I know for a fact, that people will very often write differently than they speak in person. Things get misinterpretted, or are taken out of context.

It's real easy to **** someone off on a message board...

How was something said, vice how was it meant, eh? And how many think about the real person on the other keyboard and monitor that see the posts they write...

Ever leave notes on a refrigerator, and catch hell over how they were written? I have. I note that KPAYNE said I was much less feisty in person than I seemed online (after action notes RE: 2005 Rally). I have some experience in that, but I suppose people in business have far more than I do.

So - how to write online in a way that is non-provoking? It's hard to say.

Picture yourself as a deaf mute, with only written words to convey all of your thoughts -

Can you convey the ideation of being avuncular, with only type keys before you? How to seem non-threatening to those who find it hard to speak in your language? They who neither read nor write well?

You cannot pat someone on the back, touch, or shake hands on the internet. The senses are limited, what we rely on the most to convey who we are is absent online for the most part. It is a place of the mind, but limited to what we see. Small wonder that meeting people in real life turns our online contacts into someone else completely!

I voyage here a lot, and wonder about who I meet online. There is no way to really know who we are talking to on the net. At the best, we look for places where we find true and honest accounts of things and experiences we recognise as familiar online, and from that we judge who is at the other end.

Anything that seems too good to be true most likely is, in our estimation.

These are the lessons of the internet, in this - it's early incarnation.

I know several people that I have met at first hand, and I hear from them occasionally. I know who they are, I have touched them. I've seen them with my own eyes.

I will say this - it is more likely for people to be who you think they are from what they have written at FTE, than many places on the world wide web.

Just some sorry SOB with a truck

But those are usually the best people of all....

 

How'd you know I have a truck?

 

(He says, with a wide grin)

"You're here, aintcha?"

 

mine's a van. is that ok?

p.s. look at my avatar. does that look like someone who is serious?

 

What the hell is that, anyway? I was meaning to ask...

 

ostrich....forget where I got it(the pic, I mean)

 

Looks like my X wife.

 

I thought it was a possum puppet, but now that I look a it... Yeah, it does look like Greg's ex-wife...
















Sorry Greg, I couldn't help myself

 

You guys either have better monitors than I do, or better eye-sight. I see a panda bear with a bad hair cut (which might resemble Greg's X, I really don't know). No ostrich that I can make out.

 

[QUOTE=Greywolf](He says, with a wide grin)/QUOTE]

Good points, When i speak in person usually you can see my smirk, and people understand I'm only BS-ing ya.
I guess we need more brackets with our thoughts or more symbols to express our body language when writting?

 

Yup. That's me!

 

This reminds me of a crusty old guy who used to write for a local newspaper.
his weekly column was full of dry humour and wit. He made his weekly trip to town on his tractor sound like an adventure. He was sort of a local folk hero until his death ten years ago or so.
To meet the guy in person, he was a very quiet life long bachelor who drank too much and had really bad personal hygene.
.

 

Excellent points all the way around.

I try to read through my posts before sending em' just to see if I've put something in that may be miss understood.

Smiliey, <LOL>, and other annotations help to express more clearly but, eyeball to eyeball is the best way to communicate. I do think that the moderators here are doin' a good job.

I promise that I won't say nothin' here that I wouldn't say to your face.
Respectfully,
Automatic

 

It's strange when you actually talk to someone on the phone from FTE. Someone you have typed back and forth with many times. I have talked to polarbear on the phone before, and it's funny how alike we all are. A site like this draws in a small segment of society, but one that's really like-minded it seems. The first time we spoke on the phone (car trading stuff) it was like a friend I had spoken to many times before. I get the feeling that if I ever make it to a national get-together it will be the same way. Almost like you have met most people before.

 

Most of the time, I must agree, face to face with someone is best. However. I know this one fella, who shall remain nameless, and when I hold a conversation with him it is absoltely maddening because instead of listening to what you are saying the guy is studying your face to see what you are really trying to say. WHEN WHAT I'm TRYING TO SAY IS WHAT I'M SAYING!!!




(but it seems to just be that one fella with me. I try not to speak to him too much if I can help it.)