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Now as a writer I am pretty varied in talent and taste. Often after I read an essay or novel by Burke, Johnson, etc, I get a creative impluse which stimulate my thought and excite my desire for the translation of thoughts into verbal and written expressions.
However I frequently read internet forums, and tl.net included, and am tempted every so often to reply to a thread, I find my vocabulary and and thought incapacitated by the very medium. It seems on the internet, the organic qualities of creativeness and sincerity vanish, and are replaced by a mechanical and stylized narrative.
After reading these forums , and other online material (including newspapers) for a time, I find my boredom increases, to the point that I scroll down the page as rapidly as possible and try to get the jist of the message. I take no pleasure in reading, and even on some topics I am interested in, just can't find the interest to reply.
There's nothing that dulls the mind in my experience more than online "communications." In some ways, this is naturally the nature of the internet itself: a vast proliferation of online material of great quantity and low quality. The "inflation" of information decreases its value and consequently, the quality of its expression.
I also feel that in recent times i've read more off of my computer screen than I have actually read from the printed page.
The thought ambushes my mind at the moment I am reading a rather well-written essay by a Philadalphian lady from the early 20th century who writes about the qualities of conversation, and causes me to reflect on the want of elegance, honesty and meaning (and I do believe these three qualities are mutually inclusive) which infiltrate my mind through the screen. I'm the last to give sociological theories much credit, but it seems to be that the longer I read from the internet, the more my capacity for language and consequently, freedom of thought degrade.
Is internet writing a form of mental junk food? Addictive, yet unhealthy. Simone Weil (a defected Marxist) wrote sixty years ago that revolution, not religion was the opium of the masses. What of the "information" revolution which we are all consumed by?
Since it is an ancient sin to delight in extracting personal experiences and enshrine them as universal truths, I am obliged to ask whether people agree or disagree with this assessment.
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MURICA15980 Posts
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On February 22 2005 18:03 Casper... wrote:
fuk my iq just dropped
rofl
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16987 Posts
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and you write like a donkey
english major, right?
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forums gain in immediacy what they give up in content
the tradeoff is well worth it
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/me votes casper for president
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I think it's all dependant on the context of the reading. For example if you made me read a book online or some really long story off my monitor I could do it easily and would enjoy doing it. I think it's partly due to the fact that instead of turning pages I can sit comfortably in my plush leather chair and scroll or just key down.
Nowadays I can't even sit down and read Lord of the Flies in one sitting and no, I don't have ADD/ADHD.
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MURICA15980 Posts
And frankly, I do not think that Internet forums make me dumber. We do have our good posters here, and because we cover so many topics, if you know who knows what they are takling about, you can learn a thing or two about random topics. Besides that, the fact that everybody here is from different parts of the globe, this global community helps with a... wider perspective?
But I can relate to how you feel about "stupid" online communications. I think it is even worse with the kids younger than me who grew up with broadband connections and 2 ghz computers.
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you see, if i were to insult you in days of yore it would have involved anything from staining a page with crushed ants smeared in donkey's blood to using a device known as a "typewriter" to "type" a letter which i would then enclose in an "envelope" and "mail" to the "recipient" of said insult
this way i can shit on you right away
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MURICA15980 Posts
Why do I get the feeling we're proving his point? :D
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and you write like a donkey
english major, right?
No.
forums gain in immediacy what they give up in content
the tradeoff is well worth it
Yes, if your time is so valuable that you can only spare it to debate
such esteemed figures as myself, it is surely too valuable to be squandered on
such trivialities as raising your mind from the shallow pond of vulgarity. You sure
have an enviable sense of economy.
And here I was, thinking that it was impatience and poor attention span, rather
than the value of time which causes so many people to seek a quick fix on the
internet.
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I somewhat agree with Moltke. Some things low quality things will make you dumber, but if you read something that is well written (though it is very rare on the internet), you won't be as affected as much. The tl.net forums have posters that write with good enough English that it won't necessarily make you stupider or dumber, but reading from other places like the Battle.net forum (which has recently become shit with noobs posting threads saying Zerg is too weak) will possibly have some negative effects. I just try not to write like other people who I think have low quality English.
