Can you provide an example of an "action" on an SI message board?
I was glad to see you ask that question. I was a bit bewildered by the emphasis on the difference between them. It seems to me that we take lots of actions here. All those actions involve words, because "words are all we have." [I've been humming the BeeGee's song since you posted.] All the actions we take involve interpersonal behavior. In contrast, we don't plant bombs, for instance, or vote or hug. We only talk. We may report that we voted or planted a bomb or hugged someone, but we don't take those actions here.
The actions we do take include, as I just mentioned, reporting. We also compliment or criticize, support or attack or refrain or withdraw, explain, query, gossip or refrain from gossiping, encourage or discourage, keep secrets or reveal them. Those are all actions performed here, I think. There may be a question of whether we're complimenting a real person or "persona," "alias," "alter," or whatever. But we're still taking the action of complementing.
I don't know what the folks who were emphasizing the distinction had in mind. Perhaps something else entirely. But that's what I think. |
