is the objective, not the exchange of information. There is no place easier
to play out these adolescent
patterns than a faceless message board. Some people strive for control by
rapidly posting strings of
obscenties on IRC channels as fast as possible. Others try to dominate the
groups they frequent in other
ways, through ridicule, abuse, or posing as "the" authority on the topic.
As long as you see a conversation as a contest that someone has to win,
you're missing the point entirely.
Exchange information; accept that people are going to offer you insights
that are right, wrong, brilliant,
stupid, etc. Learn to process everything yourself and decide what's
important. Don't let someone sway your
opinion because of word choice; look beyond the words to the meaning. We
see too much of this in the
political arena already, where someone can invoke the word "Watergate" or
"Vietnam" in a discussion to try
and bring associations that aren't necessarily accurate or relevant, but
bring up negative feelings that they
hope you will tie to their opponent or the ideas they oppose.
We saw an 2 examples of that in this thread already. I used the word "nazi"
to describe someone, with no
indication of what that meant to me or what idea I wanted to convey. I
assure you I have a context for the
word, and it's use was accurate in that context, but it lowered the tone of
the conversation and allowed
people to emotionally reject what I was saying without having to process the
information. The second
example was the mention of Godwin's Law, where someone hoped to dismiss what
I was saying by the use of
a single word.
Yes, newsgroups and most all Internet venues for conversation are full of
people who vie for control and/or
acceptance. Many of them are drawn to the relative anonymity of a keyboard
and monitor, because it limits
the scope of their world to one they feel they can control, and without
exposing themselves to the rest of
humanity. It's the "big fish in a small pond" concept, where if you can
become king of a small, well-defined
area, then you can disdain developing the ability to deal with the rest of
the world's challenges.
I know removing yourself from the viewpoint of a veteran Internet user may
take some effort, but give it a try.
Picture someone who, in the context of their life's challenges of
school/work, rent, social events, bills, kids,
maintaining a home and/or vehicle, relationships, etc who will still take
time to take action against someone
who has the audacity to put a text message somewhere on the Internet where
they don't feel it's appropriate.
Not pornographic, or obscene, or offensive, but simply in the wrong place...
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