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Braavos36375 Posts
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass
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On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass
On the other hand, I really admire yours. I am taking notes as we speak.
-When expressing contempt for a person, always insinuate he is a sexual pervert in your metaphors, because, borrowing from the wisdom of Sigmund Freud, every human motive is essentially sexual.
Really impressive that you have subliminally implied that you have an intellectual affinity with fin-de-siecle thinkers. Way to take me down a peg while as you put it, grovelling for other people to jump on your dick because you're a slick intellectual.
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Its been known for a long time by me that the internet makes you dumb as shit.
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no it makes you smrt thru osmodiar
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If internet makes ppl stupid, jeesus i guess i had 3 times more iq than einstein to spend so much time in the net and still having this awesome beautiful mind.
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On February 22 2005 18:35 MoltkeWarding wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass On the other hand, I really admire yours. I am taking notes as we speak. -When expressing contempt for a person, always insinuate he is a sexual pervert in your metaphors, because, borrowing from the wisdom of Sigmund Freud, every human motive is essentially sexual. Really impressive that you have subliminally implied that you have an intellectual affinity with fin-de-siecle thinkers. Way to take me down a peg while as you put it, grovelling for other people to jump on your dick because you're a slick intellectual.
Though I don't really agree with how he said it, I kind of agree with what he's saying (hot_bid). You seem to be going a little too over the top trying to make your writing sound intellectual. Not that writing proficiently is a bad thing, but I think you are going a bit far.
Anyway... I agree and disagree with your post. Though I see your point, and agree to some extent, I think that this problem extends much farther than internet and forums. Really I think TL can be a good place to actually gain some intelligence... For a few reasons. For one, as Klogon stated, it is very diverse here (well, globally anyway), and even though there seems to be certain views that are always prevelant here I find that it is a good place for debate on an extremely wide variety of topics (the debate is not usually intellectual, but I think it helps one to become more well-rounded). Also, the level of flaming on here is actually a positive thing. If you just post random crap and type ROFL all the time you will get flamed and banned. It makes you think twice about your opinions before you just randomly spurt things out. At least it does for me.
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Damn, I forgot the meaning of life and how the universe came to pass. I blame it on the Internet.
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MURICA15980 Posts
I don't mind at all how MoltkeWarding is typing... I would actually rather read his posts than say some 11 year old e-thuggin' boy.
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I got bored reading that, so I scrolled down the page as rapidly as possible to try and get the jist of the message.
 .
Edit: 2 edits to fix the grammar of 1 line.
<--- GOdly poster here.
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internet forums broaden my world view and diversify my opionions on major issues. however i think i just misspelled about five words, plus no real grammer
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Braavos36375 Posts
On February 22 2005 18:35 MoltkeWarding wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass On the other hand, I really admire yours. I am taking notes as we speak. -When expressing contempt for a person, always insinuate he is a sexual pervert in your metaphors, because, borrowing from the wisdom of Sigmund Freud, every human motive is essentially sexual. Really impressive that you have subliminally implied that you have an intellectual affinity with fin-de-siecle thinkers. Way to take me down a peg while as you put it, grovelling for other people to jump on your dick because you're a slick intellectual.
i never said i could write better than you, i never said i was smarter than you, i just said you're trying way too hard to appear smart. judging by you name-dropping every sentence and writing "intellectual" every five words, i'd say my assessment was correct.
i didn't subliminally imply anything, i have no idea who or what fin-de-siecle thinkers are. congratulations, you are smarter than me.
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On February 22 2005 19:00 gLyo wrote:
internet forums broaden my world view and diversify my opionions on major issues. however i think i just misspelled about five words, plus no real grammer
I can agree with that. The internet really is the best place to get both sides of an issue. It does however, completely destory the grammar and spelling of some people.
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Braavos36375 Posts
if you think your mighty writing style is being eroded by reading a forum, stop posting and reading.
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On February 22 2005 18:35 MoltkeWarding wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass On the other hand, I really admire yours. I am taking notes as we speak. -When expressing contempt for a person, always insinuate he is a sexual pervert in your metaphors, because, borrowing from the wisdom of Sigmund Freud, every human motive is essentially sexual. Really impressive that you have subliminally implied that you have an intellectual affinity with fin-de-siecle thinkers. Way to take me down a peg while as you put it, grovelling for other people to jump on your dick because you're a slick intellectual.
