Oh My! What language!

[Jean Lansford]

On Thu, 30 Nov 1995, Rob Maerz <ROBODUDE at aol.com> wrote:

>In a message dated 95-11-30 14:57:39 EST, you write:
>
>>If you had any balls, Paul, you could have contacted me directly and we
>could
>>have discussed it off the list (I always include my direct address in my
>>messages).  But in the end, I'm glad you chose this forum because it
>>illustrates for others what a jackass you can make out of yourself.  But I
>>digress--now back to the topic at hand.
>
>I agree totally...if one is going to use abusive language towards another
>individual, move it into private Email...whomever moderates this list should
>remove frequent offenders from the list...

Whadda ya know, I've finally had enough....

GROW UP PEOPLE!

This is the net.  Not Delphi, not AOL, not GEnie, not CIS and
certainly not Prodigy.  There's no Cato here.  There's no one to make
us write "I will not use bad words" 5000 times on the blackboard.

Strict moderation would have kept R. Kohl's imitation of JP off the
list in the first place.  Think about that before you start calling
for Ben to change his style.

Given the recent BOC-L tradition of easy-going moderation, we are left
with what a friend of mine calls "the visit in the night."  A group of
seniors show up at the dorm room of an offending freshman and inform
her that she's not following the mores of the University culture.  The
visit carries with it the threat of ostracization is her behaviour
isn't corrected.

Dudes, Dr. Mather isn't a visit from a gaggle of seniors.  He's a
visit from the faculty.

<deep breath>

Mr. Kohl, your post was, basically, fighting words.  A basic rule in
=any= society (and the net is society unto itself) is that newcomers
do not dictate behaviour to the elders.  Net culture has supported and
encouraged the use of emoticons ("smileys") for a =very= long time, in
recognition of the simple fact that human communication makes use of
body language as well as words.  Emoticons are our body language.

As a general (in my experience almost universal) rule, someone who
eschews emoticons is a troll, someone who looks for flame wars to
start.  Since he doesn't give anyone any clues one way or the other,
he thinks he can claim "I was only joking" when his obnoxious
behaviour is challenged.

That would have worked for Mark Twain.  The rest of us are not good
enough humorists to get away with it.  That includes you.

Our resident Brit-turned-Hokie mimicked your pretentious tone quite
well.  Strange that you couldn't see yourself in that mirror....