The following has been taken from the Darwin Awards II by
Wendy Northcutt. They are guidelines for the use of the
Philosophy Forum on
www.DarwinAwards.com. They are intended to be guidelines for all forums.
Respect your privacy.
It is friendly to have a public email address so people can contact you privately offline, but it is no fun to find a weirdo on your doorstep. Be sensible! Protect yourself with an anonymous email address.
Entertainment is provided by you.
This is a place to have fun, so relax and pull up a barstool. We're a friendly crowd and we don't mind laughing at ourselves and eachother. We are even amused when we're caught taking ourselves too seriously, as we do in this document.
Obey Godwin's Law
See Godwin's Law (below).
Be polite
As with all human interactions, courtesy is always welcome, and surprisingly effective.
DON'T TYPE YOUR WHOLE MESSAGE IN UPPERCASE.
It is difficult to read and it feels like you're shouting. A short stretch of uppercase is SUFFICIENT to emphasize a point. Also, try to use capitals and punctuation.
Pay attention yer grammer and spellings.
It's all about communication, and poorly constructed sentences are confusing. If your words are important enough to write, they're important enought to write well. Give our brains an idea to chew on, not a cryptogram.
Forgive the spelling and grammar mistakes of others.
Not everyone types easily, learned English at home, or had decades of practice.
Read before posting and reflect on your own reaction if you were to recieve this message from another poster. Convincing? Hostile? Rambling? Time spent making a message clearer and more convincing is always well spent.
Grammar police sometimes strike without warning!
-Break your message into logical paragraphs
-Restrict your sentences to sensible lengths
-Don't double space short sentences to fill space
-Etc.
Avoid public flames sent in anger.
If you must flame, do so after you've cooled down a bit and make your flame more constructive. Messages sent in the heat of the moment usually exaberate a situation, and are oft regretted later. If what you're saying is hurtful, consider why you need to hurt someone, and consider a private email instead.
Pointed humour is percieved as sarcasm. If you're not being sarcastic, say so. Maybe you are being sarcastic without knowing it.
Forums have the immediacy of a conversation but are devoid of body language. The Internet has evolved
emoticons as an answer to this lack of shrugs and grimaces. There are hundreds of them, some more common than others, all used to convey naunces and make your messages clearer. Use them sparingly or they wont be effective.
Mind your manners.
Make sure you are familiar with the thread before tossing in your thoughts. In general, keep to the subject as much as possible, the the occasional brief detour. If you want to break off on a tangent, it is a good idea to start a new thread.
If you make a request, don't forget to say please.
If someone helps you, it doesn't hurt to say thank you. This might sound trivial, but people often forget their real-world manners at the door (or Internet portal). It's astonishing how mush these familiar courtesies will help persuade others to your side.
Don't expect an immediate answer.
The lack of a quick response doesn't mean anyone is ignoring you. People check into forums on a random basis and have limited time. On the other hand, if nobody replies at all, probably everyone agrees or isn't interested in that particular conversational gambit. It happens to everyone and is no cause for offense. Try another topic.
Advice from Philosophy Forum members.
Sleepless: Be yourself, speak honestly and truthfully, listen and think, and all will be well.
Rangermom: Don't tell people they are ignorant, uneducated oafs, stupid, fearful of knowledge, etc., just because they have a different point of view.
Most people have a reason for their beleifs that require thought and examination of many aspects. Respect them for that, even if you disagree.
Cerberus: Do some homework before you go spouting off on a topic. Read the whole topic before posting something new. Don't take anything personally. Don't post for posting's sake.
KikoV: Wear your flames with pride, then jump right back in. If you become a totally offensive jerk, someone will let you know. It's okay to reevaluate your position. Then let us know why you changed your mind. We seriously want to know.
Dev: Share your opinion, post controvercial topics, talk about religion and politics and all of the things Mom told you not to discuss at the dinner table.
Advice from Socom3.com members
Xa: Capitalization is the difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse," and "i had to help my uncle jack off a horse."
Common Sense Caution
Do not change anything in real life based on Internet personal interactions. It is okay to disagree with others, to make a mistake, to lose face. We have our own viewpoints and our own personality quirks. But I have known people to quit jobs and leave fraternal orders based on percieved failures in online social interactions. It's not worth it!
If you embarrass yourself, you will live through it and your interactions will grow richer. Others will respect you for your honesty. And as a last resort you can always change your psuedonym.
Godwin's Law
The longer a Usenet discussion becomes, the more likely it is to disintegrate into a flame involving a comparison with Nazis or Hitler. As the thread ages, the probability approaches one.
There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. This is known as Godwin's Law.
Godwin's Law guarantees the existance of an upper bound on thread length. There is a widely held codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke it's thread-ending effects will be unsucessessful.
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