Congrads on making highschool English AP. It's a shame they don't teach you kids how to write. You'll learn sometime, hang in there buddy.
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On February 22 2005 19:05 Hot_Bid wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 18:35 MoltkeWarding wrote:On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass On the other hand, I really admire yours. I am taking notes as we speak. -When expressing contempt for a person, always insinuate he is a sexual pervert in your metaphors, because, borrowing from the wisdom of Sigmund Freud, every human motive is essentially sexual. Really impressive that you have subliminally implied that you have an intellectual affinity with fin-de-siecle thinkers. Way to take me down a peg while as you put it, grovelling for other people to jump on your dick because you're a slick intellectual. i never said i could write better than you, i never said i was smarter than you, i just said you're trying way too hard to appear smart. judging by you name-dropping every sentence and writing "intellectual" every five words, i'd say my assessment was correct. i didn't subliminally imply anything, i have no idea who or what fin-de-siecle thinkers are. congratulations, you are smarter than me.
Why should he care what people think of him? If he wanted to impress people on a bw forum, he'd try something like this 
Fin-de-siècle = end of century
Also, I agree with what he wrote, but what can you do about it?
Think memes, think cultural selection?
Hey Moltke, fan of metal gear?
edit: siècle typo ~_~
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MURICA15980 Posts
On February 22 2005 19:21 Veg wrote:Why should he care what people think of him? If he wanted to impress people on a bw forum, he'd try something like this
hahaha Veg
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On February 22 2005 18:54 Kaotu wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 18:35 MoltkeWarding wrote:On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass On the other hand, I really admire yours. I am taking notes as we speak. -When expressing contempt for a person, always insinuate he is a sexual pervert in your metaphors, because, borrowing from the wisdom of Sigmund Freud, every human motive is essentially sexual. Really impressive that you have subliminally implied that you have an intellectual affinity with fin-de-siecle thinkers. Way to take me down a peg while as you put it, grovelling for other people to jump on your dick because you're a slick intellectual. Though I don't really agree with how he said it, I kind of agree with what he's saying (hot_bid). You seem to be going a little too over the top trying to make your writing sound intellectual. Not that writing proficiently is a bad thing, but I think you are going a bit far. Anyway... I agree and disagree with your post. Though I see your point, and agree to some extent, I think that this problem extends much farther than internet and forums. Really I think TL can be a good place to actually gain some intelligence... For a few reasons. For one, as Klogon stated, it is very diverse here (well, globally anyway), and even though there seems to be certain views that are always prevelant here I find that it is a good place for debate on an extremely wide variety of topics (the debate is not usually intellectual, but I think it helps one to become more well-rounded). Also, the level of flaming on here is actually a positive thing. If you just post random crap and type ROFL all the time you will get flamed and banned. It makes you think twice about your opinions before you just randomly spurt things out. At least it does for me.
You’re free do agree or disagree with hot_bid as you like. Since you can see his point though, can’t you see mine too? I mean his post is so riddled with intellectual vanity it’s too clever to be perceived by anyone but other intellectuals.
In all seriousness though, you see how I can attribute nonsensical motives in the same way he does, although my accusation was only slightly more ridiculous. Aside from the fact that there’s nothing wrong with writing however a person likes, and if he wants to try his hand at writing better there should be nothing barring him, including the accusations of his peers that he is vain, it’s inconsistent to attribute these motives to me.
Incidentally this is not the first time this has been brought up on these forums or other forums, all I can say is people who are more used to me never complain about it.
Sometimes there's nice threads on this board, for every coherent post there are three incoherent rambles and six posts which have absolutely no meaning.
I have no problem with the totalitarian status of this board’s administration, or the fact that the only rule on tl.net is don’t get banned. You don’t have to have to be smarter or use any kind of profundity to improve the quality of language. I will use an example:
http://www.pemberley.com/bin/emma/emma.cgi
Some common traits like simple decency, politeness and lack of vulgarity makes reading forums like this a pleasure. If this forum sounds smarter than the average yahoo news forum, is it because the people who visit Jane Austen boards are smarter? Or is it because they refrain from voluntary stupidity?
