Re: Daft Internet Stuff [Re: Returning from "vacation". (MIA?)]
>> Matt Ryan <mryan@debian.org> writes:
> What I'm saying is that (a lot of) these rules are archaic and
> irrelevant in today's Internet world. Firstly I doubt any of the
> people who violate the rules are even aware what an RFC is or what
> it's for - and if they did they probably wouldn't care.
Go read Lessig's Code, it might prove enlightening to you.
The point is extremely simple: there's a set of established rules (or
etiquette, if you will) and newcomers might as well stick to them. If
newcomers decide they don't like the rules, they are free to go away
and form they own forum or do whatever pleases them: they seem to end
up forming things like discussion boards where smilies come in the form
of animated images, there's no easy way to keep track of who has
replied to whom and where it is not only accepted but even expected
that you edit your own messages after posting them. Fine. If that's
what they want, live and let die. But that's hardly a reason to bring
their rules to the established fora. These "daft" stuff had a reason:
efficiency. It's not only economic efficiency (fully quoting the
original message and adding a single line at the top is a waste of
bandwidth, which used to be, and still is in many places, expensive),
but of time management and time sharing. If I have to spend 10 extra
seconds decyphering your messages because you don't know how to quote,
your messages are a waste of my time, and that, last time I checked,
hasn't got any cheaper than it was before.
In short: noneone is going to stop you from wasting your time, but
don't waste others'.
--
Marcelo | Item 23: Don't try to return a reference when you must
mmagallo@debian.org | return an object
| -- Scott Meyers, Effective C++
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