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Chit-chat and flame wars
03/04/2008 13:15 - (SA)
Georgina Guedes
Back when telephones first became widespread, people who used them used to shout into the receiver.
Chances are, their terrestrial lines didn't have the same sensitivity ours do today, and some volume was probably necessary, but I think that the telephone users of yesteryear were also still under the misapprehension that yelling was necessary.
Telephones were seen as devices for merely amplifying sound, so people seemed to think that to more effectively increase the chances of their voices being heard in the four streets down, they should raise them.
Even today, when we're pretty comfortable with telecommunications technology, we still see people who shout on overseas calls, regardless of the quality of the line, as if sheer force of volume will carry their voice across the seas.
New strokes, different folks
Users of more modern forms of communication can be forgiven for their inability to come to terms with the intricacies and etiquette of the technology that they're using, given that they've only been using it for ten to fifteen years.
And I don't mean cellular networks either - unfortunately no amount of yelling is going to help with the increasing number of dropped calls and "network busy"s - I'm talking about mailing lists.
If you've never had the pleasure and the pain of belonging to a mailing list, here's how they work. You join what is basically an e-mail chat group that covers some hobby or interest you have, or relates in some way to your profession.
Then the spam starts. Everyone who is a member of can post to the whole list, and all responses are received by everyone.
It's a great way to keep in touch with things you're interested in or to stay abreast of professional developments. It's also a fantastic timewaster. The number of mails in your inbox increases exponentially. Don't join a mailing list unless you're prepared to wade through a virtual mailroom's worth of correspondence while waiting to receive one interesting or salient communication.
The agony and the ecstasy
Unfortunately, there are some people who join mailing lists who haven't cottoned on to this, their basic mode of operation. So, on top of the occasional off-topic mail where someone lets everyone know about a very good gardener who's free on Thursdays, you get lots of mail from people who complain about what other people are saying.
These complaints usually result in a long debate between those who didn't mind the posting in the first place and those who find it so difficult and time consuming to hit the delete key that they would rather write a long e-mail (which contains a lot of keystrokes) about the inappropriateness of the offending comment.
As far as I'm concerned, people who don't have a hair trigger on the delete key should refrain from joining mailing lists.
And then there are flame wars. Flame wars are when someone makes a comment about something - it usually starts off fairly innocuously - and then, what do you know, someone else takes offense. But instead of politely entering into debate, that person criticises the initial poster, their upbringing, their family, their background and their intelligence.
And then it starts. E-mails fly frantically back and forth. Everyone gets involved. Everyone take sides. Some people try to sound reasonable, but in their peacemaking efforts, miss the original point, and eventually a moderator has to step in and tell everyone to calm down.
This seldom works, as people who were out to lunch when the debate erupted come back and start replying to earlier mails without reading the whole thread. Everyone gets upset all over again.
The point of it all
And so, in the early days of mailing list technology, we're faced with the same misconceptions as early telephone users - that yelling is the best way to make yourself heard.
If you're reading this and wondering why anyone would join such melting pots of vile emotions and ongoing drama, the answer is, because it's fun, and interesting, and somewhere in the midst of all the junk, there are some real gems of information or humour. But take the caveats above into account.
I think the single most important rule of mailing lists, "netiquette" aside, is to always e-mail in the same tone as you would speak at a dinner table surrounded by guests that you didn't know particularly well.
Reprimands, questioning their intelligence and undermining other people would not be polite in that context, and isn't on a mailing list either. And there are far more people to offend.
Georgina Guedes is a freelance journalist who clearly has too much time on her hands. She says "Hooray for President Morgan Richard Tsvangarai!"
Send your comments to Georgina.
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