L.A. Times shuts reader-editorial Web site

TalkBack 2 of 2:

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Never gonna happen

"Even after about 10 years of massive on-line interaction, we (as cyber-citicens) have still to learn and polish our ways of interacting with each other..."

Unfortunately, the quality of discourse in cyberspace is delining over time, instead of improving. And I see no signs of it getting any better, only worse.

But it's only one manifestation of the overall decline in the quality and civility of discourse in general, which will naturally bleed over into any specific discourse arena. Part of it is the anonymity of cyberspace - people are more willing to discard notions of civility when hidden. Most of it I attribute to an overall decline in the quality of parenting.

Just check out these ZDNet talkbacks for prime examples. Not that long ago, the number of regular contributors was somewhat smaller and the quality of the discourse was higher. As time has passed, the number of posters has increased and the quality of the discussions has declined. How many posts do we see here that involve name calling, taunting, and grossly off-topic subjects? How many posts do we see here where it is obvious that the poster didn't even read the article, but is simply posting either randomly or with a pre-conceived agenda? The signal-to-noise ratio here is extremely low.

Why should it be any surprise that the situation is similar elsewhere?

Carl Rapson

Posted by: rapson   Posted on: 06/21/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• ChangeAuditor for Active Directory ScriptLogic ChangeAuditor drives the security and control of Active Directory by ... Download Now
• Continuous Performance Management in Eclipse Quest Software Continuous performance management ("CPM") isn't a myth - it's a proven ... Download Now
• Data Center Automation in an Uncertain Economy IBM Today, organizations just like yours are under greater than ever pressures ... Download Now