tlug: Internet, flame wars and net culture

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> ......
> Regarding the term "purist", if Frank who originated the post and I
> addressed took offences,
> I am sorry. In case he did, I just used the word 'only' afterwards is my
> excuse.
Hi people ! Get down to earth. I think you are experiencing a
bit of a culture shock here....

.....going back about 10 years in my mind......

I started using networks back in 1987. No, it was not the
Internet. It was the ham radio version of it, Packet Radio.

Packet Radio does not know mailing lists. It is either private
(email) or public (News). And it's all open. This is required by
law.

The development was explosive back then. The net used to be
overloaded all the time, and I made a few acrid comments about
that. Thus the sysop of DB0PV (back then the biggest PR system
in Munich) told me whether I was as good in working as in
talking and asked me to help him. I said "yes" and.....became
cosysop of DB0PV.

Together we did a lot of things. I built about 10 interlink
transceivers for the 23 cm band to beef up our interlink
infrastructure. We built the first 12 cm Interlink in Europe.
And we dealt with an increasing number of users.

It didn't take long and the first PR quarrels started raising
their ugly heads ( in the Internet you'd call that Flame Wars,
but PR terminology is different ).

With that, we made a number of observations: People who were on
friendly terms when meeting personally or when in voice contact
were treating each other in a most undesirable way on the net.
When they met personally or in a radio phone contact things got
back to normal pretty quickly.

We WERE stunned by that. Actually, this was quite an issue at
sysop conferences back then. After some consideration, we
started developing theories and remedies for that. They ran as
follows:

1. Written communications is very "unnatural" because it lacks
the additional communications channels normally available in
other modes of communications. In a personal meeting or in a
television contact (this exists in ham radio) there is body
language and the tone of your voice as well. In an audio contact
there is at least your voice as well - and this makes a HUGE
difference.

Human emotions are simply not designed for that kind of
communications. That in fact is the key problem.

2. Considering the above it has ALWAYS be kept in mind that in
the worst case other persons develop an image of you SOLELY by
what you write - there is no other possibility if they don't
know you otherwise - and even if they do, in "written
communications only" mode they will fall back to that.

Thus, before writing ANYTHING down ask yourself how YOU would
react as a recipient if the writings are the sole source of
knowledge you have of the sender. Be honest against yourself. Is
there any possibilty you'd get annoyed ? Yes ? Reformulate it !

The problem is even more complicated because you have to
consider vastly different cultural backgrounds. Try to attempt
to put that into consideration. It is more important than you
might think !

3. As a recipient, try to stay calm. It is very improbable that
anybody wants you to lose your face. Remember, it doesn't get
anybody anywhere if you overreact. Chances are high that you
make the situation MUCH worse. And you sure don't want that, do
you ? Anyway, bickering on the net is just noise. It doesn't
give any useful insights to anybody.

              **************************

I have seen LOTS of beginners entering the world of digitally
networked communications. They in intially all made the same
mistakes. We told them the above, which eliminated the problem
in most of the cases.

I was cosysop of DB0PV between 1988 and 1994. After that I moved
into the Internet.  When the big Internet inrush started I
experienced much the same. However, the above knowledge helped
to quench many a flame war.

There is no doubt that the age of digital networking brought its
own culture with it. It is neither western nor eastern, its a
culture much of its own. Its reflects the mentality and way of
thinking of its spiritual fathers: talented technical people.
These people are fiercely independent, have often very expressed
views about many things, are very outspoken about things and are
generally extremely progressive. They are the pioneers of a new
age and are well aware of that.

TLUG is very peculiar in that it is the only Linux users group I
know about that is supposed to be local to an area but in fact
isn't. It has members from all five continents, spanning many
cultural circles. In fact this is unimportant. It is in fact
rather typical for the networking culture.

I admit that for a newcomer this is more than a bit confusing.
However, it is indispensable to come to terms with that. In
fact, we all had to.

The TLUG mailing list in fact is rather calm. I've seen lots of
places where the tone is a lot more aggressive ( which is not
necessarily bad - it's just a matter of taste).

So, go ahead and have fun !

                                 Karl-Max Wagner
                                 karlmax@example.com
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