Five Geek Social Fallacies

[coldcut]

http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html

I found this to be a pretty good read, very dead on and very relevant to the forums, which is why it's in this section.

Something I had to adjust to when I squirmed my way into this community was that I felt like people here so damn passive. I've always felt that if somebody's being an asshole, you should let them know, subtley or otherwise. Whether or not it improves the situation has little to do with it. It's more about the justice of the thing. But that would be flaming, and as we all know, flaming is bad, and we live in a Smurf-esque world where cross words aren't supposed to happen. Anyways, discuss, enjoy, be socially geeky.

[Remianen]

OH MY GOD, that was beautiful! *wipes a tear*


Unfortunately, those social fallacies aren't restricted to just geeks. I have a friend who is a GSF5 carrier who got violently angry with me because I didn't tell him about a particular party I went to. But the reason I didn't tell him about it was because I knew there would be a police presence there and, knowing he had 2 outstanding warrants out on him, it wouldn't have been the best place for him. But that didn't matter because there were WOMEN there (nevermind the fact that one of those warrants came about due to his relationship with a particular woman).

But I've seen all 5 of those traits exhibited on various forums. :lol:

[Jade_Dragon]

Well, while I agree totally on the concept, and recognize a lot of these fallacies as being passed around as fact on some of the message boards and mailing lists that I have been on, I would also like to point out an article that brings up a different aspect of the problem:

Email Fosters Misunderstandings (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A43099-2000Oct30)

There is more to the prevention of flame wars than simply trying to be "accepting" of everyone. (GSF1) The Internet media, because of its nature, can become very nasty and abusive if you allow it to go out of control. The article was talking about email, of course, and didn't go into the use of emoticons since they are not as common in the workplace as they are here in more casual forums. Even so, I have found that the anonymity that they talk about is a real issue, and can cause a great deal of trouble to the "friendly" atmosphere of a board.

This is not a public forum, this is an association of people with common interests, and it should be accepted that we are here by invitation. It is up to us to act responsibly when something bothers us, and while its not necessary to just dismiss conflicts because "everyone should be accepted", you should really take your conflicts offline, and discuss them with the moderators and the other people involved privately. In this way you can keep control of the discussion, and not have it go out of hand because of misunderstandings input from people who are not involved.

I'm only saying this because, on the surface, it seems that you are enouraging people to flame people. Which in and of itself could be an example of how the intent of a printed message can be misinterpreted.

Back on the topic, while I don't believe myself to believe any of the things listed (I don't really think of the folks here as "friends" anyway, at best you are acquaintances, but then I don't really think a lot of the people I know in RL as "friends") I do think that there is a particular type of personality which is defined as the "geek". Or even "fanatic". We do have very specific mannerisms and ways of interacting, and this could really be just another example of that.

[Xanatos]

Whoah! That kinda made a few lights in my head go off :)

[Bari Jon]

I didn't take from this post that flaming was ok or desirable... it's just that people think that all criticism is flaming. And all of these social fallacies have shown up on these boards lately. There are things that have happened that should not be tolerated on or around these boards. For someone to speak up about that, in a way that is not abusive, but states a rational and coherent opinion, is something that should not only be allowed, but applauded. Whether or not it is supposed "dirty laundry".

[Jade_Dragon]

I didn't take from this post that flaming was ok or desirable... it's just that people think that all criticism is flaming.

True. And that's definately not the case. Again, that's GSF2 speaking.

However, I wasn't really saying that the post WAS encouraging flaming, just that it could be interpreted that way. I'm merely pointing out another aspect to the argument. And perhaps intercepting a more confrontational reply.

(And besides, isn't assuming that people want to hear about your "dirty laundry" an aspect of GSF4? :D)

[Bari Jon]

(And besides, isn't assuming that people want to hear about your "dirty laundry" an aspect of GSF4? :D)

Actually, if it was my dirty laundry, most assuredly... however, sweeping under the carpet dirty laundry that impacts a larger portion of the community is a sure sign of GSF1.

[Jade_Dragon]

Actually, if it was my dirty laundry, most assuredly... however, sweeping under the carpet dirty laundry that impacts a larger portion of the community is a sure sign of GSF1.

Yeah, but who decides "what impacts the community"?

This is a dead end conversation, though.

[Graphite]

Bah, clearly written by an intellegent jock.
Intellegent Jock... now there's an oxymoron..
(read sarcasem and a bad joke)
(goes back to lurking)
:notme:

But a good read!

[ThunderMace]

Is there something wrong with being an intelligent Jock?

BTW you misspelled intelligent.
Twice.

BTW#2 Coldcut you're being an asshole. :D