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28 messages

BS: Back to Basics

18 Aug 04 - 05:44 PM (#1250775)
Subject: BS: Back to Basics
From: wysiwyg

Hey guys, remember.....?

You can't see each online, to see facial expressions, body language...

A little "IMO" IMHO," and even "IMNSHO" go long way....

Debate the points, don't attack the debater as a person....

One's posts are one's own responsibility, not the fault of another whose posts "caused" one to feel bad or angry or whatever....

It's a pretty small pond, which ever side of it you're on...

We agree on more than we disagree over...

The Mudcatter you flame today may be hosting the next Mudcat Gathering you want to attend....

We usually need a lot less pontificating, and a lot more rock-n-roll.

Of course that's all IMNSHO and YMMV. :~)

~Susan


18 Aug 04 - 06:00 PM (#1250790)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Once Famous

And no running in the halls!


18 Aug 04 - 06:09 PM (#1250796)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: wysiwyg

Yeah!!!!

Unless it's Olympic Bodhran-Flinging Day!

~S~


19 Aug 04 - 04:14 PM (#1251234)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Cluin

It's all fun `n' games till someone loses an eye...


20 Aug 04 - 01:36 PM (#1252246)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Mrrzy

What software program wqas it that had "never run with scissors!" as one of its Tips of the Day?

Thanks for the reminder, WYSIWYG, I was thinking about half of those...


20 Aug 04 - 01:55 PM (#1252265)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Cluin

Arachnophilia, Mrrzy?


20 Aug 04 - 01:57 PM (#1252271)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Amos

A fondness for spiders, and giving orders to others?

A


20 Aug 04 - 02:47 PM (#1252336)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Doug Chadwick

A little "IMO" IMHO," and even "IMNSHO" go long way....

--------------------

--------------------

Of course that's all IMNSHO and YMMV. :~)



The pleasantries would go even further if I understood what they all meant. What does YMMV mean ?

Doug C


20 Aug 04 - 03:07 PM (#1252353)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: wysiwyg

Yore Mileage May Vary = you might see it differently/have diff experience backing up your view/get a diff result

Like that. Link to an online acronym dictionary in the FAQ I think... dunno where. CRS! :~)

~S~


21 Aug 04 - 01:57 AM (#1252783)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Doug Chadwick

"Yore Mileage May Vary" ????

Without your further explanation, I found the translation no more understandable than the original YMMV. For me, IMHO and the like do nothing for communication. If I can't read it in English, I will most probably skip the message altogether. I am certainly not going to waste my time looking up things in an acronym dictionary. In my view, the use of webspeak shorthand denotes insincerity.

Doug C


21 Aug 04 - 02:22 AM (#1252795)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: PoppaGator

When I first read the initial message above a couple of days ago, I had no idea what "YMMV" might mean, and considered posting a query until the phone rang or my boss approached or something.

I *have* encountered the spelled-out expression "your mileage may vary" used in this sense. When I first encountered it, I understood immediately and thought it was clever, but perhaps a little *too* clever, if you take my meaning (IYTMM?)

I don't feel that webspeak shorthand connotes (or, for that metter, denotes) insincerity, but I don't always understand it, and I'm *certainly* not going to take the time to "look up" some dumb acronym in some specialized online reference work. I take the same attitude with everything I read -- since I got out of school, anyway: If I can't make sense out of a word or phrase from context, the hell with it.


21 Aug 04 - 01:12 PM (#1252927)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: GUEST

Oh hell, it's common usage nowadays-- it denotes facility with common useage and being busy and moving quickly, and assuming others are thinking for themselves. If you want to make more out of it, there are chances in every thread to do that and miss what people are saying because you're looking at nits.

~S~


21 Aug 04 - 03:02 PM (#1252952)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: wysiwyg

... as a quick, easy forum search on shows; there are posts by a wide variety of members using it in a variety of situations.

~S~


21 Aug 04 - 04:07 PM (#1252997)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: John MacKenzie

Wysiwyg being a good example of the genre!
Giok


22 Aug 04 - 12:09 PM (#1253504)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: GUEST


22 Aug 04 - 12:44 PM (#1253540)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: McGrath of Harlow

If I say something, of course it's my opinion, or I wouldn't say it, so I cannot see the point of "IMO".

