Friday, January 4, 2008

Watching Train Wrecks 'Till 1 AM

Catching up on my blog reading, lurking on some tarot forums and otherwise drifting across the Internet last night, I found myself once again at AbsoluteWrite.

An interesting thread discusses where people can be taught how to write or if it is, essentially, an innate talent that can be honed. A similar thread had popped up earlier on the forum, and some kind poster decided to provide the link.

That's where the night began to unravel. The thread spanned 17 pages, deteriorating from intelligent to nasty and back again. At some point, the mod closed the thread. Re-reading those posts is an hour of my life I will never get back. But what can I say? I like watching train wrecks? (How's that for two cliches in one paragraph?)

More so than watching the deteriorating, I am fascinated by going back through posts to find the exact point where a good thread goes bad.(queue cheesy daytime TV music). I'll spare you the gory details of this case in point. They are irrelevant.

As "punishment" for my Internet indulgence last night, today I am sticking firmly to my to-do list.

Yes, I'll check the forums. I have to, at least once, I have a story up there for crit.

But after that, I will get to work, blogging, writing, researching. And not fake research that has me all over the the 'net following interesting yet somewhat irrelevant links! I will do real work.

In fact, I recall that it was here on these pages, months ago, where I instituted an Internet-free Friday policy for myself.

Sounds like a great day to re-implement that operating procedure. I'm giving myself 20 minutes to check all relevant forums, and then it's straight to work!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

It's so (SOOOOO!!) easy to get sucked into Internet drama. That's actually what inspired my post about perceptions. With all the drama and nastiness going on . . . don't these people realize that prospective employers read these posts, too? It's like they believe they're on their own private playground and can act as immature as they wish. *sighs* I like your Friday plan, by the way.

Janna Leadbetter said...

We've had a lot of "train wrecks" over at AW lately, eh? I'm fascinated by the ones that lead to banment.

Take care, and good luck with your work tonight! :)

Anonymous said...

Hello Dawn. Now I just have to figure out which thread you're talking about!

BTW, I am signing in anon because I'm just tired of trying to sign in to Blogger with WordPress. I've been beaten.

-moonslice
www.chocmoon.wordpress.com

Dawn said...

Jenn,

You are 100 percent correct about Internet perceptions, etc. I saw an article on Yahoo today semi-related-- about online social networking profiles...how do you make one profile to work for your boss, your mom, your buddies? If I can find it again, I'll post the link. :)

Janna, I think it was really just one, but I wound up following links to links and... you know. LOL For such a normal cavity-inducingly sweet and intelligent bunch, there are certainly a few hotbed topics that are sure to start flamewars.

Moonslice... there were two, both related to writing talent: is it genetic or learned. ie, Can you teach someone to write? Is there such a thing as talent? Etc. etc.

stacey said...

There's a lot of backstory going on with that thread, the OP was an infamous troll. We (the mods) figured it out pretty quickly but had to be sure it was him before bannination. This is his third time at AW, why are we so fascinating? :P

EG said...

I guess I missed all the excitement! Oh, well, I've got enough drama in my own life without looking for more, LOL. Thanks, Dawn, for the Weird-Its plug in your sidebar! I saw it after I posted about you Sat.night, so GMTA! I can't help it, whenever I see anything related to paintball, I think of you. Just one of those things hardwired in my head now. :)

plaidearthworm (even though it says Elizabeth--just realized I'm signed in on my business email, and I don't want to type everything again!)

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