I almost feel like Paul Revere here wanting to run through the halls yelling the warm and fuzzy’s are coming .. the warm and fuzzy’s are coming. The reason for this unrepentant urge is a post by Suzemuse where she proposes that we have polite rules of engagement on these new finagled social networks that every-one is so excited about joining.

Wait a second ….

Didn’t we see this same sorta thing after the whole Kathy Sierra mess when some bright A-Lister suggested that we should have a blogger code of conduct? <Cue Dr. Phil> How’s that working out</Cue Dr. Phil> - oh ya … it didn’t. For the simple reason that we are dealing with real people sitting behind a keyboard and whether they are cerebral like Suzemuse or a potty mouth like Duncan Riley you are not going to change the basic human nature of a person’s ability of showing how much of an idiot they are by having a set of rules.

The thing is that if Suzemuse thinks that the recent dust up we’ve seen over Sarah Lacy being belittled or Louis Gray being called a cunt and a wanker (good thing my post on the whole matter slipped quietly by) then it is a good thing that Suzemuse doesn’t go anywhere near USENET.

You know - that original social network that has been around for as about as long as the number of years since Berners-Lee wrote the first HTML markup. What we have seen lately or even back when Kathy took early blogger retirement would be nothing more than a sing-a-long around the goodie two shoes campfire. But then on USENET flame wars are an art form where the whole idea was to totally tear apart the person or their ideas without even uttering a single swear word but still have them running from the field of battle trying hard not to show how badly they had just pissed their pants.

Sorry Suzemuse but as much as you might want to turn the Internet into the after effects of a paying out enough money for your psychologist’s new BMW yer shit outta luck because it ain’t gonna happen. Which I for one really hope never happens as we have enough PC - and I don’t mean the computer - crap turning us into wishy-washy mamby-pampies.

A simple rule - the Internet isn’t always a nice place to go and play in. It is more like playing in the 401 during rush hour which is a good thing because it helps us keep sharp - keep our wits about us. It also shows us that common sense is still alive because common sense would tell you that if you can’t stand the heat - get the hell outta the kitchen.

Conversation Tags: rules, warm and fuzzy, USENET, flame wars