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I think if typing or reading on the internet affects anyone to the point that they write 'lol' in their english write-ups, they need to give themselves a break from their computer and read a book instead. I am on my computer, playing BroodWar and typing to friends on AIM and posting on forums 4-6 hours a day, and strangely enough, I have an 98.9 average in my AP-English Class. The second I fall below an A, I might consider giving up internet slang. But until that day arrives, I couldn't care less about the shit other people post. You guys shouldn't either -.-;;
Or perhaps you can make a nice, cute little political statement by creating an internet forum for people with amazing grammar only, forcing anyone who leaves out an apostrophe or uses the wrong 'their' to be IP-Banned instantly...?
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Sweden33719 Posts
On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass
Well.. If this was one of the great tfeign's (or that swedish IB guy :D) texts I'd be inclined to agree with you.. But I seriously don't think it was that bad..?
I think he sometimes used 'alternate' words more for the effect than for efficiency but.. It wasn't really excessive and it wasn't exactly hard to read :-)
Anyways, I can honestly say that I've probably picked up a lot more knowledge through tl.net than I have done from school..
My english is pretty much entirely a product of playing games/reading stuff online.. And it turned out pretty well I think.
Anyways..
However I frequently read internet forums, and tl.net included, and am tempted every so often to reply to a thread, I find my vocabulary and and thought incapacitated by the very medium. It seems on the internet, the organic qualities of creativeness and sincerity vanish, and are replaced by a mechanical and stylized narrative.
Doesn't this have more to do with the tone of the forum for which you are trying to express your views?
I remember 'back in the days' when tl.net was young, it was a lot.. hm, how should I put this; gentler. It was much smaller so yeah, my posts were really different then, a lot of it, no doubt had to do with me being much younger but I think the way the forum felt had something to do with it as well.
If I understood your last line correctly, in that you mean that one sort of adopts a 'style' and then it's very hard to stray from it, I sort of agree..
My posts now and during the tl.net early days were very different, much less 'aggression' (might not be the best way to put it).
Why would your thoughts be stiffled though? You are just replying in a habitual way (I think I might be guilty of this at times)?
After reading these forums , and other online material (including newspapers) for a time, I find my boredom increases, to the point that I scroll down the page as rapidly as possible and try to get the jist of the message. I take no pleasure in reading, and even on some topics I am interested in, just can't find the interest to reply.
Doesn't this just mean that a) The author is not very good or b) you are quite fed up with the subject?
I know that I was becoming a bit bored with reading the threads here on tl, and I did indeed just scroll through stuff..
But then I went to some other board, completely unrelated to this one and yeah, none of those signs were there..
There's nothing that dulls the mind in my experience more than online "communications." In some ways, this is naturally the nature of the internet itself: a vast proliferation of online material of great quantity and low quality. The "inflation" of information decreases its value and consequently, the quality of its expression.
Hm.. I think this is a load of crap? Maybe if you tried to read everything out there..
How is this any different from a library (aside from the fact that a library usually is pretty calm and there's no advertizing, but it's not like you can't get around that)?
There's plenty of books reproduced in their entirety online.. And plenty of articles that are just as well written if you read them online as if you should read them in a magazine, newspaper or what have you, no?
I also feel that in recent times i've read more off of my computer screen than I have actually read from the printed page.
Yeah.
The thought ambushes my mind at the moment I am reading a rather well-written essay by a Philadalphian lady from the early 20th century who writes about the qualities of conversation, and causes me to reflect on the want of elegance, honesty and meaning (and I do believe these three qualities are mutually inclusive) which infiltrate my mind through the screen. I'm the last to give sociological theories much credit, but it seems to be that the longer I read from the internet, the more my capacity for language and consequently, freedom of thought degrade
Maybe this is because english isn't my first language, but up until very recently I have experienced none of this..
My english is almost exclusively self learned.. Very little stems from school..
Again, doesn't this largely depend on who you are talking to? If you are addressing a bunch of kindergardeners day out and day in, and only speak to these kids you would probably experience the same thing you are experiencing now, right?
It would seem to me that you aren't really getting the kind of feedback from your posts.. I think you used to be a really active poster during all the war debates here?
