Kim wrote:

"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...

Kim wrote:

I couldn't follow who posted what above, but I think whoever said "It

allows

us to get to know each other better" may need just a little bit of a

reality

check. This is an "online" venue, and I don't believe that this allows

for

getting to "know" anyone. OK, maybe slightly...and then only in a few
cases.

No reality check needed, Kim. If a person is honest and
straightforward, then it comes across. If a person uses various
"personas" fro their posting, then that also comes across. If a person
needs to disguise themselves, if they feel comfortable tossing brickbats
at another, disregarding that there is a human on the other side, and
that Usenet is not a sort of insulting text game that they play with
their computers, then that also tells a lot about the person.



Well, your experiences have been entirely different from mine, then, Mike.
Long, long before I ever discovered the "newsgroupie" thingy, my husband and
I had discovered "chat" rooms. We were participants in many, many venues
and, in several, were even clannish to the extent of forming parties and
get-togethers wherein travel was often involved to get to the area where we
were all to meet and have dinners/lunches, whatever.

In nearly all cases, the people we met in person were vastly, and I do mean
VASTLY, different from their personalities online. I would say that, of
about or around 100 people, 2, maybe 3, (not including ourselves) were
"normal." Not to insult anyone, but I would define normal as in: relative
to our frame of nature, background, etc. What we considered proper and
presentable was mostly different from the folks we met. In fact, it was
meeting the folks that drove us from the whole "enjoyment" we THOUGHT we
were having with these chat rooms...LMAO!

Yeah that probably would be disappointing. I have very little
experience in chat rooms, but it seems that many people in them are
trying to impress other people in some fashion.


It is like people claiming that alcohol causes them to do evil and
antisocial things. Sorry, but they were already evil and antisocial. The
alcohol simply allowed them to shift the blame.



Oh, I wholeheartedly believe that. However, I believe that it was the
nature of the "incognito" status that maybe shaded how we really thought
people were. I mean, what one may find humorous in the text venue, may turn
out to be outright obnoxious in person. The apparent sweetest person on the
planet Earth, online, becomes in person, the most nearly evil person one's
ever known.

And a person with severe conflicts.

Even I, as crass as I am (and I am) have manners in public and do not take
pride in embarrassing people and generally know the line. Many we met were
oblivious to society boundaries and were quite embarrassing to be around.


For instance, the internet, chat rooms, and newsgroups are the greatest
playground for playing Devil's Advocate or even downright antagonism, or
inciting "a riot" so to speak!

Because the person is like that. I know a lot about people that incite
major antagonism in newsgroups, even if they are civil in person.



MMMmmm mmmm, gotta disagree there. Why? Because, here in this newsgroup, I
probably have a reputation for being pretty antagonistic. In person, I am
very deliberate, cautious, calculating and very, very mindful of keeping a
group of people, who may lean toward being argumentative, on the friendly
and "get along with each other" end. If you knew me in person, as many do,
you'd be told by others that I am one of the most cohesive building partners
anyone's ever met. I am also generally in a position of listening,
collaboration, and leadership--and take great pride in being very good at
it.

And I don't doubt that a bit. I purposely don't pick up on the things
that would seem obvious. We send out other and subtle clues

Here, to hell with all that. In fact, it has in the past been a great
tension reliever. I don't generally care about anyone on this newsgroup
because I've taught myself not to care about people I really don't know--and
I really don't know anyone here except, maybe, Cecil...and he's a great guy
from what I met of him.

So I've heard from all accounts. My limited impression of Cecil is that
he is most likely very genial, has a good sense of humor, and a bit
stubborn (that last was obvious! 8^)



I know I can get certain people going in a
heart beat of a stroke of a few keys of my keyboard, and they'll look

pretty

darned idiotic to most who may have been taking them seriously...

In a short, don't ever think that this (the internet) is the medium of
humanism, or personalization, or "knowing" others. It just ain't so...

I don't use it to determine anothers personality, but I can determine
true personality from it.

YMMV.

- Mike KB3EIA -



Yes, my mileage definitely varies. I've been way too exposed to way too
many people in the past, who were internet "friends" until I met them...good
Lord thank God they're many, many, many miles away.

- Mike KB3EIA -