The exception would be if I were speaking ironically, and it wasn't really my opinion, and in that case of course "IMO" woudl be a lie.

Perhaps it would make sense to put in a irony warning of some kind at the end in such cases, to avoid confusion. Oddly enough, I don't think there is any generally agreed way of indicating this. IDRMT for "I don't really mean that" probably wouldn't be generally understood.


22 Aug 04 - 01:16 PM (#1253552)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: CarolC

;-)

(Winking smiley face = irony icon, although people often don't notice it.)


22 Aug 04 - 02:38 PM (#1253602)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: wysiwyg

I'm sure those of you who write volumes here THINK people know yo are expressing an opinion, but it often READS like something else. The use of "IMO" does a lot to let people know you are not preaching at them or pretending to know it all or to have all the answers. It separates opining from teaching.

In person we do this quite simply-- it's easy to tell when someone is just sharing their personal experience in a mutual exploration of the world of an issue, vs. showing a closed mind by running their broken record and insisting that their personal reality is how it all IS.

~S~


22 Aug 04 - 02:58 PM (#1253617)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Peace

. . . and?


22 Aug 04 - 03:01 PM (#1253619)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: McGrath of Harlow

All right, there are statements of fact. "Mozart wrote music" is not an opinion.

But "Mozart's wrote wonderful music" is an opinion. "Mozart wrote wonderful music, IMO" doesn't really change things. Actually, it doesn't even mean that, if someone disagrees with this opinion of mine, I am any less likely to hold their opinion on this matter in some contempt.

In fact I do think there is a place for the kind of ritual reminder that much/most of the time we are talking in terms of opinions rather than facts - but I much prefer that to be done through the kind of expressions that have been developed in writing letters, as well as in conversation, rather than through the mechanical use of "IMOs" and so forth.

People keep on implying that communicating through writing is something new, and this seems to me a very strange idea. (Note the IMO equivalent in that sentence.) People have been writing letters to each other for a good few thousand years.


22 Aug 04 - 03:09 PM (#1253626)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Bee-dubya-ell

The Mudcatter you flame today may be hosting the next Mudcat Gathering you want to attend....

Or he may be the person camped next to you at a folk festival.

We folkies are a bit of an insular bunch and the likelihood of any two of us actually meeting in 3D is far greater than many of us think. I've only met a handful of other Mudcatters but one of them is someone with whom I disagree profoundly when it comes to politics. I'm glad that we've always kept our disagreements here civilized enough that we've been able to be cordial in real life.


22 Aug 04 - 03:24 PM (#1253641)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: McGrath of Harlow

Rule of thumb - never say anything here in a way that you wouldn't be willing to say it if they were in the next tent. That doesn't rule out disagreements, even sharp disagreements, but it does rule out certain types of unplesantness.

Of course, you can sometimes run across some right bastards in the next tent... But there aren't more than a couple of people posting on the Mudcat who, on the basis of their posts, would make me consider shifting my tent, if I came across them in real life. And I'm not too likely to run up against them anyway for geographical reasons - and if I did, the truth is, we'd probably get on well enough.


22 Aug 04 - 03:27 PM (#1253645)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: Blackcatter

I still think that only members with cat names should be able to post.


22 Aug 04 - 03:45 PM (#1253659)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: CarolC

"CatrolC"?

Nope. I don't think so.

I think only members with clown names should be able to post.


22 Aug 04 - 03:49 PM (#1253668)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: McGrath of Harlow

What's wrong with rat names?


22 Aug 04 - 04:01 PM (#1253681)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: CarolC

Rat names are good.


22 Aug 04 - 04:10 PM (#1253696)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River

Thats what I say! Back to flippin basics!

1. Plenty of Beer in the fridge.
2. And one in yer hand.
3.Some smokes.
3.Pizza
4.A hockey game. OR the Playboy Channul.
5.Some good quality weed.
6.A hot babe on yer lap.

That about covers it.


22 Aug 04 - 09:40 PM (#1254025)
Subject: RE: BS: Back to Basics
From: McGrath of Harlow

Left out the music.