Subject: Re: So, where's the "Javadoc" for COMMON Lisp?
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2001 09:49:44 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3205648180557105@naggum.net>

* cbbrowne@hex.net
> Well, I'm not greatly impressed with #Erik's "diplomacy;" that may
> perhaps be the best way of putting that.

  I am, for the obvious reasons, a little more interested in what passes
  for diplomacy towards me.  Here I am, speaking my mind about something,
  and some little turd gets up in the middle of the crowd and shouts the
  most bizarre insults at me.  Not only do I have to say something that I
  think makes sense, I need to prove my worth by a carreer path so that he
  can judge me as genius or loudmouth.  For some bizarre reason, this is
  _not_ a transgression of diplomacy or good netiquette.  Quite the
  contrary, this little wet turd of a "newbie" has been strongly encouraged
  by other residents here that it is in fact entierely legitimate to take
  pot-shots at _me_, completely unprovoked.  I had never said a harsh word
  to this little turd before he stepped up and served us his filthy crap.
  Why is that acceptable to you guys?  The moralistic bunch of hypocrites
  who think of themselves as protectors of good behavior have _none_ of
  their own, when push comes to shove.  They accept everything that hurts
  me.  They in fact go out of their way to hurt me with slander and a truly
  amazing amount of "insight" into my personality.  Have you ever stopped
  to think about your own behavior for a change?  What makes _you_ tick?
  What kind of horrible personality disorder caused that little turd to
  believe that he could actually do what he did?

  As long as the moralistic bunch of hypocrites tell people that it is OK
  to lambast me for just about anything out of the blue, they perpetuate
  the _myth_ to "newbies" and others that I am somehow harsh to people.
  They forget the _massive_ abuse they have levied on me.  Why do they have
  such a morality that they can gang up someone and behave the way they do?

  It is manifestly not something I do.  Several people have in the past
  crawled out of the woodwork and initiated a witch hunt and an exorcism of
  something that I have never even done, let alone could have done.  It is
  not something I do _to_ them.  It is obviously something _they_ feel, and
  since they are of the moralistic bent, they turn off their ethics and
  commit the most unspeakable evils against whoever think "deserve" it.

  Now, how would you deal with people who are massively irrational and in a
  moral frenzy about killing that which made them feel less than they think
  they should feel, for whatever reason, and it happened to be _yourself_?

  In a technical forum, I expect people to write precisely, to think before
  they post, to know of what they speak, and to listen to technical
  arguments.  I consider a person who enters such a forum under false
  premises, including lack of will to be precise, lack of will to think,
  lack of will to learn, and/or lack of will to listen, to be a _fraud_.
  There is nothing that can be said, on-topic, to such a person to make him
  stop defrauding people.  People do not stop being frauds in real life if
  you give them _more_ money.  They may stop if you give them _no_ money
  and additionally beat them over the head.  The problem, if any, is that
  some people think they have a right to participate in a technical forum
  with no knowledge or valuable contributions to others at _all_.  They
  think of themselvse as "newbies" and think they have the _right_ to waste
  other people's time when they ask vague questions that have no answer, do
  not think about the answers they do get, assume so much that you have no
  idea what they know, what they have just guessed, or what they made up,
  do not actually listen to what anybody say but try to match it to their
  massive set of mostly unconscious assumptions, and refuse to learn
  because they think they have a _right_ to be told correct "answers" to
  their "questions".  In a real physical forum, such people shut up,
  because they actually manage to sense the antipathy they receive from
  people areound them.  On the Net, there is no sense of antipathy.  You
  have to realize that it is there from something you read consciously.  In
  other words, a fraud can set up shop on the Net and nobody will come and
  hit him if they think he is a bastard.  This safetey from reaction causes
  people to behave in counter-productive ways.  It also causes people to
  fire up their righteousness and hurt people much more than they would
  have if they had sensed that people would fight back.  As long as nobody
  can actually be _hurt_ on the Net, this will always continue.  The people
  who keep it up are the frauds, because they are the only people who
  _gain_ by abusing the public trust in the purpose of a technical forum.

  Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggie" until you find a big enough
  rock to kill it with.  I skip the "nice doggie" part.  So sue me.  ///