Netiquette - A Critique from David Pogue

In David Pogue’s (well known technology guru for the New York Times) Dec. 14 blog post, he serves up an excellent analysis of the trouble with etiquette on the web. Some of the examples he gives could easily have been cut-and-pasted directly from any popular web forum or blog. Here’s the crux of the essay:

“But what’s really stunning is how hostile *ordinary* people are to each other online these days.”

Pogue’s Posts - Technology - New York Times BlogIronically

Ironically, this isn’t new and has been happening on listservs for quite some time. Here’s a repost of the mailing list parody that first appeared in April of 1997:

Q: How many internet mail list subscribers does it take to change a
light bulb?
A: 1,331:
- 1 to change the light bulb and to post to the mail list that the light
bulb has been changed
- 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the
light bulb could have been changed differently.
- 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
- 27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light
bulbs.
- 53 to flame the spell checkers
- 156 to write to the list administrator complaining about the light
bulb discussion and its inappropriateness to this mail list.
- 41 to correct spelling in the spelling/grammar flames.
- 109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take
this email exchange to alt.lite.bulb
- 203 to demand that cross posting to alt.grammar, alt.spelling and
alt.punctuation about changing light bulbs be stopped.
- 111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we are all use
light bulbs and therefore the posts **are** relevant to this mail
list.
- 306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where
to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for
this technique, and what brands are faulty.
- 27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs
- 14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly, and to post
corrected URLs.
- 3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to
this list which makes light bulbs relevant to this list.
- 33 to concatenate all posts to date, then quote them including all
headers and footers, and then add “Me Too.”
- 12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot
handle the light bulb controversey.
- 19 to quote the “Me Too’s” to say, “Me Three.”
- 4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ.
- 1 to propose new alt.change.lite.bulb newsgroup.
- 47 to say this is just what alt.physic.cold_fusion was meant for,
leave it here.
- 143 votes for alt.lite.bulb.

It appears that some things never change!

December 16, 2006 | Filed Under Internet 

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