I stopped reading them because well.. they were going too fast (I go to bed, and there's 20 new pages as well as a new thread-.-), they were going around in circles and I wasn't really interested..
Been quite some time I feel since we had a debate like that here, lots of the people in those have left.. Lots of knowledgable people..
Maybe this is part of why you are feeling so frustrated/bored? (at least when it comes to tl.net)
Is internet writing a form of mental junk food? Addictive, yet unhealthy. Simone Weil (a defected Marxist) wrote sixty years ago that revolution, not religion was the opium of the masses. What of the "information" revolution which we are all consumed by?
Hell yes it's unhealthy! I'm fucking my sleeping pattern right up again typing this reply, damn -_-;;
Well, I can't pretend to know what I'm talking about but overstimulation?
I think that's pretty hard to avoid though, would have to stop watching TV and somehow shield yourself from all the advertizing when you venture outside
In conclusion:
I most likely don't read anything even remotely similiar to what you read online (apart from teamliquid.net) so this might not be relevant to you at all.. but this is how I felt reading your post
EDIT: I hope this turned out alright.. It's 4:30 AM and I should sleep :[
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On February 22 2005 19:05 Hot_Bid wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 18:35 MoltkeWarding wrote:On February 22 2005 18:28 Hot_Bid wrote:
moltke, i really hate your writing style, who the fuck are you trying to impress, nobody's going to jump on your dick for some well thought-out sentence structure
pretentious ass On the other hand, I really admire yours. I am taking notes as we speak. -When expressing contempt for a person, always insinuate he is a sexual pervert in your metaphors, because, borrowing from the wisdom of Sigmund Freud, every human motive is essentially sexual. Really impressive that you have subliminally implied that you have an intellectual affinity with fin-de-siecle thinkers. Way to take me down a peg while as you put it, grovelling for other people to jump on your dick because you're a slick intellectual. i never said i could write better than you, i never said i was smarter than you, i just said you're trying way too hard to appear smart. judging by you name-dropping every sentence and writing "intellectual" every five words, i'd say my assessment was correct. i didn't subliminally imply anything, i have no idea who or what fin-de-siecle thinkers are. congratulations, you are smarter than me.
I suppose great minds think alike, as I happen to have a distain for sour jargon or pretentious words as well as you do. "Intellectual" being among them.
I also suppose that you're unacquainted with irony, in which people say things they would not normally say.
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
There's plenty of forums out there with far higher levels of discussion than any bw or gaming related forum. But intellectual stimulation isn't exactly why most of us go here in the first place 
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
Shit, now I'm gonna get flamed :O
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On February 22 2005 19:21 Veg wrote:Why should he care what people think of him? If he wanted to impress people on a bw forum, he'd try something like this Fin-de-siècle = end of century Also, I agree with what he wrote, but what can you do about it? Think memes, think cultural selection? Hey Moltke, fan of metal gear? edit: siècle typo ~_~
I have no clue what metal gear is, so at the risk of presumption I'm going to say no.
According to my *ahem* internet research :D it seems metal gear is a nintendo game that I have never played. Answer is definite no.
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MURICA15980 Posts
You're missing out then ;D
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I fucking love Moltke's writing style.
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Something Awful - The Internet Makes You Stupid
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On February 22 2005 19:40 HnR)hT wrote:
Shit, now I'm gonna get flamed :O
Eat penguin shit you ass be honker*
Some people on this forum are so disputatious.
Oh and babo, he probably saw the gamecube version - the Twin Snakes ;p.
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[quote]I think he sometimes used 'alternate' words more for the effect than for efficiency but.. It wasn't really excessive and it wasn't exactly hard to read :-)
It’s a common dogma that you shouldn’t use the same words over and over again because its sounds bad.
Therefore I don’t use the same words over and over again because it sounds bad.
[quote] Anyways, I can honestly say that I've probably picked up a lot more knowledge through tl.net than I have done from school..[/quote]
I don’t know about Sweden, but the pre-university educational system here is terrible. On one hand this attests to the failure of the school system. On the other hand if you read as many words in print as you have on tl.net, what would you guess would be the difference?
