In praise of being ordinary

Abuse is frequent on the web, it isn’t normal on-line behavior.

Some say the lash should be used in response to rude and offensive name-calling on the internet, but I am persuaded this could simply make the miscreants’ behaviour even worse.

When I was a kid, adults threatened to wash my mouth out with soap when I was a potty mouth. They did it to me twice. Soap in the mouth is a truly effective form of aversion therapy, which I recommend to all moderators of internet service platforms and social networking media. The after-taste, the foam around my lips, from Palmolive and Pears soap, made me sure that I watched my ‘Ps’ and ‘Qs’ before I let rage reach my tongue.

In the early days of web conversations, typing ALL IN CAPITALS was considered the depth of archaic bad web-manners, akin to SHOUTING in face-to-face conversations, to drown out other points-of-view. Frequent application of virtual softsoap replies from normal web users almost eradicated use of capital offence.

Then came Flame Wars 1.0, especially in group forums on the internet. The normal wisdom of crowds on the web turned into an online lynch mob screaming virtual tirades. Posts from immature web junkies degenerate from polite logical arguments into invective. Disputes raged as if conversation was a game of Aliens Vs. Predator, (”Mankind’s two ultimate nightmares come together in mortal combat, and whoever wins - we lose.”)

Occasionally, innocent bystanders like me still stumble upon a new flare-up of a flame war. It seems that this sort of ungentle conduct is today directed more against scientists than any other group. For example, read some of the posts from climate change deniers.

Just this week, there’s been a wild response to an innocent message from eminent scientist Richard Dawkins. In case you haven’t caught up to the fracas, Dawkins is now being described in the press as the most hated man in Britain today – in terms usually directed at unpopular politicians.

Dawkins mistake was to update his website with a letter politely explaining a few planned changes to the “community” bulletin board, where more than 85,000 enthusiasts come to air their views.
Read Richard Dawkins Message here, and a summary of the reactions. You can smell the blood, as if instead of being a web discussion the site had turned into a cage fight.

Dawkins must have thought he had been transported a back alley.

When tempers flare, and insults are hurled with impunity like this, the web resembles the underground inhabited by droogies from A Clockwork Orange

It’s time to bring ‘nice’ back into popular use in web culture.

The word ‘nice’ has many meanings. Back in the 12^th century it meant foolish and stupid. Nice. Then it became a cliché, lacking qualities of precision and intensity in its synonyms. The normal meaning today is accepted as: being pleasant; and kind.

In a difference of opinion on the web or in real life, it’s possible to press your case as hard as you can, and still behave in a friendly civilised manner; That doesn’t mean you need to be friends.

Nor does it mean you rebut your opponent with language like that found in Clockwork Orange “You twitching, gelatinous yolk of rancid effluvia”. That’s not nice.