The Wonderful World of Awadtalk - 06/18/02 04:28 PM
Welcome. This space is protected from the intrusion of the rude. If you care to comment send me a personal message and I will paste it beneath.
About nine months ago me and my pal Andy were sitting in a car under a tree waiting for the 180 birds sitting on power lines to make a mad dash to the tree to roost for the night. Andy was bored. I was drinking beer and counting birds when, with only a hint of pique, Andy said, "Milo I found just the site for you on the internet. You'd love it.
You could stay home and chat and not talk me into driving you around and sitting under this stupid tree." He was serious. When I got home he signed me up on Awadtalk.
Birds in flock make collective decisions without hierarchy.
I was utterly fascinated with Awadtalk where "We don't need no steekin' rules" was not a rule but a motto.
At first I planned to study this odd group to discover how they could maintain a civil climate in the midst of 500,000 people with vocal egos that could find this site a nice nest to lay their verbal eggs, so too speak.
But heck everybody was having too much fun so I jumped in and joined the fray.
Milum: "The best form of government is a nation of reasonable men". The ladies usually get miffed when this quote is quoted, each of us can decide whether their miff is an unreasonable miff or not. But therein lies the crux of the matter, disagreements are fundamental to social evolution, so rules are made to insure that reasonable disagreements don't escalate to the letting of blood. So how did the denizens of awadtalk keep arguments to a minimum and keep out the riffraff without rules? It's simple. They had rules - but only the old timers knew them.
Mulim: ( Ok! Ok! Mulim is a cryptonym of Milum. Can I help if my call for participation fell on deaf ears? ) : Well I tend to agree with you Milum, but you'll have to admit that most of these old timers are pretty sharp and their love of the board is shown by the lengths they go to protect it. Even though I still don't know what ayleaur means and when someone brings up the word yart it is always spoken with a regal air of bored dismissal. But you got to give them credit, out of a base of over three thousand members, a fluctuating corps of fifty posters post ninety-nine per cent of the posts. Without them Awadtalk would receive only one post a week. What do you think of that?
tsuwm :
>They had rules - but only the old timers knew them.
This, perforce, is a gross oversimplification -- as is most everything that gets posted webwise. We started out with tabla rasa and, feeling the need for some unstructured structure, we made it up as we went along -- always keeping in mind:
rule 1 - rules? we don' need no stinkin' rules!, and
rule 6 - there is no rule 6.
The important stuff (there wasn't really too much) was captured first by jmh in a thread in I&A, later to be maintained by MaxQ there and expanded upon a bit offsite. This wasn't the collected wisdom of the pooh-bahs, handed down from on high, for the ages; but rather it was mostly common sense stuff and technical hints that we felt new folks could benefit from, in terms of shortening the learnng curve. The unfortunate thing was that almost no one seemed to read it, in spite of the I&A thread being constantly brought back to the fore and Max permanently linking to the offsite via his signature line; but we constantly referred to is as questions about protocol and technical aspects of the board came up. Even more unfortunate, Max and the thread are now gone. Anarchy rules.
But who am I to judge....
Milum: ...tsuwm, if anarchy rules, how can there be anarchy?
(That was a joke.)
Yes I agree that the helpful hints and guidelines for beginners thread wasn't exactly the wisdom of the ages and should be easy to re-institute now that the expatriates
have pulled the plug and moved on to Awadtalkers.
But unless a comet hits, this board will lumber towards its destiny without them, and the next Introduction to Awad needs to wax with length on not just protocol, but courtesy and good manners as well.
But thats not enough. There are ten thousand people out there, dissatisfied and ready to flame, (oh I do so hate the word "flame". It sounds so...so...juvenile.) and ways to deal with them other than excommunication must be found. Whatcha think?
(THIS SPACE FOR RENT) (SEE MILUM FOR DETAILS)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Warning: The curse below will be visited upon anyone attempting to post below this post...
