| Back in the mysts of time, every September there would be an influx of new students who got Internet access, and the next few months would be a rough time as all these new users got used to the social norms online. It was a high trust society. Then Al Gore pushed through legislation making it possible to commercialize the Internet[0], and everything changed. It now became possible to do business, and to advertise on the Internet. This resulted in the "Eternal September"[1], that we've never recovered from. We became a low trust society. --- Additionally, there is some friction with posting comments and replies online. Thus it's only when you notice something that is emotionally strong, including obvious errors or mistakes, that gets you over the hump and posting. This creates a strong survivorship bias[2], which can eventually lead to thought bubbles and preference falsification[3]. It's generally small communities with common interests, or users who have met in person, that can resist this trend. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_and_information_techno... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preference_falsification |