Monday, September 30, 2013

Laws of Ignoramus Doofus


The 3 Laws of Ignoramus Doofus

1. After this, therefore because of this


An expansion of this is something that happens together, will always happen together. Fire together, wire together. These principles are scientifically proven by Markov's chain and Bayesian theorem.

2. I do it, because everybody does


When asked for justification, only come up with a single reason, regardless whether or not there are other reasons not to do it, or whether or not it is even relevant to the cause.

In any case, better to fail together with a lot of other people since doing so will give plenty of targets to point finger at.

3. I want it, therefore everybody wants it


Everybody is the same. If I am thirsty, you are too. If I am hungry you are too. If I like blue, so do you. If I find it funny that I dropped a bucket of dirty paint on your brand new car, you'd laugh too.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Poisonous People

How to Ruin a Community without even Trying

You know, some people just aren't fit to function in public. You can see them in jails. Murderers, rapists, thieves, and burglars. They are society misfits who deserves to be put behind bars.

And yet, they aren't the only ones. There are other ways, too. A gentler way to choke community out of its existence, while claiming to be improving it. I was watching a travel show about New Zealand, recently, and there is a segment in there where New Zealanders talked about how it used to be that the people are about showing off, about who can catch more fish than anybody else. It took a while before people realize that natural resources are finite, and now they practice sustainable living. They only catch enough fish for themselves and their neighbors. Thus, New Zealand becomes a beautiful country.

Now, imagine if some new people, either tourists or young persons, came by and started to brag that they are better than the existing locals, and show them by catching a large amount of fish. Will the local stand it? Of course, not. It's their community and they stand to suffer when the fist disappear. Tourists will just go on to another country. Only the locals will suffer. So, it comes with justification that if there's some rude tourists wreak havoc the environment by not following catch limits, the local police will come down to them and fine them, or if that's not enough, jail them.

This happens throughout the all the communities, not just New Zealander. In fact, even virtual communities are not immune. I don't know what it is that the internet have that cause people to blatantly abuse other people. Bullying is a real danger on the Internet. They would posts objectionable materials, or otherwise behave in a manner that people would otherwise restrain in the real world. More than one people have dual personalities. A nice respectable person in real life, and a destroying demon in virtual communities.

I'm playing a game called Animal Crossing New Leaf, where you can invite other people to visit your town. There is a group of people called Raiders, who just pick up stuff on the ground without paying (stealing) or cut down all trees and run over flowers (Vandalism or worse). Why do people do that? This is not some single player games where it's you against the computer. This is real people who spent a lot of their time, making their town beautiful, and raiders just come and destroy it just for fun.

There is no rational explanation or justification for such destructive behavior. "Because it's virtual" is not a reason. It may be an excuse, but that still doesn't change the fact that somebody spent a lot of time building up something, only to be destroyed by some inconsiderate jerk. A lot of time that can be spend on something else is now gone. That there is real damage. Once that time is gone, you never get it back.

Talking about losing time, there is disruptive behavior. In internet forums, what if there's some loudmouth who keep asking already answered questions? What if there's somebody who keep posting a lot of trivial and irrelevant topics, despite people complaining of such action? That's time wasted. So, these disruptive behavior will gather ire from long-time contributors, people who have been there a long time, and know what community standards need to be upheld in order to maintain an orderly function. And when such disruptive person keep insisting doing disruptive behavior? Well, there's the ban user option. A virtual jail or "driven out of town", so to speak. And so, the community go back to being peaceful again.

Sometimes the moderators are young and clueless, and permit such behavior, or sometimes the forum is an open one without moderation. When the community does not discipline such behavior, such destructive person may thrive there. At least for a while. Then people will get fed up with such behavior and leave. I know I have left a few forums because they have turned into such vile fest, that there is nothing good left. Beware the lessons of Sodom and Gomorrah. Towns so sinful, God felt the need to destroy them. Did I just quote the Bible for lessons on the internet forums? Anyway, that is what happens.

Well, this is why I maintain this blogspot. If such people happens here, I will simply ban them. This is to preserve the sense of community. If there is no other civil community out there on the internet, at least this one will survive. I need to maintain vigilance because bad people do exists, and they may come here.

There was a town that was heaven on earth, and it was perfect. Then a murderer came by, murdered one of the resident, and the town never did regain its heavenly qualities. That is why there is heaven and hell. If sinful people comes to heaven, they will turn it into hell. A painful experience that happens over, and over, and over again.

In fact, one happened this morning. Sla*** in a Petit Computer Forum was kicking up a storm of troubles, and laughed out loud when Mor******* pointed out that people are avoiding the forum as the result. In other words, it is perfectly clear that he enjoys destroying communities. In the end, the moderators had to come in and clean up the mess. I just don't see how somebody can enjoy the destruction of the whole community. That's so tragic.