Welcome to the Internet. There are already a whole bunch of lists of what to do and what not to do when you’re on the Internet, but here are a few that I think are really crucial:
1) Google is the most important website. I find myself using Google constantly when talking to people, not only when I need more information about something, but when other people need information about something and are too fucking lazy to go to Google, and end up asking me where something is instead. God damn.
2) Need a quick run-down on what something is? DON’T ASK ME! Use Wikipedia. It is your online encyclopedia. It’s probably where you should be contributing a big chunk of your own knowledge, assuming you have any.
3) This one is obvious: be literate. Actually, this is optional if you intend to be nothing more than a lurker, but if you ever, EVER plan to talk to ANYONE who would call themselves an Internet citizen, PLEASE act as if you’re writing to someone else, instead of typing shit reminiscent of shorthand courtroom notes. Capitalization is not important. Perfect spelling isn’t required. But people will always judge you based on your appearance, even if your appearance is nothing more than a few shitty acronyms and smilies.
4) E/N. Important phrase to learn. It stands for “everything/nothing.” That means, something might mean everything to you, but it probably means nothing to everyone else. There are plenty people on the Internet, at least a few dozen, and I’d be surprised if a great number of them would want to hear what you’re doing. That’s why forums, and even INSTANT MESSAGING are NOT appropriate places to share the details of your day. You don’t speak about yourself unless spoken to. This is what a LiveJournal is – a personal area to put out whatever opinions you might have. I’m sorry if it feels confined and conformist, but it’s for your own protection.
That’s about it! Welcome aboard. Anyone else have some crucial rules I might have forgotten? It’s hard to list things like these because to ME, they’re common sense.
Truely a work of beauty. Mind if I steal?
And I couldn’t agree more with #1. It’s so incredibly easy to find stuff in about, oh, 4 seconds (with a good connection). Why am I always peoples first source?
Steal away!
and that would be why google is my hp.
Well by now it should be integrated into all browsers. I feel sorry for IE users, but I’m not going to push Mozilla’s programs on anyone.
i do! i made my family convert to firefox and mom loves me 10x more now. or something like that.
amen
I listen to Jeffrey, so I’m a better person.
He tells me how to live my life, and because I follow everything he says, I’m a better person!
I’m such a better person!
If there are any illiteracies in this reply, I will be forced to take my own life!
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!
“Capitalization is not important. Perfect spelling isn’t required. But people will always judge you based on your appearance, even if your appearance is nothing more than a few shitty acronyms and smilies.”
Do you see any cold, hard facts in that statement?
Yes, but I don’t agree with them, less let other people tell me how to live my life.
If people judge me by my apearence, fuck them.
I would rather be friends with somebody who bases their opinions on personality, not appearence.
I find dictionary.com and urbandictionary.com useful too when you just want a definition. Not so much the latter… but it can be semi useful for slang.
IMDB and GameFaqs can be useful GO HERE INSTEAD OF ASKING ME sites too.
Didn’t you just learn “e/n” like a month ago. From urbandictionary nonetheless.
More like SUBURBANdictionary.com
Sure, I learned terminology, but I learned the idea quite a number of years ago.
I invented the idea!
probably
I agree.
you’re right.
no one asks me about my day….
I guess I must be an internet reject…
Cool kids in real life are the outcasts here I suppose..
Thats okay i can handle it..
No one asks me about my day, either. Instead, they read my LJ and I tell people what I want to say about my day.
see the problem in that for me is… well people READ your livejournal…
ditto. =\
we can sit at the loser table together..
Everyone reads my blog because I barely ever blog about myself. I usually have entertaining links and other stuff I found on the net, or, once in a while, made myself.
I’ve traded my own personal style for popularity, paragraph fragments, and notice through the promotion of others’ work. Still sound good?
that’s hott. tell me more about this…selling out.
also, this isn’t true. people are attracted to your awesome personality as it leaks through your posts. seriously.
so appropriate it scares me. 0_o
*shrugs* its not like anyone told you to do that, you decided to do it of your own free will, even if I did do this I wouldn’t get very many posts.
I don’t know about that. It is true that I know a whole bunch of people on the internet, but… I barely ever get any replies when it comes to personal stuff. No one really has anything to add when it comes to my daily life. And it makes sense – I mean, it’s my life, I know how to live it.
Of course the exception is when people make really really sad posts – people are good at “comforting” and adding “sympathetic” notes like “feel better *hugs* <3". Ugh.
Sad as it sounds, some of it is genuinely comforting.
it’s better than a cold, unfeeling lack of response.
I tend not to reply to posts that I think are impersonal and composed primarily of links, but Lately I felt really like “Lets show all my LJ friends I care for them more then they care about me” binge..
It might be working..
okay, but can we like…read while we eat?
oh yea we don’t need to interact at all.. but i would prefer to write…