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22nd April 2003, 16:04 | #1 | Link |
Retired, but still around
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WHY are you guys so ANAL about CAPS and !!! and ???
Are you a newer member who is puzzled by why the mods and more experienced people are SO crazy whacko and absolutely NUTS about CAPS and exclamation points, question marks and all the other attention seeking stuff? Hehehe, well I am gonna tell you.
When you first start reading posts you actually read them as text like a document or the like, BUT after you do this for awhile (years), you start reading as if you were actually standing in a crowd and having a conversation face to face with a person. You actually "hear" those CAPS as shouting, and "see" the !!! as jumping up and down and the ??? as agitated hand waving with a frown (my interpretation). Strange, huh? I dunno why this is, but it does start happening over time and I think it is generally a good thing. To fully understand this post you have to imagine being in a crowded room, or maybe better yet, a meeting with business colleagues or peer-group. Mentally shut your eyes for a second as you read this. So, you are in this meeting with calm conversation and somebody literally jumps up waving their hand and shouting, "Me!, Me!, Me!, I WANT EVERYBODY TO STOP and LISTEN to me!!!". OK, quick now, what is your mental and perhaps verbal response to that person getting in your face and shouting at you? Certainly your mental response is "Gee, what a dick!" and you probably delegate that person to the scrapheap of dumb-asses you have to put up with everyday. Worse, you might feel personally attacked and maybe just want to smack that person as a deep natural reaction. Well I was going to go on and on, but I think the above makes the point. Anytime you post or even just read a post, shut your eyes for a minute and imagine being in that meeting room with other people. If you were to voice your text post in this imaginary meeting how would you be perceived? Would you come off as an arrogant ass? Pushy? Just rude maybe? Ignorant or full of your own self importance? Self-centered and never willing to help decent folks that ask dumb questions nicely? Waving hand wildly and jumping up and down like an idiot(the !!!??? thing)? The list goes on and on, but hopefully the point is made. Now, you might say to yourself, well do the mods or other experienced people alway conduct themselves perfectly? Of course the answer is no. Just like in that imaginary meeting, people get tired, cranky, overworked and irritable. They get stressed, feel bad, and could be preoccupied with a personal, family matter, or job issue and allow that to influence their group input. Personally I can be crusty as hell sometime (Walter Mathau was my hero and personal role model - ) and quite pushy when I get the bit of an idea in my teeth, as can plenty of the other folks here from time to time. Also, it is a two way street. Some of the mods can come off as real pompous asses staring down their high noses at people who don't ask the question in a way they like and replying in such a cryptic manner as to be completely unhelpful. Most of the time that is just perception as this is their hobby too and they may get resentful of the huge amount of time they have to spend answering really stupid stuff. Plus, part of the responsibilities placed upon the mod is to keep stuff on topic and to be an enforcer (most find it unpleasant but have to) of the rules to keep the place from complete chaos. Perhaps unfairly, but just as if we were in our imaginary meeting, people that have been around a long time that have made positive contributions are allowed a lot more understanding than people who are new members to the meeting. Just like in a real life meeting. That's the key to getting this forum post stuff down and for it to make sense to you, understanding the personal dynamics, body language, personality quirks, etc., etc., all of which are clearly telegraphed in your messages. On a personal note, I find it intriguing as hell that this personality stuff comes through so clearly in a text format. Ok, I'm off the soapbox now and hope you found this entertaining at some level. Maybe something for New and Old members to think about. PS. Background for this post was I started wondering why exclamation marks made me absolutely crazy. I was laughing at myself and wondering why a simple !!! caused such an instant and nearly irrational emotional response complete with mental pictures of throttling the poster. So I thought about it a bit and this post is the result of that personal rumination. Just my way of trying to turn a negative into a positive so we can all laugh at ourselves a little more and try to keep this place fun! This is a hobby after all, yes? We need to keep a smile on our face whenever we can. Best, DDogg Last edited by DDogg; 30th September 2003 at 20:03. |
22nd April 2003, 18:13 | #5 | Link |
Deputy
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The only thing that could be added to this *very* informative post is that when you have to skim through +300 posts a day the title/subject of the post is VERY IMPORTANT.
