Re: [tlug] Paul Graham's Disagreement Hierarchy

["SL Baur" <steve@example.com>]

On 3/31/08, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:
> Josh Glover writes:

>   > So no, web-style flaming is nothing new, but its influence on writing
>   > in general is.
>
>
> Interesting claim.  My gut reaction is that I don't think so; more
>  likely, web-style flaming is just the way people normally think/write,
>  it's just that there is no longer an editor/publisher to filter out
>  the really horrible stuff.

Agreed.  Flaming was much more of an art form in times past.  We've talked
about all this in private before, but for the rest of the list ... the
best flames are
ones that leave the flamee befuddled as to whether he's been flamed or
not.  AKPM, whom I hope to meet in the near future is a master of this,
whether he knows it or not, but I suspect he does.  By extension, I wouldn't
classify the time God posted a noob question on comp.emacs.xemacs and
I answered him as if he were a noob as a flame because I was clueless as
to whom I was dealing with at the time (until numerous people emailed me
later asking me if I knew who that person really was ....).  Sad to
say, as I get
older, I find myself wanting to ask to noob questions too sometimes, but I'm
not as famous Dr. McCarthy so when I do, I tend to get gentle treatment too.

This all relates to Sturgeon's law - 90% of SF is crap, 90% of everything is
crap.

The things I have noticed from decades of watching Usenet and later the
web, is that English skills are in general declining.  That a "high" level of
education is no guarantee of any kind of writing skill whatsoever.  That
non-native English speakers can often be the most literate in English,
especially those of non-UK European background.

Editors are no guarantee for good copy, and you are not a True Reader
if you do not have dead tree books in your possession with typographical
errors, spelling and grammatical errors, etc.

Excusing ignorance of history is perhaps the most stupid thing[1] one
can do.  There's no excuse.  Knowing and understanding history is
perhaps one of the most vitals skills one can know.

-sb

[1] The most stupid thing is refusing to learn from one's own mistakes,
but we won't go there today.