They have a natural tendency to degenerate into slanging matches dominated by people who enjoy that sort of thing; turning from sandbox into catbox, as it were.

I’ve noticed that this almost never happens in face-to-face communication, particularly among people who have to live in the same geographical area. The downside consequences and risks of being that rude to someone in person are too high.

There really should be some sort of Internet equivalent of the restraining factor of personal contact, tho’ for the life of me I can’t think of any practical alternative.

Mind you, there was a time when the rudeness quotient in, say, newspapers was almost as bad — the Jacksonian era comes to mind. But in those days, the aggrieved used to challenge the offending commentators to duels fairly often, or used less formal means of registering complaints.

Thanks

Kinda surprised I didn’t find these before.

Starting with Hammered.

Jenny’s getting breakfast (or so she promisded Simon)

Fun, fun, fun.