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http://xkcd.com/386/

I'll get into heated arguments over little things and just can't let it go! It's horrible.

Isn't that pretty much the definition of the internet?

There is a four pager going on Anime that is getting me frustrated and I know I should just let it go... but I can't!

Haha it is an interesting phenomenon. Psychologists must love the internet due to these kind of 'conditions'. Probably involves ego, human's innate competitive nature, chemical rewards in the brain, actually trying to learn or teach something, and its just good old fun

There's also this pic thats about as old as the internet but still rings kinda true :

<Removed by moderator.>

i posted that pic on here once. i got so much greif for making fun of special ed students. even though i wasnt
but ot: occasionnally i do. but i just leave it alone after awhile and let people wallow in there so called "LOGIC".

I think a lot of it is a lack of communication. I know most posts get me riled up pretty easily, yet I doubt if the same person said the same thing in person I would get as upset. Removing the intended emotion from the words and replacing it with nothing tends to make words more provocative maybe

I normally don't stay up late on message boards. I will get into heated "discussions" but then I remind myself they are idiots and go to bed.

I remember when that comic came out five years ago.

Arguing On the Internet
I find it's like people on highways slowing down to rubber-neck car accidents: sure, it's annoying, but there would be something grossly wrong if people drove on by without a second-glance.

However, something to remember is that about ~1/10 or so of the information we transmit to people in conversation is transmitted using words, with a slightly greater proportion concerning tone, tempo, etc, and around 70% is conveyed by body language. Those aren't the exact numbers but the point is to convey the proportion; we can look the facts up for ourselves.

The problem is that people then go on the internet and attempt to write dialogue, rather than prose, and then wonder why only ~15% of their point got across. It's not the loss of tone and body-language, although compared to those elements of communication make-dos such as emoticons, interesting fonts, and all-caps are a poor substitute.

The problem is that people are not writing well or reading well.

It's not as if we haven't all learned how to write essays and other pieces of prose. We have. This isn't an instant messaging service, or Twitter, or what-have-you. This is a board. So we need to compose what we write, because what we hear in our heads when we speak is not necessarily what other people will hear in their heads when they read it. A rather cool illustration of this principle is the Doctor Who episode "Blink".

But reading well is even more important. An important task in reading is to put down what we've just read, take a deep breath, and read it again. If we can't read well, it doesn't matter what we think because we're not addressing the writer; rather we're addressing a straw man we've built up in our heads merely for the convenience of kicking it down. Quite simply we have to be able to read well before we can write well. Even Beethoven could hear music before he wrote it.

And yes, most of this applies to me as well.

Nurglitch wrote:Arguing On the Internet
... and all-caps are a poor substitute.

lol, NO ALL CAPS IS THE BEST WAY TO CONVINCE SOMEONE YOU ARE RIGHT AND THEY ARE WRONG!!!!1!!!one11!

@argument NO YOU.

Although when someones bothered by this kind of thing, you could always hire the local viking to kill all the troll's etc etc...

And is the only way to win an argument on the internet: to outlast the other person... a war of attrition via boredom?

Or to simply walk away.

@Demynin - I'm in your internets. Keeping you up.



The best thing to do is just not to take it personally. The other person is only really arguing with words on the screen, same as you. I see it as a type of game where nobody wins. Ever.
If people had the same discussions face-to-face, they would be over in seconds, and a lot more polite.

More importantly...this is the Internet. The once place in the entire world it should be physically impossible to have an un-informed debate. Sure, you should expect people to pop up asking for further explanation of facts, but given that it is essentially mankinds entire learning and knowledge in eletronic form, ready for easy access, how the hell can you be an uninformed tit? Really says something about humanity that.

Please note that just because you might be proved wrong doesn't make your automatically uninformed, more likely merely misinformed or missing a couple of bits of pivotal information. It's just wading into a discussion whilst knowing bugger all is pointless and entirely avoidable on the Interwebs.

lol that's the feeling I'm getting too. Sucks to be stubborn though eh?

This might be a fetish of both Shuma's and Fateweaver's, or they are gluttons for punishment. Oh wait, that's another fetish too

Naw, I stopped caring what Shuma thinks of me. I'm sure he gets a rise out of attacking me (as can be seen in a thread about terrorists) so I leave him to it.

If it makes him happy then I'd be a hate-monger to not let him be happy.

Fateweaver wrote:Naw, I stopped caring what Shuma thinks of me. I'm sure he gets a rise out of attacking me (as can be seen in a thread about terrorists) so I leave him to it.

If it makes him happy then I'd be a hate-monger to not let him be happy.

You cared what I thought at some point? How sweet.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

JEB_Stuart wrote:This might be a fetish of both Shuma's and Fateweaver's, or they are gluttons for punishment. Oh wait, that's another fetish too

I'm the hero Dakka needs, not the hero Dakka deserves.

You've gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, and know when to walk away.

Wise words, them.

Arguing with a fool just brings you down to their level.

@Shuma We don't need heroes they only exist in comic books.

ShumaGorath wrote:I remember when that comic came out five years ago.

Have you heard about the cake? It turns out it's actually a lie.

Correction: I don't suffer.

My anime thread started a poll . No I don't suffer from it but I do have an obsession with reading the conversations/arguments of people who do. Its a facinating look into human nature.