[moron4hire]

I wonder how likely that guy would have been to respond that way in a face-to-face meeting? I mean, I suspect he would have been somewhat likely, but on some order of magnitude less so than for internet communication.

Why do people treat internet based communication differently than other, older forms? I've never had a misunderstanding in person, over the phone, or over snail mail devolve into such a vile display of human worthlessness.

Does the mode change people or does the mode bring us into contact with more people who would be likely to respond in this manner? I know I have gotten into more arguments online than in person, but I also know that most of the people I know in person are fairly reasonable people. The relative anonymity of the internet tends to hide details that would lead me to avoid certain types of people long before such an argument appeared.

Maybe in 20 years, when everyone can no longer remember a time before the internet, we will have figured out "etiquette" properly. Ha, that reminds me, I haven't seen a "'netiquette" posting in so long; they used to be so popular 10 years ago. Do we just assume (wrongly) that every gets it?

[datawalke]

I think it really comes from the ease of the exit and the disconnect from anything human. Even when you come down to it on a snail-mail level there is still a human element to that communication. Whether it be the signature at the end, or hosting a physical object in your hand, I think something makes it more real.

When you are online everything fits into the same type of frame: Words in a font on a screen. It looks just the same just about everywhere. I think it may be that these people believe they are yelling more at a screen and some text than a real human being on the other side.

[chc]

I think it's more like talking about etiquette offline: We've realized it's pretty futile in most contexts and it just brands you as "lame."

[messel]

speaking of etiquette I totally lost my cool in a post yesterday after sync issues ate it (now notes on iphones auto syncs and can sometimes lose information and revert).

after the post (f u ios devs) I felt some regret. but it's one thing if I choose to waste my time (like on HN), it's entirely different when someone else does so.