Or at least that’s what one subscriber to C18-L says.
Why, oh why, did I even try to point out basic rules of civil behavior? You would think scholars of the eighteenth century (a period known for its conduct books) would have a more sophisticated understanding of such matters.
Congrats! I’ve alwasy wanted to a “right thinking yadda yadda…” Seriously, that’s just lame for some one to say that. If it’s on the Internet, I guess it doesn’t require civil behavior.
Oh my, I got sucked into reading that whole thread…I think I just wasted 45 minutes…and I have no interest in the 18th century. If I were to read Sade, I would read it to further my career as a “masturbator.”
I’m totally with you on the caps, and this thread (esp the reactions of NORBERT NORBERT) show why I hate academia. Many people huge investment in a tiny idea, and that’s all they have, and they have to defend it with all they’ve got with no nod to proportion or reason.
BTW: Patrick Riley says: “A listserve is about disseminating opinions, not about chiding participants about proper form–and many of us are not aficionados of “netiquette”–we care about ideas more than hollow and transitory forms.”
We don’t let our students get away with this…uh, it’s not my fault I don’t know MLA standards…but it’s ok for profs? Does this mean so many of us lit/film lovers spend vast parts of our careers teaching “hollow and transitory forms” in composition classes? Here’s the rule: when a “hollow and transitory form” is an essay (which you will never use again post-college, unless you are a prof), you can fail a class for not having “proper form.” When the “hollow and transitory form” is email (which all of us, profs or no, use every single day), it’s A-OK to eschew proper form for “disseminating opinions [and] ideas.”
Oh great, I’ve got all that to look forward to in the digest tomorrow morning. THAT MAN IS JUST SO F*****G LAME.
Maybe I’ll just delete the whole message and give up on them for a day or two.
This really is academia at its worst.
Today I hate C18-L
Yeah, I’m fickle.
But this (and the squabbling about Sade that followed it)* remind you of the virtues of moderated lists at times.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND THE EIGHTENTH-CENTURY (sic) WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING SADE.
Perhaps it’s just as w…
Holy mother of…wow. I think I may have lost a brain cell or three reading that discussion. That was painful.
With 3 seconds of Googling, the first reference[1] I can find to a netiquette document is from 1984, and while that first document doesn’t appear to comment on capitalization, within 6 years it appears to be in most “netiquette” lists of different kinds.
There’s even an RFC for this[2]! If it’s good enough for the core foundation of the Internet, isn’t it at least worth a glance by people who use it?
[1] – http://communication.ucsd.edu/bjones/Usenet.Hist/Nethist/0030.html
[2] – http://rfc.sunsite.dk/rfc/rfc1855.html
I had just recently joined the C18th-L and I must say it’s thread such as that one that make me question if academia is for me. Please, please, someone assure me that I won’t lose my sense of humor or my sense of courtesy if I actually ever do finish my dissertation.
Thanks for all the feedback, y’all.
Joe, I think what has happened is as much a result of the hazards of electronic communication as it is of the perils of academia.