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Date Posted: Wed, Apr 14 2004, 8:51:38
Author: MKIceman
Subject: Re: Previous Post
In reply to: Evil Ilse 's message, "Re: Previous Post" on Wed, Apr 14 2004, 8:32:51

>Hm, still not sure about that but I see your point.

Will clarify and qualify below.

>>Ability to ignore it depends on the medium, doesn't
>>it? This is why I separated Internet form from
>others.
>
>No, not entirely. I don't think internet is nearly as
>impersonal as you seem to regard it. For a lot of
>people, me included, e-mail messages and chat/msn have
>the same value as letters and phone calls. I've saved
>my ex-boyfriends e-mails because to me they hold the
>same value as paper letters (although I hope he didn't
>do the same, I can be <i> very </i> uhm, ...unpleasant
>if I want to). It might seem that just clicking
>[delete] would be enough to shut out the insults, but
>that's usually not the case. Once read, the critisism
>sticks in your head. An author once wrote to me in
>response to (friendly) concrit: 'nothing rankles more
>than apt critisism'. Mind you, that was just a short
>review I left on her review page. That should be quite
>easy to ignore, under your reasoning. However, she
>thought about it for two days and decided to remove
>her fic because of it.

The difference, here, is correspondence between casual acquaintances versus correspondence between friends. A flame left by a complete stranger has the same effect as someone randomly passing you on the street and saying, "I hate you!" The difference is that the flame is easier to erase and forget than a real-life memory, simply because that's how the brain works: it stores other sensory information much better than it does words (e.g., smells).

A flame left by a close friend, on the other hand, is much different.

So, we see that medium is still the primary limiting factor, while relationship (or lack thereof) between correspondents is the other major limiting factor, when discussing impact of insults.

Remember that we are discussing trollery, which is anonymous posting by (usually) complete strangers. If this is in reference to a GAFFer-troll, I can see how a flame left by them would be very unforgivable given the above discussion, but we have not seen any such flames here, only inane babbling.

>A thing to remember when talking about flaming young
>people is that they are used to the internet. They
>grew up with it. When I was ten I had a penfriend in

If you refer to exposure/experience of a medium relating to impact, I can see how the medium would be less of a limiting factor, but I have yet to see the Internet replace real-life as the majority experience of (i.e., the majority of the time spent by) even the younger generations. At least, for the moment.

>Uhm, no, you're right. It should be ego. I have been
>studying this in Dutch and I'm very clumsy when it
>comes to translating theory :blushes:

No worries. :) Even in English, this can be confusing. The word "ego" derives from Freud's invention of it as a concept or aspect of self-esteem or self-worth, but modern usage has given it the connotation of arrogance (e.g., the word "egotistical"). This is why English sucks. ;)

>So, that would make for a thread like the one on the
>old board. That thing took 3 pages to calm down...

No, because a sensible GAFFer would not have continued the trollery. The trolling on the old board (if you mean the Author's Note thread) was clearly committed by outsiders. The trolling here has been contained to one topic (or overall "thread").

>...did you see me using my shiny new word in a
>sentence that actually made sense! :very proud of
>herself:

Congrats. :)

--Matt

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