I am pretty sure that in the dark ages of internet time people were more patient, but now less so....just the way it is.
Nope. Been on the internet since before HTML existed. Was on bbs's before that (the local preinternet internet)
There have always been trolls and assholes. As soon as people were able to post online, anonymously and emotionally removed. People started spewing their shit at other people. Empowering possibly.. but most of the time the people who spew the hardest online, tend to be the ones who sit quietly in a corner when they get in a big room with the same number of people.
Try to find logs of people attempting to learn unix.. as an example. The "elite" of the unix days were cocknobblers. Serious internet heroes with god complexes. A world of socially inept suddenly protected by the screen.. "RTFM dumbass..." The threads even started the same way
"so i have done a lot of reading, trying to achieve xxxx. my research doesn't quite apply to what I need.. so how do I do this"
"well mr xyz RTFM, shut up and do your homework"
"But I did, I looked through the manual (written by someone whose grasp of the english language was at a grade 1 level.. technical manuals suck)
"well then here are the man (seriously in unix, they are called manpages, no sarcasm here) pages you want, now that I have done all your work for you ..."
"that still doesn't tell me how to make it all work"
"rtfm..."
Seem like a familiar thread?.. that format has been around since the dark ages of IRC and usenet.. haha
It continues today, in every forum and every group I have been part of. Its the sad reality of online group communication. Unfortunately now there are more jackasses then good posters in general. Which is why forum usage and blogging is going downhill on usage vs the immediate gratification of facebook and twitter. I can choose who I want to listen to, ignore who I don't. And my life is rose coloured and happy.
The only forums who don't have this problem are ones with very strict anti troll or anti bullying type rules. They also tend to be like left wing media. Very skewed in one direction with no diversity of opinion.
The good and evil of the internet, depending on which side you sit on anyways.
