Wednesday, June 09, 2010

As it turns out...

...there are rules for Arguing on the Internets, and LabRat has them.

It's funny 'cause it's true!

15 comments:

Keads said...

As I have said before in other places, Eternal September" is here.

LabRat has succinctly codified the new rules of combat!

Anonymous said...

Rules of engagement? Pffft...small arms skirmishes.

When confronted by an unexpected angle of attack on obviously vulnerable assertions or assumptions, skip right on over the tedium of defending your position.

Just drop the nuke; declare dissent to be out of line, out of order, rude, an outright affront to the sanctity of your private space. And anyway, the anonymity afforded by the toobz negates any logic or reason that might be presented, your attacker is just a spineless, virtual coward (never mind that it's the toobz, the very foundation of which is, you know, anonymity). Declare yourself tired of the whole charade and by God,
you've half a mind to just take your toys and go home...again.

Then step back and wait for your minions to take up the chatter, throw around some epithets, toss in a few pathetic threats...debate over. Works every time.

AT

Cond0011 said...

Just in case somebody has not seen this catlog of internet fauna, I'll link it to you (I first became aware of it 10 years ago when I was merely just a drooling newb):

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/

And as Nate put it in the commentary over at Atomic Nerds, NEVER be this guy:

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/lamer.htm

So... which one are you (Kung-Fu master is off limits as most people pick him)? :)

Außenseiter said...

@Tam

Perhaps you could turn your snark on that nasty, money-grubbing New Yorker who claims banker bosses fired her for being 'too hot'.

For some reason, that story is quite tasty..

@AT
Some people do that. Anyway, the reason is, why would anyone sane even want to argue on the internet?

Arguing about politics and such bullshit is just a waste of time.

A bad habit, like smoking.

Noah D said...

Keads, just you wait until Microsoft lets the XBox Live 'community' have a browser on their consoles...

Joe in PNG said...

If all else fails, compare your opponets to Hitler. That always works!

Joe in PNG said...

Just thought of one more:
-Quantity, quantity, quantity! You can win by burying your opponents with a multi-megaton info dump. Brevity and clarity are concepts to be absolutely avoided- think the Chewbacca Defense as written by Herman Melville, but with more words. Feel free to cut and paste pages of irrelevant quotes, raise up armies of strawmen, and answer each word of your opponent’s post with at least two paragraphs, 5 links, and a half dozen questions.

The goal is to drive the average poster with a life into realizing they have better things to do with their life (after all, you do have the advantage by not having anything better to do). For once they stop replying, or post a TLDR, you win!

Cond0011 said...

Yea, Joe ... and always have a few 'Carrot Top' type props to link to for forum amusement!

Like this one:

http://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/grenade.jpg

and this one:

http://www.myspaceantics.com/images/myspace-graphics/funny-pictures/youre-a-homo.jpg

or maybe this one:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/nobody%20cares/Cliff_045/Surprise_No_One_Cares-1.jpg

Remember, life is just a stage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-zEtAuKuUY

Tam said...

AT,

That was easily the most déclassé thing I have ever seen you do. It made me sad.

Anonymous said...

"It made me sad."

Not my goal. But imagine how I felt.

Declasse? Yes, on both sides.

AT

Tam said...

Bringing a long-over argument from a completely different venue into my comments section, I meant.

Let it frickin' drop.

Anonymous said...

I didn't mention the argument, just the tactic, which was exactly apropos to 'Rat's post and your link. But it's your show, so consider it dropped.

AT

Tam said...

Thank you. :)

(And I feel bad for not saying "Let it frickin' drop, please.")

LabRat said...

Joe: ARGH. I'm tempted to edit the damn thing now, because I meant to list that one somewhere in there, and somehow entirely forgot.

Chalkie said...

I really only know 2.5 rules to the internet. Godwin's law, it's corollary, and rule 34.