[Vision2020] Time to move on?? Nah!

[Joan Opyr]

-----Original Message-----
From: Melynda Huskey <melyndahuskey at earthlink.net>
Sent: Jul 29, 2005 8:57 AM
To: Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] time to move on??

Debbie writes:

"Is it just me or could we move along to some other horse to flog to death?"

According to a friend who thinks a whole lot about Internet discourse, we're up against the Wilcox-McCandlish law of online discourse evolution, which says, among other things:

The chance of success of any attempt to change the topic or direction of a thread of discussion in a networked forum is directly proportional to the quality of the current content. 

There's a corollary, too:

When a thread reaches the flame war stage, all changes in thread topic or direction will be changes for the worse. 

Melynda Huskey

P.S.  I'd be interested to know more about the content in your community diversity workshop.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or, we could paraphrase Jane Austen and say, "It is a fact universally acknowledged that just when a thread becomes truly interesting to the more vocal members of an unmoderated chat-group, someone will feel it necessary to complain, with great vehemence, that this thread is boring, boring, boring, and that she'd rather wash down her Zume's honey-bun with a Drano latte than read another word."  

There is an easier way, of course.  It's called delete.  But then that's another fact universally acknowledged -- as soon as the complainer has complained about the boring, boring, boring thread, some self-righteous prig will climb aboard and tell her to just frickin' delete.  I admit it; I am that self-righteous prig!  

Just for the record, I've never been to Zume, but then I've also never been to the Beach.  I doubt Satan has ever purchased a honey-bun in the former or a drag show ticket at the latter.  He's much too busy inventing things to make the Internet even more annoying, like "emoticons."

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com

PS: Yes, Debbie, do tell us about your community diversity workshop.  I am (no sarcasm at all here) interested.  While you'll never succeed in destroying a thread, you can always begin a new one.