Posts by BenWilson
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Sacha,
it's a survival response to assess friend and foe, isn't it?
Most of the lasting impression happens in the first few minutes. This might be part of the barrier for lurkers, the feeling that their first post could end up being how they are judged for ever?
But I'm not sure if first impressions on the internet are so deep. Well, they're not for me, anyway. I actually find it extremely difficult to remember people who have only spoken a few times. In an physical meeting, you are bombarded with far more memory hooks - the person's real name, the look of their face, their manner, their dress, what they look at, how they respond non-verbally to you, how they smell, what they're drinking, what they want to talk about, who they are standing with, etc.
We take so much of the non-verbals for granted, and some people tend to think most of our communication is done that way. I disagree - I think that what is communicated in that way is the stuff that would have been relevant right across human existence, but the newer stuff takes a lot longer. So picking up if someone is predatory and violent, or considers you a potential sexual partner, are things you need to know fast, before the chance to act passes. But picking up what their position is on some abstract idea can be much harder work. And it could end up being just as important. This is a new thing, in evolutionary timescales. We're all learning how to be netizens, and what kind of netizens we want to be.
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to recordari,
His cartoon on his blog about the online exchanges kind of sums it up
Yes, writers don't respond well to being driven like cattle. It's why they became writers, a job that appears to give a huge amount of freedom.
Took him seventeen years to deliver that sequel to The Hobbit, what's it called? :).
You think they had a point? Maybe he never would have finished it without all the badgering.
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Jolisa,
That is really interest J. Thanks for that. Helps to know what you're in for when you write fantasy.
Edit I remember Tolkien complaining that his American fans took things way too far. But they were the main reason he made such a lot of money from LOTR too. When some American publisher tried to rip his work off, the fans were what stopped it happening.
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Muse: Hey Greg O'Connor, Krup You!, in reply to Russell Brown,
And I'd have been okay with an officer having a word with Tiki on the night just to point out he wasn't making their job any easier.
That would be the sensible thing to do. Sounds like sense did not win, on the night.
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Bart Janssen,
But the flip side to that is you want young scientists to play with new (to them) ideas, because they can bring a new emphasis or perspective that changes the way we think.
Also, the habits involved in seeking ideas that turn out not to be new are mostly the same habits that can lead to the genuinely new ideas. Also also, for some people, finding the boundaries of their knowledge is just how they learn.
But it's can still be crushing to be unoriginal, if that is what you were aiming for. It takes a good teacher, or a good community, to give the right kind of feedback, to make your contribution a positive experience. We've all experienced being made to feel stupid for our contributions, otherwise there would not be such widespread fear of having public opinions.
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Does PA's tracking distinguish in any way between people reading just the posts, and people reading the discussion threads?
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Muse: Hey Greg O'Connor, Krup You!, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I'd also like to see the officers concerned charged with wasting police time (and ordered to pay costs) because no matter how paradisical Tauranga is, surely the courts and constabulary have better things that need doing?
Does that ever happen? I think a talking to from their bosses is the most that could realistically be hoped for.
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Russell Brown,
No sign of Kiwiblog.
How bizarre.
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Muse: Hey Greg O'Connor, Krup You!, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Yeah, I wouldn't want to be deciding who caused what injuries with that one.
For sure, but hitting an injured person right where they are injured (or indeed hitting them at all) is a fucked up idea. Of course I don't know all the details of the case, but it never looks good, even when there's an acquittal.
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Muse: Hey Greg O'Connor, Krup You!, in reply to Sacha,
Yeah, might even be a majority opinion. But so far as police are concerned that's not good enough. They need to be in the "overwhelming majority" position if they want to take political stands.
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