Nothing is New

Continuing in the vein of received wisdom regarding teh Intarwebs, this shiny bauble from Making Light:

Anonymous nastiness is easy to write, and will always find an appreciative audience. I don’t care. It’s not a manifestation of the free and open discourse of the internet; it’s a thing that destroys that discourse. To be specific, it’s the same old trashmouthed bullying we all know from junior high and high school. Putting it on the net doesn’t cause it to develop any novel complexities or interesting emergent behaviors. It’s just the same old sh*t.

If you have a weblog or live journal, or you administer a website that has comment threads, stand up for yourself and your readers. The jerks are never going to like you, or praise you, or admit that you’re doing the right thing. And if you’re waiting for someone to give you permission to suppress and thereafter ignore malfeasants, you have it right now. If you want, I’ll make up a certificate. Go forth and civilize.

Mostly in reference to the recent calls for civility from Tim O'Reilly, a man who convinced the world to produce free content for him to drive his investment capital business, and Jimmy Wales, best known for creating the foundations for the largest repository of questionable information ever assembled.