This is the sort of post that represents a large portion of everything that is wrong with this forum and to a larger degree western/anglo forums. The usual tit for tat, my ego is greater than your ego, youre stupid and I'm smart. Notice the use of the word "You" in a almost accusatory role, this then creates tension and opens the door for further retorts etc. I'm sick of seeing posts that escalate from nothing to pages upon pages of arguing over the origins of M5 hex screws or some inane banal drivel. Try visiting a Chinese or nearly any other Asian technical forum and translate their conversations and you will be very surprised, its a lot different from Anglo forums where individual ego almost certainly outweigh collective common.
On another note, I dont have a problem with BFL advertising on this forum, the problem I have is that some people are clicking the links and actually ordering. BFL wouldnt be advertising if they didnt already know that they would get orders through that method.
What you just wrote is just a truism in cultural studies: language mirrors the society in which it is used. In egalitarian societes direct communication prevails. In hierarchical societies the polite communication is the norm. You should really broaden your knowledge of non-western/non-anglo forums by looking at what's going on in the Russian/cyrillic forums or maybe some latin-alphabet/Central-Eastern European language forums like Romanian (and their representative for the English-speaking word: MPOE-PR). Or even better: jump into Hebrew/Israeli forums. Only then you can understand that the English way is actually the middle-of-the-road.
Fascinating! Thank you both for your cultural insights and contributions to what's turned into a deep and meaningful discussion.
As an amateur historian that is a product of East and West, and someone that lives at a junction of East and West: Hawaii, AKA Fortress Central Pacific (unofficial PACOM motto: "Ain't gonna be 'nother Pearl Harbor sneak attack on our watch") in a time where it has increasing geopolitical and strategic importance in any potential illogical showdown between China & the US in this century, I welcome insights such as this as I know and welcome the fact that I *don't* know everything and cannot possibly be an expert in *everything*.
Human knowledge is just too broad and too deep for any one of us to be an expert in more then a handful of things. If you're semi-enlightened or even semi-aware of others, you value everyone's insights and welcome everyone's meaningful contributions.
I minored in linguistics in college as language & how it's used has always fascinated me; I hate to be simplistic but it truly can be used for Good or Evil (yet another concept that may simply be a human construct). As I don't speak any of those languages I truly appreciate your insight as seen through the rose tinted glasses of the host languages you mention. I speak Spanish (poorly) and also what linguists call HCE or Hawaii Creole English AKA Pidgin English; what would be considered it's own language or sub-language. An example you've probably heard stereotyped in shows like Hawaii 5-0: "
Howzit, brah!" I slip into it and out of it easily and simply depending on who I'm talking to in the state of Hawaii. Another fun example: "
You goin' stay or you stay goin'?"
HCE or Pidgin English came about because it was the Lingua franca of many different groups of migrants from around the world who came to Hawaii to seek their fortunes and send money home to the motherland. At this point in the 21st century, English is the Lingua fraca of the Western World and will remain so unless the current Chinese PM has his way (which could not be out of the realm of possibility, in a parallel universe; because I love a good alt. history story).
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I, for one, appreciate the free speech and wide latitude here. At least around here, no one cares much for the heavy hand of censorship. I feel that the venting and ribbing we see around here serve as a community service by simply *allowing* people to vent and joke about things, because to gripe and make fun of things is about as intrinsic to human nature as breathing.
And let's be honest: some people have invested and lost tens of thousands of dollars (or more!). Ergo, they should be pissed off! My grandfather fought Nazis and Italians in WW2 as part of the 442nd Regiment of Japanese-American volunteers so that they *could* have the right to be pissed! Gramps carried around a .30 cal Browning automatic that was ripped out of a damaged airplane in Italy and later brought it with him to Southern France. Here's a little more about Grandpa:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ka8kp/iama_99_year_old_woman_who_helped_her_mother_make/cbn16qbI truly don't think the young 'uns realize just how close run of a thing World War 2 really was; if we don't get really lucky at the Battles of:
Britain (thankfully British engineers had the foresight to install Radar combined with the fact that Hitler was a terrible Strategist),
Pearl Harbor (no carriers in harbor at attack; fuel bunkers otherwise untouched as well), and
Midway (outnumbered but caught Japanese carriers with pants down (ordnance lying all over the deck) with JPN navy at it's peak strength and USN still at its ebb; Honolulu would have followed), the Free World may have had to have made peace with evil German or Japanese dictatorships in control of large swathes of the world and its populace. 50-60 MILLION people had to die around the world to defend freedom and we, their descendents in
all countries, pay them a huge disrespect if we forget this. Although people in the Western World may see Chinese and Russians as potential enemies, I recognize and respect the huge losses Russia and China sustained in WW2. There's simply no way World War 2 is won without the manpower and contributions of both countries.
I'm delighted to be in a spacetime with such amazing opportunities - and pitfalls to be sure - that are afforded us for those that have the wherewithal and resources to invest in ventures such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, and related hardware and businesses. I feel very, very fortunate to be along for the ride wherever this BTC protocol is going.
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BTW, to bring it back On Topic, I'm running an interesting experiment with my small miner's co-op of 15 members where we all vote on major things; so far, so good! They voted to move our Baby Jet from a pro colo site in Missouri to a really, really good amateur colo site of a member in NY! I didn't even have to vote in either major vote we did and I tried to lay out the pros/cons of various hosting options as pragmatically as possible.
There's no way the paragraph above is even possible just five years ago because Bitcoin itself was still in Satoshi's brain whether that was one brain or several people's brains...and irony alert, as a product of an egalitarian society who's interested in linguistics, I'm completely aware of all the use of "I" and "You" throughout this post.
Cheers mates!
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