[MUD-Dev] Re: Adventurer Groups [was Affecting the World]

[s001gmu at nova.wright.edu]

Date: Mon, 01 Dec 1997 21:11:39 +0000 (PST8PDT)
From: coder at ibm.net

>On 01/12/97 at 10:40 PM, s001gmu at nova.wright.edu said:
>
>>First off, what's with all the repeats of the original of this message?
>>List admin?
>
>Writing as list owner:
>
>  Yup, I'm still alive.  Barely.

That's good to hear.  :-)

>  If you're looking for an official ruling, you're not going to get one. 
>Sorry!
>
>  Not to blow you off, some background:
>
>    Generally the quoting level used on this list seems just about right
>if not slightly on the too little side.  As such, there are always going
>to be pertubations to the mean: one post quotes too much, the next too
>little, and so on.  I'm not going to get involved or worried until it
>becomes a pattern, or until it starts materially impacting the function or
>purpose of the list.  One posting could very easily be a slip of the
>fingers or an oversight.  I'm not going to get worried.  Please don't get
>worried for me.  Its not worth it.

mmm... methinks there may be a bit of misunderstanding of what I was asking
about.  Either that or I am completely misunderstanding your response.  To
be clear, I was asking 'why is it that I got one message, subject
"Adventure Groups [was Affecting the World]", and then about 4 messages
of subject "Re: Adventure Groups [was Affecting the World]", with the exact
same message body as the original?'  I was saying nothing about how much
nested attribution was going on.  :)

>Not writing as list owner:
>
>  Please note Greg, I'm not picking on you here, your post just sparked a
>couple thoguhts, that especially in light of a few of the current threads,
>might be profitably entertained.

Noted.  Pulling blinders over the more sensative eyes in my noggin. :)

>  Greg's comment above, "First off, what's with all the repeats of the
>original of this message?" is absolutely fasinating if looked at from a
>viewpoint of being an example of a member of a micro-society attemping to
>police its own micro-society.

A beautiful example of social preassure used to control members of a society.
Peer preasure is the term used most often, in pop culture.  We spent a good
week or so talking about such socital control mechanisms in a SOC. class.

>  If you look at it, the membership of this list in many ways functions
>similarly to the membership of a MUD, and as such, has similarly evolved
>various social structures and forms in line with and supporting that. 
>Some of them of course have been drummed in or imported from outside, such
>as my requirement for attributions, or this example of quoting.  A few are
>homegrown, such as the somewhat overly genteel civility used in debate on
>the list (not that I'm knocking it, I think its quite wonderful and
>something to be actively encouraged).  

I've noticed this at work several times.  These social controls really are 
some of the more fascinating behaviors we humans participate in, mostly 
unawares.

>  FWLIW Jon Lambert noticed this parallel in jest many months back (bet
>he's forgotten).
>
>  In this light, Greg's comment really becomes a piece of public rebuke,
>of public censure, much are a pedestrian might rebuke another who justled
>them while walking down the street: "Hey bozo!  Watch where ya goin, ya
>dickhead!"  Tho done with better grammar.

:)  Taken as a comment on the number of attributions in a message, yeah,
I s'pose it could be viewed that way.  Since it was more of a question about
why I got 5 copies of the same message, my ego would like to think of it as 
more of an ill-worded query as to why my micro-cosm delivery service seems
to be hiccoughing (sp?).

A side note, I do think that some of the nested attributions do get a bit 
loudicrous at times, but far be it from me to comment.  ;)  I just do
my best to clean out everything not 100% relevant to my point, and hope
others will see how clear and to the point my messages are (hah) and try to
emulate them.

<snipage>

Sorry for the misunderstanding... any comment, as list owner, on why I got 5
copies of the original message? :)

-Greg