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Poasted to Facebook as a response originally but thought a few here might be able to dig it...
Oh I completely agree.
Although to be honest back when the internets still had their new car smell and dialup modems could yet be heard screeching up the on-ramps to the information superhighway my favorite haunts were the ones where people congregated to insult each other entertainingly.
It was performance art with sharp edges and pointy bits.
Even that was about having fun if you did it right; many of us would be in an alt.* newsgroup or web forum (when they became a thing) poking fun at and lambasting each other then hopping into a group email to chat about mundane stuff and support each other.
It wasn't about hate or anger. It wasn't even *supposed* to be about hate or anger. It was about getting the person you're debating/arguing with to simultaneously laugh at and curse you. It was about entertaining the readers, the audience so to speak.
It could sometimes appear vicious.
Okay sometimes it *was* vicious.
But viciousness was never the point, or the goal.
We were a bit like knights in a tourney... except we jousted with cleverly turned phrases and bonked each other with clubs made of consonants and vowels.
It's not the aggression or the thrill of combat that makes me occasionally miss those days; it was the stuff beneath the surface- the fun and the sense of community even if (especially since?) it *was* a weird and chaotic community.
I don't flame because I want to hurt anyone.
I simply remember when it wasn't necessarily a bad thing and maybe, just for a few minutes, I can travel back in time to that place where tactical syntax was an artform, not a weapon.
All that said, if I unintentionally hurt the feelings of some jackass who truly deserves it... well that's a lovely little bonus. Innit.
LoL
Oh I completely agree.
Although to be honest back when the internets still had their new car smell and dialup modems could yet be heard screeching up the on-ramps to the information superhighway my favorite haunts were the ones where people congregated to insult each other entertainingly.
It was performance art with sharp edges and pointy bits.
Even that was about having fun if you did it right; many of us would be in an alt.* newsgroup or web forum (when they became a thing) poking fun at and lambasting each other then hopping into a group email to chat about mundane stuff and support each other.
It wasn't about hate or anger. It wasn't even *supposed* to be about hate or anger. It was about getting the person you're debating/arguing with to simultaneously laugh at and curse you. It was about entertaining the readers, the audience so to speak.
It could sometimes appear vicious.
Okay sometimes it *was* vicious.
But viciousness was never the point, or the goal.
We were a bit like knights in a tourney... except we jousted with cleverly turned phrases and bonked each other with clubs made of consonants and vowels.
It's not the aggression or the thrill of combat that makes me occasionally miss those days; it was the stuff beneath the surface- the fun and the sense of community even if (especially since?) it *was* a weird and chaotic community.
I don't flame because I want to hurt anyone.
I simply remember when it wasn't necessarily a bad thing and maybe, just for a few minutes, I can travel back in time to that place where tactical syntax was an artform, not a weapon.
All that said, if I unintentionally hurt the feelings of some jackass who truly deserves it... well that's a lovely little bonus. Innit.
LoL
