NJDavid, you clearly bring up how anonymity impacts on social dynamics. Censure means everything in a tribe, a great deal in a small, religious community, and almost nothing in a large metropolitan area. Even less is a virtual society.

And Opus, the battle for leadership you mention is core to what is going on. While leadership is earned, the fight for virtual hegemony does not mirror corporeal society. It is too easy for the Old Guard to leave and put their time in less contentious matters.

Since the earliest fires, humans banned together for protection and because we are social animals. Laws emerged to maintain social order, and punishments to deter miscreants and to restore balance (punishing for taking your neighbors crops returns the pre-crime equilibrium and denies benefit for fracturing this social order).

In Flyertalk, we have banded together for �informational� protection to help navigate hotel and airline bureaucracies. With knowledge the commodity, bad information is akin to theft.

We have the classic class system in FT as found in primitive society.

At the top, the Priest Class, in our case Randy P. Much like Moses could bring plagues by religio-magical intervention, so could Randy smite wrongdoers by techno-magically deleting them.

Our civil authorities, such as Catman, Rudi, Premex, etc. do the organizational work that makes the society run. As timelessly true to human nature: some people create, some criticize.

There are those amongst us who have a great deal of moral authority, such as Punki and Jon Toner. These people do not so much lead, as they push people into ethical decision making.

Flyertalk will fall and rise, as have many other cultures. Yet, while it took the Barbarians years and hordes to storm the gates of Rome, apparently our society is vulnerable to a few thousand posts from down under.

My goodness. She likes Heinlein. She likes Rand. She likes somewhat obscure allusions. So where were you when I was looking for a soulmate?

(Edited to clean up UBB coding. Drat!)

[This message has been edited by Counsellor (edited 03-04-2001).]

And really, Counsellor, who is John Galt?

http://www.globalfreedom.com/jg_index.html

The reason that Dagny hasn't yet landed in the gulch is that FT isn't reliving Atlas Shrugged; it's reliving Lord of the Flies. But this time the plane with the adults never comes and the stranded children continue to fight without end. My view is gloomier than Heinlein's; in his vision even Coventry had rules and governments of sorts.

FT is only lightly governed and has no rewards to offer, other than electronic friendship and the sharing of knowledge. Likewise it has no official punishments to mete out, other than banishment of a user (at least until the user finds another e-mail address). And as a noncommercial adjunct to Mr. Petersen's main business, it's not going to develop these things.

But let's be real. THe civilized users are not AFAIK defending their lives, their families, their reputations, or their livelihoods when they respond to a flame war, except only as reputation is attached to their FT handle. This is a bulletin board and not a battlefield. IMHO the offensive posts are most effectively dealt with by swamping them with on-topic posts that "talk travel," not by flaming back.

I don't say this because I believe in nicely turning the other cheek, nor because I believe that shunning will reform behavior on a BBS. I say this because the measure of the value of the board is in its signal-to-noise ratio. When other members respond to flames, they produce more noise. When major contributors leave, then reduce signal. In both cases the noise wins.

Swamp the noise with signal.

Here I thought FT was reliving Survivor

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He who dies with the most miles ... is dead.

Law Lord, I think you've hit it spot on. We aren't exactly foraging around in the wilderness trying to establish a civilization while scrounging for sustenance here, and the only things in need of protection in this "community", I dare say, are a few fragile egos.

That's why this whole thing seems a bit melodramatic, in Moose's opinion, and talk of "leadership" seems completely absurd. Do we really need leaders to show us how to share travel information with other posters? After all, the site host's refusal to be dragged into all this melodrama would tend to indicate that all he meant FlyerTalk to be is a source of mileage and hotel point tips, with the occasional odd bit of travel talk thrown in. Heaven forbid it should turn back into that!

My oh my, what a prescient post that first one on this thread is turning out to be!!

Napalm has a very destructive and long term
effect....but, in time, there is recovery. But not if it is repeatedly applied. I don't think that anyone who has been here (on FT) for more than a year (B.O, before you know who) will not concede that a lot of spirit, good spirit, has taken leave of the boards; it remains to be seen how many will come back. But the new network begins with old friends and Darth Varders wont find it so easy to spread destruction here.

Nathan Detroit. Sure folks come back. I seem to remember you posting your retirement from these boards only a week or so back?

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~ Glen ~

Anyone else around here having problems with unwanted static? Seems like it just started up again after some welcome silence. Probably just my imagination. Back to sleep until spring arrives.

[This message has been edited by nathan detroit (edited 03-12-2001).]

If this is a question of keeping Premex or ozstamps, I vote we "cancel" the stamps. The former is a respected member of this board and one who have gone well out of his way to contirbute to useful data and content. He has made fair trades and gifts on that forum.

The latter however has been less that valuable most of the time and always wants unfair trades. IMHO

Started up again a couple of days ago on my machine as well. Might be a Windows problem?

Nope I have a MAC and I have it too...

Only just the crickets most probably?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum47/HTML/000002.html