UKC

Swift,in Gulliver's Travels,has the King of Brobdingnag comment on the English to Gulliver:

'' I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious
vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the earth.'' I wonder if that holds true today?

I wonder what Swift would make of that curious hybrid,the mix of Puritan and football hooligan,that sometimes inhabit this website?

In reply to paul mitchell:

You should ask the current king and find out what his view is. Let us know when you are back from your travels.

In reply to Dr.S at work:

Have you seen tripadvisor reviews of the place? The wasps round there put the asian hornets to shame.

In reply to paul mitchell:
For a book nearly 300 years old its commentary remains extremely relevant and its barbs as sharp as they ever were. I particularly enjoyed the comments on the subject of members of parliament:

...How it came to pass, that people were so violently bent upon getting into this assembly, which I allowed to be a great trouble and expense, often to the ruin of their families, without any salary or pension? because this appeared such an exalted strain of virtue and public spirit, that his majesty seemed to doubt it might possibly not be always sincere.

And he desired to know, “Whether such zealous gentlemen could have any views of refunding themselves for the charges and trouble they were at by sacrificing the public good to the designs of a weak and vicious prince, in conjunction with a corrupted ministry?”

In reply to paul mitchell:

I think the people on here are great. Some of them sometimes annoy me, and sometimes I disagree with them, but as a place to get good debate, great advice and as a place to broaden your mind with a wide range of well-crafted arguments it's hard to beat. There are also a lot of really nice, caring people too who put a lot of effort into seeing people through hard times.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:
I think its more subtle than that. There are probably few bad people but plenty of bad behaviour: if sitting next to each other in a pub, it wouldnt happen, so why behave like it here? Advice here can be wonderful but it can sometimes be woeful (as an example yesterday someone asked where to buy a Northumberland guide locally, to tumbleweed and we get plenty of dumb rigid views on technical climbing stuff).

I'm sure part of what Mitch is getting at is the failure to engage in reasonable debate and a tendancy towards a mob view.... he is a very knowledgeable enthusiast with an impressive climbing record and interesting ideas; I always find real life conversations with him worthwhile even if we don't always see eye-to-eye on every issue.

I'd add that any thread with Swift in it is a highlight.

In reply to Offwidth:

It's the lack of intonation in the printed word - what I (intended to) write might not be what you read. I don't think that the general spread of quality of spread/conversation on here or any other similar forum is any worse than pub talk, you get good ones and you get bad ones. The Eiger thread from a couple of months ago was a cracker for example but against that you get the "I've been given an old WC Friend without cam stops, is it safe?" type threads.

Now are you big endian or little endian?

In reply to Bob:
Thats private information between me and my wife thank you very much.

On the main point I think bad behaviour is more than misinterpretation of inflection. Its also similar to road rage where people get carried away with emotions and forget they are actually in public. Its actually worse than being in the pub (unless someone is recording you) as people can revisit what stupid things we say in forums any time they like.