Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> As I've always said, you should speak as if you are going to meet, face to > face, the person you are contemplating reaming over the LUG. Jim and Ted put this very well, but one thing I feel I should point out is that this has been happening on the internet for a long time. It's been happening since before the internet was called "the Internet", capital I. Since Jim has been using computers for a while, he certainly knows all about this, and I've been using the internet in one for or another since 1986. I've also gotten into my own share of scuffles, most of which I remember with acute embarrassment. You can go to any discussion forum and get into an instant life-or-death argument about gun control, race relations, global politics, and so on, you get the idea. And for whatever reason, Leica has that element of irrationality or subjectivity to it which promotes the most heated argument. There is something called Godwin's rule which is that a discussion on the internet is over once Hitler's name has been brought into it. And this happens far more often than you might wish or imagine. My personal corollary to Godwin's rule is that I tune out of discussions which have gotten out of hand. It really never works to have the last word on the internet. See if you can let go, don't sent that piece of vitriol you have just composed, and see if you are man (or woman) enough to let the topic die without having the last word. I suppose this is obvious if you think about it, but remember that the person typing on the other end is a real person. If anything someone who cannot control themselves on the list deserves our pity rather than our scorn! Byron.