Who Is A Bore?

Tom says that bores are the number one menace to online communities:

Online Communities: Fight The Real Enemy

I put some of my own thought in the comments. To elaborate here, I'd say, beyond the obvious point that dullness lies in the eye of the beholder, it also depends on context. If we're having a discussion of, say, whether birds evolved from dinosaurs, or whether the "hobbits" whose bones were discovered in Indonesia are a separate human species rather than being dwarf homo sapiens, then, if a creationist or believer in intelligent design joined the discussion to argue for creationism or intelligent design, that person would be boring in that context - because he has nothing to add to the discussion. For that matter, someone who used the conversation as a pretext to attack creationism or the idea of intelligent design would be just as boring, as would someone who engaged either of those two in debate.

But that doesn't mean that creationism or intelligent design are in themselves boring. Why people hold those views and what they're trying to do with those views is something I'd like to understand - they're not truly interested in birds and dinosaurs or the evolution of hominids, but that doesn't mean that nothing is going on that's worth paying attention to. And I'm more likely to understand people if they're talking to me than if they're not.

Hypothetically, a thread that contained discussion of both dinosaur-bird or "hobbit" evolution, on the one hand, and creationism/intelligent design on the other could be interesting on both counts, but I wouldn't expect this to happen in practice. The creationism convo either would be marginalized or would wipe out the other. But also, my guess is that the vast majority of people would, in practice, get more excited by the creationism/intelligent design fight than by the actual discussion of evolution. And even some of the people interested in the latter would be happy to be distracted by the fight if the discussion of evolution hit a dry spot or required concerted thought.

Another Year In America May 21, 2009

Buncha tracks new to the Top 40 but they seem already old, and done.

( Katy Perry )

( Eminem )

( Lady GaGa )

( Jordin Sparks )

( Jonas Brothers )

( Pink )

Buffy Season One Episode Five

Saw this three days ago. What I remember most is that Sarah Michelle Gellar came through as an actress. She was required to be all flustered when the handsome brooding boy asked her out for a date, and she was required to ache convincingly when demon fighting interfered with her love life. In fact, I thought the conflict was written rather clumsily - Nikita did this much more pointedly - but I was feeling it as I was watching it.

Still don't think the show has done enough in creating either its world or its relationships. So far it relies on conventions regarding high schools rather than bringing the high school to life, and this is why it bothers me that police don't show up to investigate murders and students don't show up to screw around in or take books out of a library, except when suddenly the plot demands it. If you don't create your world then conventions are what you've got. Hewing to conventions for cheerleaders and dating but inexplicably ignoring them for libraries and murder investigations makes the latter stick out. If you do the work of creating your world, you can create your own conventions. Like in WKRP In Cincinnati it made perfect sense that receptionist was the highest paid position at the station. Anyway, we'll see how this develops, and you guys have promised me that explanations will appear, eventually.

(Double-checking the spelling of "Gellar," I typed "Sarah" into the Google box, and the sixth suggestion down was "Sarah Michelle Gellar." "Sarah Palin" was first and "Sarah Connor Chronicles" second, whatever "Sarah Connor Chronicles" is. (Well, a quick Wiki and now I know...))