Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Seth, You are absolutely correct. I have met many LUGgers in person since joining the list, it is one of the nicest things about this Internet community. Without exception, these encounters have been very nice experiences. Hopefully, later this year we will again be able to reconnect in person at Photokina in Cologne. On the list, I try to follow the simple rule of not writing anything I would not say to the person face-to-face, and so far it has served me well. When a thread degenerates into a pissing contest, I just follow Brian's good advice and delete it unread. Nathan SthRosner@aol.com wrote: > I thought of some of the discussions which have recently once again hit the > LUG and of how often they deteriorate into pure personality clashes. And it > occured to me that this phenomenon may well be attributable to our electronic > medium. Were we face-to-face, we would, I suggest, never never speak to one > another as we seem to feel free to write to one another. It would become an > intolerably uncomfortable world. And if two people actually did so in public, > that is in a public social setting, others would simply walk away and shun > them - it would be too uncomfortable. And it might well lead to blows. This > medium is an insulator that disconnects us from the consequences of our > rudeness. > > There is another aspect to this: I believe that there have been posts here > that were intended as jokes or puns but that have been read seriously and > therefore been taken as provocations. Sharp response spirals into sharper > counter-response. When we are face-to-face with someone, body language, > facial expressions and all kinds of other unspoken "language" can convey that > we do not mean seriously the words we speak, that in fact we sometimes mean > the opposite. And the "listener" understands that unspoken "language" as it > is intended to be conveyed. The internet deprives us of that possibility. > > I have a feeling that if we all bear this in mind, if when we are writing a > criticism of someone else's post we think of what and how we would express > ourselves if we were sitting with that person and a couple of others - say > Papa Ted Grant and Momma Tina Manley - having coffee at Starbucks!! - and if > we remain cognisant of the fact that the other person can't see our > expression or hear the different tone of voice, this would be a much > pleasanter place. > > We can still disagree as strenuously as we always have and yet keep our > disagreements and discourse from becoming so hostile that the LUG becomes far > less pleasant than it can and should be. > > My $.02. - -- Nathan Wajsman Herrliberg (ZH), Switzerland e-mail: wajsman@webshuttle.ch Photo-A-Week: http://www.wajsman.com/indexpaw2002.htm General photo site: http://www.wajsman.com/index.htm - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html