Re: Dumb de dumb dumb

["Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com>]

At 1:21 PM -0700 6/22/2001, Bruce Byfield wrote:
>puff -at- guild -dot- net wrote:
>>      Bullshit.  Geeks don't hoard knowledge (though there certainly
>> are a horde of them :-), they spread it (whether you want it or not
>
>Well, they are certainly eager to gather it. But if they're so good at
>spreading it, why do the people on this list exist?

Mostly because geeks speak in a way easiest for other geeks to understand,
I would think. Having difficulty communicating with people who don't have
shared assumptions or background is perhaps a limitation, but it's a common
one, and not just among geeks.

And more to the point, lack of communications skill is not "hoarding",
which implies a deliberate refusal to share information. Geek culture seems
to me to be built on sharing of information freely as a basic good.


>>A big part of accessibility is, quite simply, cutting down the options.
>
>This is a widespread assumption, and many GUIs are designed this way.
>However, I've seen a few examples of interface design that challenge
>this idea, so I'm not sure that it's inevitable.

Well... it's true that it's possible to do good, usable design without
removing functionality, though many interface designers seem to take the
easier path of doing so in order to simplify the choices presented.

However, good interface design does require consistency, which implies a
degree of standardization that some people (not all) find confining. The
canonical example of this, I think, is the permanent floating argument in
the Linux community over how to paste. There are I think three commonly
used methods, different programs each use their favorite, so there's no
consistency for the user - you have to memorize the method used by each
program you use - but many geeks defend this situation because it offers
freedom to the programmer.

It's a subtle distinction, but a real one, between simplification and
consistency.


>>      She was right.  The internet of the late eighties and early
>> nineties WAS destroyed.  I miss it every day.  The culture of clarity
>> is gone, drowning under the endless wash of spam and corporate
>> marketing.
>
>Funny. I remember people spouting off, just like today - only there were
>less of them. I didn't see much clarity. Maybe I was hanging out in the
>wrong places?

Could be. Were you a Usenet participant prior to 1993 (the September That
Never Ended), for example?

In many ways, the net is better now. There are a lot more people out there,
which means it's possible to get enough people together to have a
conversation about niche interests. More people have access to more
viewpoints and more interlocutors. The Web has changed the way I get
information immeasurably, and that wouldn't have happened if the net hadn't
mushroomed the way it has. My mother has stopped responding skeptically
when I tell her about something I read in that strange place, "on the net",
and instead she asks for advice on the best web sites to visit. ;-)

However, there were also very real losses - in social structure, in shared
assumptions about what constitutes acceptable behavior, in the assumption
of shared responsibility - resulting from the net boom of the mid-nineties.
I don't think that means it would have been better had that boom not
happened, but I don't think we ought to forget about it either.

--
jeanne a. e. devoto ~ jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com
http://www.jaedworks.com
What does not kill us makes us stranger.



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Cub Lea, specialist in low-cost outsourced development
and documentation. Overload and time-sensitive jobs at exceptional
rates. Unique free gifts for all visitors to http://www.cublea.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.