[quote] My english is pretty much entirely a product of playing games/reading stuff online.. And it turned out pretty well I think.[/quote]
No doubt, although don’t people in Sweden begin elementary English training in grade 1?
Until grade 8 my English was pretty sub-par (I only began learning it in grade 2), but I’ve never, even in the period when I relied on imitation to learn English, used popular slang and euphemisms.
[quote] Doesn't this have more to do with the tone of the forum for which you are trying to express your views?[/quote]
It might. I generally adapt my replies to simulate the tone of the thread. It’s very difficult to do otherwise. Can you imagine this:
Poster: Boxer beat yellow bunk rush 3-0 ROFL
Reply: Had boxer the propriety of clean conscience, his characteristic vanity might have been arrested to the advantage of the spectators. As it goes, repetition merely signifies a paralysis of human creativity, the virtues of which his fans unduly adorn him
[quote] Doesn't this just mean that a) The author is not very good or b) you are quite fed up with the subject?
I know that I was becoming a bit bored with reading the threads here on tl, and I did indeed just scroll through stuff..
But then I went to some other board, completely unrelated to this one and yeah, none of those signs were there..[/quote]
I think that when one goes through a massive amount of material of low substance, it contributes to the decay of attention span. It’s a well known fact that people’s attention spans have decreased in the past several generations. I think the very stimuli of interest have shifted from a literary medium to a visual medium in the last one hundred years, thus the human appetite for literature gradually decreased. For example, the readership of novels have become almost extinct now.
[quote] Hm.. I think this is a load of crap? Maybe if you tried to read everything out there..
How is this any different from a library (aside from the fact that a library usually is pretty calm and there's no advertizing, but it's not like you can't get around that)?[/quote]
I have an easier time reading from paper than from a computer screen. I tried to read Schiller’s Heroic Age of the Netherlands a few weeks ago from the Gutenberg project site. I could not manage more than a few paragraphs (I probably instinctively typed [url=http://www.teamliquid.net]www.teamliquid.net[/url] or something with the intention to eventually go back to the book and never did) I have no idea why, but the sensation of reading a book is a hundred times more intense than reading from a computer screen. I have been emotionally affected by reading books (to the point of outright sentimentality), but I have never read anything from the computer which aroused emotions other than mocking condescension.
[quote] There's plenty of books reproduced in their entirety online.. And plenty of articles that are just as well written if you read them online as if you should read them in a magazine, newspaper or what have you, no?[/quote]
I do read a lot of newspapers online. Generally I think journalism is rubbish today and has been for some time. I do occasionally read e-journals (academic journals published on the web), but I could never maintain the interest as I could sitting in a library with the book.
[quote] My english is almost exclusively self learned.. Very little stems from school..
Again, doesn't this largely depend on who you are talking to? If you are addressing a bunch of kindergardeners day out and day in, and only speak to these kids you would probably experience the same thing you are experiencing now, right?[/quote]
While you may have learned English from experience, I am guessing you had some sort of formal training to back it up. It’s very difficult to grasp a language from experience alone (took me quite a few years living in an English speaking country)
You’re providing an unrealistic scenario. I hate kids and would never be caught in the midst of people with a mental maturity of less than say…12. My antipathy for stupidity recognizes no bounds, not even excusing age.
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[QUOTE]On February 22 2005 20:19 MoltkeWarding wrote:
[quote]I think he sometimes used 'alternate' words more for the effect than for efficiency but.. It wasn't really excessive and it wasn't exactly hard to read :-)
It’s a common dogma that you shouldn’t use the same words over and over again because its sounds bad.
Therefore I don’t use the same words over and over again because it sounds bad.
[quote] Anyways, I can honestly say that I've probably picked up a lot more knowledge through tl.net than I have done from school..[/quote]
I don’t know about Sweden, but the pre-university educational system here is terrible. On one hand this attests to the failure of the school system. On the other hand if you read as many words in print as you have on tl.net, what would you guess would be the difference?
[quote] My english is pretty much entirely a product of playing games/reading stuff online.. And it turned out pretty well I think.[/quote]
No doubt, although don’t people in Sweden begin elementary English training in grade 1?
Until grade 8 my English was pretty sub-par (I only began learning it in grade 2), but I’ve never, even in the period when I relied on imitation to learn English, used popular slang and euphemisms.
