The chat room/forum problem (& an apology to @Technosailor)

http://scobleizer.com/2009/11/02/the-chat-roomforum-problem-an-apology-to-tec...

From November 2, 2009 By Robert Scoble

I’ve been doing online communities for more than 20 years, starting in 1985 when a friend had a BBS. One thing I’ve noticed over and over again is that chat rooms and forums start out fun and then devolve over time for various reasons. But in 2000 I discovered that blogs had the opposite effect. They got more interesting over time.

The Intelligent Person's Guide To Latin

http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/LatinGrammar.html

The “Intelligent Person’s Guide to Latin” 2nd ed. is currently available in 2008. It has been written specifically for adults who had studied Latin in their high school days and are now later in life interested in coming back to Latin. It is NOT a daily lesson-book for captive students in a classroom, but a carefully written and very accessible treatise which outlines an approach to Latin which aims at a Reading Knowledge, while redefining the grammar lucidly with myriad examples as support on every point. Let me describe the book first, and then go on with some thoughts about Latin and about language study in general.

Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / SF reading protocols

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/01/sf-reading-protocols

Jo Walton Monday January 18, 2010 12:38pm EST

Genres are usually defined by their tropes—mysteries have murders and clues, romances have two people finding each other, etc. Science fiction doesn’t work well when you define it like that, because it’s not about robots and rocketships. Samuel Delany suggested that rather than try to define science fiction it’s more interesting to describe it,

The Protocols of Science Fiction

http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/protocol.htm

A conversation on a 1996 Internet newsgroup questioned the existence of science-fiction reading protocols. Up to that point I hadn’t thought they needed explanation, since they seemed self-evident when Samuel R. Delany introduced them at a Modern Language Association meeting two decades ago. His remarks, along with others amplifying his insights, have since been reprinted in various journals, including his 1984 collection Starboard Wine. They seemed so illuminating to the processes that I had found myself going through and through which I had guided my students that I adopted them myself, perhaps in ways that Delany might not approve, including an exercise in my SF class in which I lead the students through a line-by-line reading of Philip Jose Farmer’s “Sail On! Sail On!”

The WELL - YOYOW - You Own Your Own Words

http://www.well.com/yoyow.html

The original intent of YOYOW was to serve as a disclaimer, reminding you that you were taking responsibility for your actions in the discussions. The phrase was later extended to clarify for members that no claims on your copyrights were being made by The WELL, and that you would be responsible for enforcing those rights:

You own your own words. This means that you are responsible for the words that you post on the WELL and that reproduction of those words without your permission in any medium outside of the WELL’s conferencing system may be challenged by you, the author.

Since the WELL does not offer anonymous accounts, the YOYOW premise could work. It reminded you that your words determine your reputation. YOYOW didn’t eliminate personality clashes or conflicts, of course, but this shared value of owning up to your actions tended to lead to a desirable level of authentic discourse — improving the signal-to-noise ratio, if you will.

Making Light: Porn turns you gay: the implications

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011685.html

In an infamous moment at the Values Voter Summit over the weekend, captured on video by Dave Weigel, Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) chief of staff Michael Schwartz made the case against pornography. “All pornography is homosexual pornography,” said Schwartz, quoting an ex-gay friend of his, Ex-gay ‘winger. Check. “because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.”