The Jake Baker case (see Agora item 112) has brought an interesting
idea to my mind, the idea of rights v.s. manners in cyberspace.  While I
believe that Jake Baker had the right to say what he said because it was
essentialy fiction (despite using the womans real name), it was clearly
in *very bad* taste, i.e. bad manners.
        My question is whether the vast majority of people could reach some
kind of consensus on what would be considered good manners in cyberspace?
Afterall there were rules od conduct even the old west, like, "don't piss
in the well."  Hiopefully this would go beyond netequitte which generaly
says vague vcacuous things like "don't start flame wars", "never use a sig
over 4 lines", etc.
        Perhaps this just wish mongering considering the cultural diversity
of the net, but I think it's worth thinking about.  What do y'all think?

16 responses total.

i think that i am often accused of being unmannerly in cyberspace
because i am direct and blunt.

i find the whole question of manners difficult, because it suggests
that a standard is about to be imposed.

being a fourth generation latin american anarchist, structure
bothers me.

"Ole"

Anarchy is great and is why we have bozo filters,

Oh, this is a subvervise medium, and people lose their
inhibitions and say the darndest things.

 I WAS BORN FREE !!!

your freedom ends when my freedom starts, your right ends when my right
starts...

Hmmm, I must say the level of rhetoric in this conference has taken a 
sharp turn upward.

Must be a lot of people who watched the movie Hackers or something. :-P

lol

This post didn't follow the topic very well did it?

nope
but it would be to hard to impose such a thing; the internet is held together
by rude assholes that hate following rules, and etiquette. Sure, its _IDEAL_
but its not realistic.

the way i see it, if ure gonna hack, u have to go by certain ethics, these
are mainly created by ureself but they should be inspired by several guidlines
given to u on the net and if u aint got a sense of community you dont deserve
the title hacker.

Exactly.  I have typed up the Hacker Ethic in post #24 on item #76.  Go read
it.  It will do you all good.

one of internet rights: tcp/ip :) this is ungchangable, like many other
things... but if you want to live with somebody, its better to do it in peace
that Hacker Ethic is not bad, but many dont care, they just want to 'hack',
whatever it means for them

Yeah, but those people who don't care do not have the right to call themselves
Hackers (note the capital "H").  These are the people who are going to run
the Internet into the ground and then cry about it and say someone should have
done something about it.  The Internet is an entity that deserves respect,
and would be a better place if the ones who have the power to nuture and help
it would step up and take responsibility.

yes, some things they like to do are bad for whole internet, eg floods (i LOVE
lags) and other shits, and that is not Hacking. words to all: if you agree
with it, keep it. dont be asshole...

I believe that hacking in the mildest sense (ie learning, exploring, digging
through code to find whatever it is you are looking for, etc) is a very
healthy lifestyl, as it can often breed respect for other people's
intellectual achievements. With this in mind, if you hack through
documentation or raw code with a purpose other than to break it, manners come
naturally, as most things worth hacking are immensly deep subjects. Once you
master something, its difficult not to treat it with some form of tact.
However many times, cyberspace becomes not about exploration, but egos. And
egos do not do well together, leading to bad manners, destructiveness and
generally improper behavior. Not to say that cracking has no place in the
world, but if it is done without good reason(ego-driven --> Like DoSing some
poor fool's broadband connection) it has little redeemable value, proving only
that smart people != good people, not matter how capable. Crack a racist
south african site & its alot easier to ignore the total lack of manners used
in displaying one's beliefs. Manners are a like a UNIX console, a tool, well
mannered bastards exist, as do illmannered geniuses... All depends.

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