May the Earwick and his friend the Earwig - the invisible worms that fly through the night find their bed of crimson joy in your ear. And may they lay 800 eggs in the middle of your brain and then exit out your other ear. And may the hatchlings be hungry blood red things which in mortal pangs your mind becomes their food. Other than that - have a nice day!**
** This curse is hereby amended to include all practicing pedants, their fellow travelers, their families and their friends.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About nine months ago me and my pal Andy were sitting in a car under a tree waiting for the 180 birds sitting on power lines to make a mad dash to the tree to roost for the night. Andy was bored. I was drinking beer and counting birds when, with only a hint of pique, Andy said, "Milo I found just the site for you on the internet. You'd love it.
You could stay home and chat and not talk me into driving you around and sitting under this stupid tree." He was serious. When I got home he signed me up on Awadtalk.
Birds in flock make collective decisions without hierarchy.
I was utterly fascinated with Awadtalk where "We don't need no steekin' rules" was not a rule but a motto.
At first I planned to study this odd group to discover how they could maintain a civil climate in the midst of 500,000 people with vocal egos that could find this site a nice nest to lay their verbal eggs, so too speak.
But heck everybody was having too much fun so I jumped in and joined the fray.Milum: "The best form of government is a nation of reasonable men". The ladies usually get miffed when this quote is quoted, each of us can decide whether their miff is an unreasonable miff or not. But therein lies the crux of the matter, disagreements are fundamental to social evolution, so rules are made to insure that reasonable disagreements don't escalate to the letting of blood. So how did the denizens of awadtalk keep arguments to a minimum and keep out the riffraff without rules? It's simple. They had rules - but only the old timers knew them.
Mulim: ( Ok! Ok! Mulim is a cryptonym of Milum. Can I help if my call for participation fell on deaf ears? ) : Well I tend to agree with you Milum, but you'll have to admit that most of these old timers are pretty sharp and their love of the board is shown by the lengths they go to protect it. Even though I still don't know what ayleaur means and when someone brings up the word yart it is always spoken with a regal air of bored dismissal. But you got to give them credit, out of a base of over three thousand members, a fluctuating corps of fifty posters post ninety-nine per cent of the posts. Without them Awadtalk would receive only one post a week. What do you think of that?
tsuwm :
>They had rules - but only the old timers knew them.
This, perforce, is a gross oversimplification -- as is most everything that gets posted webwise. We started out with tabla rasa and, feeling the need for some unstructured structure, we made it up as we went along -- always keeping in mind:
rule 1 - rules? we don' need no stinkin' rules!, and
rule 6 - there is no rule 6.
The important stuff (there wasn't really too much) was captured first by jmh in a thread in I&A, later to be maintained by MaxQ there and expanded upon a bit offsite. This wasn't the collected wisdom of the pooh-bahs, handed down from on high, for the ages; but rather it was mostly common sense stuff and technical hints that we felt new folks could benefit from, in terms of shortening the learnng curve. The unfortunate thing was that almost no one seemed to read it, in spite of the I&A thread being constantly brought back to the fore and Max permanently linking to the offsite via his signature line; but we constantly referred to is as questions about protocol and technical aspects of the board came up. Even more unfortunate, Max and the thread are now gone. Anarchy rules.
But who am I to judge....
Milum: ...tsuwm, if anarchy rules, how can there be anarchy?
(That was a joke.)Yes I agree that the helpful hints and guidelines for beginners thread wasn't exactly the wisdom of the ages and should be easy to re-institute now that the expatriates
have pulled the plug and moved on to Awadtalkers.
But unless a comet hits, this board will lumber towards its destiny without them, and the next Introduction to Awad needs to wax with length on not just protocol, but courtesy and good manners as well.
But thats not enough. There are ten thousand people out there, dissatisfied and ready to flame, (oh I do so hate the word "flame". It sounds so...so...juvenile.) and ways to deal with them other than excommunication must be found. Whatcha think?
(THIS SPACE FOR RENT) (SEE MILUM FOR DETAILS)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Warning: The curse below will be visited upon anyone attempting to post below this post...
May the Earwick and his friend the Earwig - the invisible worms that fly through the night find their bed of crimson joy in your ear. And may they lay 800 eggs in the middle of your brain and then exit out your other ear. And may the hatchlings be hungry blood red things which in mortal pangs your mind becomes their food. Other than that - have a nice day!**
** This curse is hereby amended to include all practicing pedants, their fellow travelers, their families and their friends.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Milo - 
