Godwin's Law and why the "The C is dead, long live the C" thread should probably die now.

[MGGodwin at dstsystems.com]

Interesting read.
(Embedded image moved to file: pic02873.pcx)


Dustin Decker
<dustind at moon-lite.com        To:     Kclug <kclug at kclug.org>
>                             cc:
Sent by:                      Subject:     Godwin's Law and why the "The C is dead, long
owner-kclug at marauder.i        live the C" thread should probably die now.
lliana.net


02/11/02 12:17 PM



On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Prof. Jerry Place wrote:

> All:
>
>    Actually the question about a national dictatorial policy about
> computing does have some historical relevance.
>
>    Stalin did not understand computing very well and did not trust
> electronic devices.  Thus, he made the unilateral decision not to
> develop electronic computation devices after their introduction during
> WW II.
>
>    While Russia produced world-class mathematicians and scientists they
> lagged in national development because of their poor computational
> infrastructure.

I was actually doing my best to steer this thread closer to /dev/null by
invoking Godwin's Law.  If you're not familiar with it cruise on over
to: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/

Here's a short clip to get us started:
The Law is generally used on Usenet as an indicator of whether a
thread has gone on too long, who's playing fair and who's just slinging
mud, and who finally gets to "win" the discussion.  It has, over time,
become the closest thing to an impartial moderator that Usenet can get.

So, what this means in practical terms:

o If someone brings up Nazis in general conversation when it
wasn't necessary or germane without it necessarily being an
insult, it's probably about time for the thread to end.
o If someone brings up Nazis in general conversation when it
was vaguely related but is basically being used as an insult,
the speaker can be considered to be flaming and not debating.
o If someone brings up Nazis in any conversation that has been
going on too long for one of the parties, it can be used as
a fair excuse to end the thread and declare victory for the
other side.

Cheers,
Dustin

--
I have never seen anything fill up a vacuum so fast and still suck.
-- Rob Pike, on X.

Steve Jobs said two years ago that X is brain-damaged and it will be gone
in two years. He was half right.
-- Dennis Ritchie

Dennis Ritchie is twice as bright as Steve Jobs, and only half wrong.
-- Jim Gettys