Dillinger
Guerrilla Ontologist
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2000
- Posts
- 26,152
I've seen a number of veiled and not so veiled references regarding Newbies vs. Old Timers. It kind of bothers me in the context that it keeps occurring.
People are people. Someone can be here for years and still be a total jerk. Another person can be brand new to the site and be the epitome of reasoned intelligence (or vice versa).
I do give someone credit for long-term participation in a community. Doesn't mean his or her contribution on any one particular subject is "better" then anyone else's (except perhaps in "community history.") Doesn't mean its worse. Though, over time, the longer someone is around the more information we have to base our own evaluation of his or her opinion.
A newbie however can also have a long history of participation in other communities of this sort on the Internet and may even have more "history" than those we consider old timers.
But each community - real world and online - is UNIQUE. There are basic rules to participation in online discussions such as not to type in all CAPITALS. Another long-term rule that goes back quite a while - before the first web browser - and to the newsgroup and MUD type communities - is that one observes before one posts.
That applies to Literotica as well. And I think many new comers do just that. I know I did. A person new to ANY community should make an effort to understand the territory... the personalities... the nature of the community they are considering becoming a part of. I might even go so far as to suggest that a new comer spends some time researching older threads to get a feel for the type of discussions that have taken place. The search tool is quite effective for discovering if an issue you want to bring up has already been discussed before (doesn't make it wrong to discuss it again BUT it certainly wouldn't hurt to realize that you are NOT trailblazing new territory).
Having said that, I do want to be very clear that just because someone has been here longer then another person should not indicate they are better, smarter, more evolved form of cyber-life.
The following is taken from some old Usenet etiquette guidelines:
This is also from an old Usenet FAQ on "Net Style" (Edited to better fit this particular BB)
Net style:
People are people. Someone can be here for years and still be a total jerk. Another person can be brand new to the site and be the epitome of reasoned intelligence (or vice versa).
I do give someone credit for long-term participation in a community. Doesn't mean his or her contribution on any one particular subject is "better" then anyone else's (except perhaps in "community history.") Doesn't mean its worse. Though, over time, the longer someone is around the more information we have to base our own evaluation of his or her opinion.
A newbie however can also have a long history of participation in other communities of this sort on the Internet and may even have more "history" than those we consider old timers.
But each community - real world and online - is UNIQUE. There are basic rules to participation in online discussions such as not to type in all CAPITALS. Another long-term rule that goes back quite a while - before the first web browser - and to the newsgroup and MUD type communities - is that one observes before one posts.
That applies to Literotica as well. And I think many new comers do just that. I know I did. A person new to ANY community should make an effort to understand the territory... the personalities... the nature of the community they are considering becoming a part of. I might even go so far as to suggest that a new comer spends some time researching older threads to get a feel for the type of discussions that have taken place. The search tool is quite effective for discovering if an issue you want to bring up has already been discussed before (doesn't make it wrong to discuss it again BUT it certainly wouldn't hurt to realize that you are NOT trailblazing new territory).
Having said that, I do want to be very clear that just because someone has been here longer then another person should not indicate they are better, smarter, more evolved form of cyber-life.
The following is taken from some old Usenet etiquette guidelines:
- It is most important to remember that anything you post could be read by any portion of a very large number of people around the entire world. It will be archived and indexed and made available for searching in the future.
- It is easy to post something that annoys or offends someone or everyone. Consider that people from many divergent viewpoints will be reading what you wrote. No one knows you, and they aren't going to guess that you were just kidding. (I think we can take this one with some slack - hopefully as time goes on, people will get to know your posting style and know when you are kidding or not - BUT - if its your very first few posts here it would be wrong to assume that anyone would automatically know if you are being serious or sarcastic).
- The police, (your grandmother, aunt, father, little sister, etc) can read too. (Hence the reason many here do try and maintain a modicum of privacy.)
- You are what you write. Watch your spelling, and your language, they are part of the message you send
- You listen a little bit first
- You post something that contributes something new to the discussion, and is something that people will generally want to read.
- It is easy to post something that almost no one is interested in reading, and this will only serve to annoy everyone for wasting their time. If you want to have a one-on-one conversation with someone then say it with e-mail.
This is also from an old Usenet FAQ on "Net Style" (Edited to better fit this particular BB)
Net style:
- Subtlety is not communicated well in written form - especially over a computer. Remember, most people who will read your posting do not know you.
- The above applies to humor as well - Smileys
, frowns :-(, winks ;-) can sometimes avoid confusion. - When being especially "flame-buoyant", I find it helpful to go to the bathroom before actually sending. Then, I often change the tone considerably. Take a break before posting something in anger or that might hurt or anger others.
- Subject lines should be used very carefully. How much time have you wasted reading articles with a misleading subject line?
- If you email someone or refer to a different thread when posting to some other thread then references need to be made. When you post or send mail, you have the original message fresh in your mind. When someone else receives your answer, they don't.
- Do not include the entire original post that you are replying to or quoting. Cut down the part that you include to the absolute minimum needed to provide context to your reply.
- It's *much* easier to read a mixture of upper and lower case letters.
- Leaving out articles (such as "the," "a," "an," etc.) for "brevity" mangles the meaning of your sentences and takes longer to read. It saves you time at the expense of your reader.
- Be careful of contextual meanings of words. For instance, I used "articles" just now. In the context of Netnews, it has a different meaning than I intended.
- Make an effort to spell words correctly. Obvious misspellings are jarring and distract the reader. (Try typing your posts into your word processor and running the spell checker then cutting and pasting them into the thread. If, by some remote chance, you don't have a spell checker then use http://www.webster.com ) Obvious misspellings are jarring and distract the reader.
- Just before you submit your post, re-read it. This will ensure that you actually wrote what you intended to write.
