Re: BB Manners 101

[doug montalbano <doug_montalbano -at- CC -dot- CHIRON -dot- COM>]

     On 7/12/94, Lallie Heard <lheard -at- ST6000 -dot- SCT -dot- EDU> at SMTP wrote

     ><snip> *YEOW* I popped up in the middle of the crossfire about
     >Writer's Block.
     >I'm an Atlanta native; if you've seen Gone with the Wind, ya'll know
     >how we do hate to offend. Any suggestions about where a neophyte can
     >go to learn the social graces of bb-ing without getting her head shot
     >off?

     This on the heels of Gwen Gall's posting:
     <snip>
     >I'm pretty new on the lists, and maybe not as thick-skinned as some
     >others, but it strikes me as a rather cruel way to learn: public
     >humiliation for ignorance (not deliberate impropriety). This type of
     >dialog takes awhile to get the hang of; it is indeed a different
     >communications medium--even from old-fashioned letter-writing,
     >because things can escalate so quickly with the instant access,
     >instant response mechanism inherent in email.

     I feel it's a shame to keep coming back to this topic.  Couldn't we
     just make up a legend and disown it?  I'll start:
          Back in the good old days of computing, really young, nerdy, but
     bright guys had computers and e-mail all to themselves.  They did
     things in young-guy, nerdy, macho-in-a-small-pond kind of way,
     including "flaming" responses & people they didn't like.  It's the
     teenage way: quick response, all-or-nothing, extremism....
          Okay, now it's 1994 and this is a list of professional adults.
     Screw tradition; let's be adults and not dorks.

     (The irony of my hotheaded response on this subject isn't lost on me,
     by the way.  But hey, I'm tired of people apologizing for being
     attacked.)


 Doug Montalbano  <>  Technical Writer  <>  Chiron Corporation
 Doug_Montalbano -at- cc -dot- chiron -dot- com  <> (510) 601-2862 (voice/TDD)
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