… and use chats, and discussion forums, etc.
I do ask myself this question a lot, lately. Maybe it is because I just miss the good old times. When I, as all the others that went online, where geeks. Oh, yeah, geeks, oh my god!
But on the other hand, you could have really fruitful discussions. In my early Internet days I used to get online and talk to people who had ideas, with whom I could talk about interesting stuff. Today you’ll only meet dull guys. Stupid fanatic freaks, losers in life that try to play the big cool guy in their virtual life, etc. All those guys, with whom it made sense discussing left (okey, there are some few communities that still are different – but they are rare).
Just today I made this experience again. Maybe I was a little to euphoric, I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t – but I tried to stay subjective on the matter – anyway, that’s not the point. The point actually is, that I was, while learning, in an IRC channel for some change every now and then – relaxation, some nice small talk, while staying awake lately and learning for my examinations.
What I ended up with, was insults, and some rubbish talk that went on for more than 3/4 of an hour after I was telling that for me, it’s enough now, and that I’m not interested in that discussion.
Still for 3/4 of an hour he went on talking about how fucking awesome Microsoft is. After a while I asked him, whether he’d work at Microsoft or get paid by them. Some more insults followed, so I just left.
Another channel I’ll leave, another reason for me to just let go of all this internet shit, and try to find those people that are interesting elsewhere.
Internet communities are more and more becoming a waste of time, where you’ll, if you are interested, will put more effort into than you may ever get out.
the irc is still my preferred form of communication, after more than ten years. i used to sit in about 20 irc channels throughout several networks, but nowadays i cut it to about 5. It all boils down to what and who you want to spend your time with and how you get along with it.
But you can gain a lot of knowledge and experience in mature channels. Leaving the lame channels or use /ignore freely is the right move.
Time is precious and you can waste a lot of it on irc