I'll try to say this delicately; that's dangerous when you're conversing
with Roedy. There are any number of times when I am tempted to be upset
at something Roedy says... until I realize that he isn't responding to
the conversation; but only using a one-liner somewhere to find an
opportunity to interject something interesting but unrelated.
I tend not pay any attention to who said something. That information
appears way at the bottom of the screen and is often missing. To me it
feels like "the Internet" is one giant schizophrenic personality. I am
mainly interested in the ideas, not the individuals.
If find the one-upmanship games people like to play of trying to prove
someone was an idiot by twisting their words, or making them bow down
and formally admit error somewhat childish. I unsubscribed the Eudora
newsgroup recently because this practice was so widespread. I also
find attribution quibbling pointless. What counts whether something is
true, not who said it, or whether someone in past made a misstatement.
Everyone wants to make everything I say about *them*. It is almost
never about them, except in times when I take my gloves off.
I just like to bring up interesting ideas at any excuse. People then
try to find deep inner meaning -- a hidden insult. Why did I mention
this in response to something they said? When I insult you, you will
know it. This may be ego-deflating, but most of the time I can't be
bothered to have an opinion about you personally. Everyone comes
through in the exact same drab format.
Perhaps if messages were formatted with distinctive colourschemes and
fonts everyone would not blend into an amorphous mass. Perhaps if we
had picons, the way we had on BIX, where your logo or photo appeared
on every message I could keep you distinct.
See
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/picon.html
I have problems even if I have NOTHING loaded, and