re: where history is constantly rewritten:
Yes, the new media is still in the process of developing an ettiquette, and we haven't figured out how it changes our interactions.
Once upon a time, the main distinction was between the spoken and printed word. One was fixed, formal, permanent, and the other wasn't. Text on a network, which can be so easily changed, is uncomfortably in-between.
Another new method of communicating is e-mail. People treat it like casual conversation. Microsoft management (among others) has found out, to their grief, that email is stored as permanent text in archives. Casual, crude honesty in emails can come back to haunt you. And the right of privacy is impossible to enforce.
These message boards are yet another new communication method, in evolution. Posters seem to be mostly libertarians, and the Web is a deliberately un-managed chaos (except in China), yet the best boards are those with rigidly enforced rules of conduct. |
