Dear OT Forum Posters,

aircooled wrote: All the really good thread regress to Pythonism Now!.... no one is stoning anyone until I say so... even if they do say Jehovah...

Dude! That guy was really stoned.

I came in here for a good argument.

93EXCivic wrote: I came in here for a good argument.

I do not believe you did sir.

You came here to post a picture from the famous Monty Python Argument sketch while indicating you are hear for an argument. Clearly you are baiting for the response of "No you didn't"

I will not give you such satisfaction... that would be silly.

aircooled wrote: All the really good thread regress to Pythonism Now!.... no one is stoning anyone until I say so... even if they do say Jehovah...

The full movie is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLfXsGpB7Ek

Just in case you were curious....

aircooled wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: I came in here for a good argument.

I do not believe you did sir. You came here to post a picture from the famous Monty Python Argument sketch while indicating you are hear for an argument. Clearly you are baiting for the response of "No you didn't" I will not give you such satisfaction... that would be silly.

Derick Freese wrote: Thank you for not immediately resorting to name calling. Using data to back up your point of view is also very helpful, and I appreciate it. Sorry guys, I just finished up with my entertainment for the day, and all I can say is I'm trimming my Facebook friends list. Anyway, to the point at hand. Why do people have such a hard time when debating? Why do so many instantly resort to name calling and all around asshattery the moment someone shares an opinion that is contradictory to theirs? Is this a new phenomenon, or is this something that is only being learned through experience? It's not like I haven't seen activity like this before, but I've never seen such mass ignorance like this.

I call it I-anon. Internet Anonymity. Its the same exact phenomenon that exists on Citizens Band radio. Its a free media in which anyone can say whatever they wish.

On my CB, I hear crazy racist, sexist, and downright anarchist stuff. Since no one can tell who's talking, its a brilliant free forum.

Internet stuff is the same way.... and if Citizens Band is any indicator, it will only get worse.

Wait...

There's more than one person still using CB radio?

I have a CB I'm putting in my Jeep. CBs work fine out in the boonies where cell phones don't have signal.

If this past week is any indication, the internet will self-destruct soon enough. Hopefully the good parts will remain.

Funny, other than this forum I rarely post anything on the internet. I used to frequent my hometown newspaper's site, but got so tired of the same people resorting to insults and name calling instead of actually trying to use reasoning, logic, or facts that I gave that up about a year ago. I was amazed at how supposedly smart, educated people can be so unwilling to understand the difference between opinion and fact.

Here sometimes threads spiral a bit out of control, but nothing like the rest of the internet. As far as I know the You Tube comment section is just about the lowest of the low places, but there are many others that are terrible as well. The shield of anonymity is a scary thing. People take it as free license to act however they choose and say things that they wouldn't say in real life. Some may just be trolling, or 12 year old kids looking for a laugh, but others just type what is in their minds and I don't generally like what I see. The funniest thing is that none of us are really anonymous when we are using a computer and to think so is more than a bit naive.

It's more about the perception of anonymity than the fact of it. Relatedly, I noticed when I woorked at a drive-thru in high school that many people would be extremely rude over the drive through intercom thing, then sweet as syrup at the window. Like they didn't realize they were ever going to meet me face-to-face until I told the to pull up to the second window.

yes.. face to face and name to name suddenly activates the filter that should exist between brain and mouth

There are places that have good conversations with intelligent humans, and the signal to noise ratio is good, such as this place. There are also places that I frequent that have the same intelligent humans, but the signal to noise ratio is pretty much reversed. One thing I've learned is that even when the signal to noise ratio is poor, you may learn something new, provided you're able to separate the two.

You can, in fact, be as anon as you wish, as long as you are careful and know what you're doing. Being friends with both black hat and white hat hackers during my teenage years taught me a lot about things I should never do, and what to do when I'm doing things I should never do.

Now, a lot of people hide behind a screen name. As you can see, I don't. I do that because it reminds me that I am Derick Freese whether I'm on here or hanging out with any of you guys at an event. Every time I post, I remind myself that, at least on this site, I'm not masked behind 7 proxies and I am going by my easily searchable name. I wish more people would do that.

Derick Freese wrote: I'm not masked behind 7 proxies and I am going by my easily searchable name. I wish more people would do that.

I feel the same. Its pretty clean here and thats why I like it, but that doesn't keep it squeaky. The haters gonna' hate.