jimrandomh comments on Open Thread: July 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong
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I think that's a consequence of distance. It's easier to be a jerk to someone, deliberately or accidentally, when they seem like just a username on a forum; it's harder to recognize that a conversation has gone awry when it's all text; and it's harder to back down and apologize when there are third parties watching.
In online conversations, the emotional palette for most people seems to be: detached, amused, or angry. All other emotions are rare exceptions in online discourse - not because people don't feel them, but because text written by far-away people can't easily bring them out.
Looking through this thread, I see lots of comments (both by you and at you) which seem to make detachment impossible. No one's telling jokes, either, so the remaining option is anger.
AAAAAAAAGH! Rage rage hulksmash!
Well, in your case, you've actually vidchatted with me, seen the actual, breathing human on the other side, found me to be more sociable than you expected
... and still didn't feel any more inclined to clean up the misrepresentations you made of me that you were aware of :-(
I've gone back and edited the comment in question, and I apologize for not having done so earlier. (And, while this doesn't really justify my not having edited it earlier - the reason I didn't edit it then was that I still hadn't fully understood what happened. Revisiting it now, I noticed what I missed the last time around - namely, a full enumeration of the people who could've prevented the situation from blowing up in the first place, including myself.) I'm not sure whether linking to or summarizing that thread would be a net positive or negative, so I won't, but you can if you think making my edit visible is worth the chance that it derails the current conversation here.
Have you presented your thoughts on the mismatch between yourself and other people anywhere? I will happily delete my guess if it is not accurate.
I have a hard time knowing how to help if I don't know the problem.
Send me a PM if you have a diagnosis. I don't think I've made general remarks on the mismatch anywhere, though I have pointed out when people, like jimrandomh, knowingly perpetuate lies about me after being repeatedly corrected.