LookOUT 2007

[Rick Chadderdon]

Gerard Seibert wrote:

> Prior to roughly 2000, AOL and it's ilk of idiots were confined to their
> own hell. Unfortunately, they have now evolved into Googlers. With their
> totally unprofessional posting methods, not to mention their glaring
> inability to display even rudimental spelling and sentence structure,
> they have proceeded to pollute discussion boards ad-infanitum.
>   

Well...  Yes.  I remember well the massive influx of AOL (and to a
lesser degree Prodigy/Genie) idiots, although I recall it happening
sometime 'round 1995.  Suddenly, newsgroups were inundated by people who
wrote poorly, couldn't spell - could barely frame a thought. 
Frequently, they popped into places just to announce that anyone taking
about <insert topic here> was <stupid, sick, crazy, etc.>, even though
they themselves clearly didn't belong there.  The Internet went from a
fairly elite group of people to the lowest common denominator
practically overnight.  This is not to say that there haven't been some
good things to come out of the explosion of popularity that the Internet
experienced back then, but the positive aspects of growth do not, in my
opinion, include any benefit to discussion groups.  More <> Better.

> This, by the way, is not referring to you. Your posting's reflect an
> obviously intelligent individual with a defined posting style. Rather, I
> am referring to posters who are truly 'clueless'.
>   

Ah...  Thank you.  It felt as though you were one of those unreasonable
people who didn't accept a "defined posting style" unless it was top
posting.  I apologize if I misread you, but you were rather adamant.  :)

Rick