[quote] Doesn't this have more to do with the tone of the forum for which you are trying to express your views?[/quote]
It might. I generally adapt my replies to simulate the tone of the thread. It’s very difficult to do otherwise. Can you imagine this:
Poster: Boxer beat yellow bunk rush 3-0 ROFL
Reply: Had boxer the propriety of clean conscience, his characteristic vanity might have been arrested to the advantage of the spectators. As it goes, repetition merely signifies a paralysis of human creativity, the virtues of which his fans unduly adorn him
[quote] Doesn't this just mean that a) The author is not very good or b) you are quite fed up with the subject?
I know that I was becoming a bit bored with reading the threads here on tl, and I did indeed just scroll through stuff..
But then I went to some other board, completely unrelated to this one and yeah, none of those signs were there..[/quote]
I think that when one goes through a massive amount of material of low substance, it contributes to the decay of attention span. It’s a well known fact that people’s attention spans have decreased in the past several generations. I think the very stimuli of interest have shifted from a literary medium to a visual medium in the last one hundred years, thus the human appetite for literature gradually decreased. For example, the readership of novels have become almost extinct now.
[quote] Hm.. I think this is a load of crap? Maybe if you tried to read everything out there..
How is this any different from a library (aside from the fact that a library usually is pretty calm and there's no advertizing, but it's not like you can't get around that)?[/quote]
I have an easier time reading from paper than from a computer screen. I tried to read Schiller’s Heroic Age of the Netherlands a few weeks ago from the Gutenberg project site. I could not manage more than a few paragraphs (I probably instinctively typed [url=http://www.teamliquid.net]www.teamliquid.net[/url] or something with the intention to eventually go back to the book and never did) I have no idea why, but the sensation of reading a book is a hundred times more intense than reading from a computer screen. I have been emotionally affected by reading books (to the point of outright sentimentality), but I have never read anything from the computer which aroused emotions other than mocking condescension.
[quote] There's plenty of books reproduced in their entirety online.. And plenty of articles that are just as well written if you read them online as if you should read them in a magazine, newspaper or what have you, no?[/quote]
I do read a lot of newspapers online. Generally I think journalism is rubbish today and has been for some time. I do occasionally read e-journals (academic journals published on the web), but I could never maintain the interest as I could sitting in a library with the book.
[quote] My english is almost exclusively self learned.. Very little stems from school..
Again, doesn't this largely depend on who you are talking to? If you are addressing a bunch of kindergardeners day out and day in, and only speak to these kids you would probably experience the same thing you are experiencing now, right?[/quote]
While you may have learned English from experience, I am guessing you had some sort of formal training to back it up. It’s very difficult to grasp a language from experience alone (took me quite a few years living in an English speaking country)
You’re providing an unrealistic scenario. I hate kids and would never be caught in the midst of people with a mental maturity of less than say…12. My antipathy for stupidity recognizes no bounds, not even excusing age.
[/QUOTE]
After reading your original post I have to say that you suck. In general.
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On February 22 2005 20:21 EAGER-beaver wrote:
After reading your original post I have to say that you suck. In general.
And with far less research and effort on my part, I have to say that you suck more than me.
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On February 22 2005 20:27 MoltkeWarding wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 20:21 EAGER-beaver wrote:
After reading your original post I have to say that you suck. In general. And with far less research and effort on my part, I have to say that you suck more than me.
Talk about being an unoriginal hack. You shamelessly copied my marvel of literature.
 ?
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On February 22 2005 20:45 EAGER-beaver wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 20:27 MoltkeWarding wrote:On February 22 2005 20:21 EAGER-beaver wrote:
After reading your original post I have to say that you suck. In general. And with far less research and effort on my part, I have to say that you suck more than me. Talk about being an unoriginal hack. You shamelessly copied my marvel of literature. ?
Are you a hairy beaver, or a bald beaver?
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On February 22 2005 20:27 MoltkeWarding wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2005 20:21 EAGER-beaver wrote:
After reading your original post I have to say that you suck. In general. And with far less research and effort on my part, I have to say that you suck more than me.
I don't like you.
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MURICA15980 Posts
This isn't going anywhere now.
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EPT