Try to not log in for a day or so and then click on 'View new posts' and consider that some of us do actually try to read all the 'important' posts. It's not an easy task and I always skip the ones with 'HELP ME', 'Need help', 'BUG!!!!', 'converting' and so on. A clear/understandable subject will always help you in getting the help you need. And as always, a big cheer for DDogg since you make the obvious so cystal-clear for all of us. Edit: @DDogg: Sometime the language barrier is very steep, I do hope you understood this as the compliment I meant! |
22nd April 2003, 19:38 | #6 | Link |
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I couldn't agree more. The way you describe it is exactly how I read messages on the net too.
@Swede: uh oh, you spelled his nick wrong. Hells Fire will be upon you soon
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Cheers, dvd2svcd Last edited by dvd2svcd; 22nd April 2003 at 19:41. |
24th April 2003, 18:28 | #8 | Link |
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great post
very fun to raed and true too (: steVe
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26th April 2003, 07:51 | #10 | Link |
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What an interesting post
IMHO, BBS and usenet are vital to the internet; after all that's where the internet started. I totally agree with DDogg -- after you do it for a while, you get used to the medium and the culture. And CAPS start to look LOUD (what a strange sentence ). Have any of you run across the book _Web Without a Weaver_ by Victor Grey? It has a great take on how the internet started and what it's about... -kaitsuburi
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26th April 2003, 07:53 | #11 | Link |
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Anal = Anal Retentive = Obsessive = Fussy about something (for instance upholding rules strictly). Have you seen the TV-Show Friends? Monica is very Anal Retentive about everything being clean and tidy.
It is used widely in Psychology defining people being uptight about things. It's not slang and it has nothing to do with the lower part of your back
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Cheers, dvd2svcd |
26th April 2003, 11:06 | #12 | Link |
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BTW, I didn't had the time to read all of this, but I had to laugh out loud several times:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/show.ph...ST/f/27/t/6917 It reminded me of gerti's signatures (he always had the best), if anyone remembers one of our finest. Cheers, Mijo.
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26th April 2003, 14:56 | #13 | Link | |
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Quote:
Mijo, great link! I had not seen it before. Should be a mandatory read for all. |
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30th April 2003, 02:53 | #14 | Link |
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Well - Damn, Sam!
You're about as crusty as I am!
I had to take a break from all my traveling to say - Well done! I don't have any more free time like I had in the past - so I have been basically MIA here on the board. Just a quick note to say "Hi!" to an old buddy and I'm off running to catch another plane! Scooter
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6th May 2003, 06:12 | #16 | Link |
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Long story - but after a couple of layoffs and doing some consulting - I have a new contract job that takes me on the road quite a bit - half the time in Podunk, America where there is NO Internet access - even dialup! So....no time to indulge in the things I really like to do, ie Help out on the forums at Doom9 etc. I'm still here but not very often! Keep up the good work and thanks for the response!
Scooter
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Murphy's Law in action |
6th May 2003, 06:46 | #17 | Link |
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Will do my best to repect the rules
After using the USNews Groups, It is pleasent to come to a forum that is not out of control.
I appreciate the fact that I can acually find what I'm looking for! You gentelmen, and ladies, are doing a fine job here. I just wish others would learn from your example. Being a newbie at this, I am learning a lot from the information I have gathered here. Got hooked as you have. I enjoy expanding my brain cells. Had to give up drugs, so found better ways to get high.(sometimes)devil: Us old dogs don't know it all, but it helps! |
17th November 2004, 01:31 | #20 | Link |
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I agree 100% dog. I can't stand capps and flamy shit like that
now I do get a bit worked up at times and might to that myself but as soon as i rember how much I hate it edit it; unless of course its to prove a point but yeah the newbies dont realize thisa most of the time and just leave thier caps lock on, although even we do that sometimes but most of time we fix it I'm a meber of lots of forums, or were as many went down over time or became havens for capsy-spamers :'(/ so I'm with you it does seem like we're all in a room together, and unless its all friends don't morons or not so much at least thnx edit typos due to wireless stuffs sometimes progress really isn't progress, but they work better then the old "optimized for win95" keyboard/mouse that came with my p4
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Last edited by Shinigami-Sama; 17th November 2004 at 01:35. |
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