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Friday, July 15, 2005
Strike Out Posted
I've just posted a document, Strike Out: Reading Unedited Text, which describes the technique I've adopted for reading unedited text such as postings on discussion boards, comments on web logs, and the like. The absence of an editor between the author and the eyes of the reader means that anybody with something to say can reach anybody inclined to read it, which is both the advantage and the problem with these new "unmediated media". Reading too much unedited text, particularly if you're doing so in search of nuggets of genuine wisdom or technical detail, can be depressing and result in scornful estimation of the intellect of the Internet community. I'm not sure how this suggestion will be taken. I suspect that many will say, "How bloody obvious can you get?" Well, as simple-minded as it is, it took my simple mind more than decade to stumble onto the scheme, so perhaps others may benefit from having it explained with examples. I'm sure there will be some controversy over the implicit assumption that those who cannot spell or write grammatically have nothing to say, but since the "hate kiddies" who most vehemently advocate this viewpoint already hate everybody and everything anyway, the net increase in temperature is likely to be minimal.Posted at July 15, 2005 15:49