Cyberjerks *Are* Jerks

There's a certain type of person you encounter online all too often, a certain type of attitude that's entirely too common, a rudeness that's hard to imagine in the real world (except perhaps while driving).

An example of that is someone by the name of Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn. I don't know who he is, or what he's like in real life — I only came across his posting when Googling for something else. But the attitude is immediately clear: while he's helpful in the sense that he's responding to people's forum postings, his answers are invariably curt, offensive, rude, demeaning, and dismissive. It's not just a matter of flaming: people can get passionate about topics and combustion ois perhaps to be expected at times. But what could justify being so offensive to someone asking a question?

I'm not only picking on Thomas: he's simply the latest example I across, and since he's such a good example, I'll refer to him as if he represents the class of such people. Thomas, if you think you're so far above and beyond the people to whom you're responding, if you think they're so dumb they actually have to ask questions, if you can't be bothered to answer "Is there a way to do XXX?" with more than "There is.", then wouldn't it be better to just shut up and not answer at all?

Or do you think the online world makes it reasonable to behave in ways that you could never get away with in the real world? Of course the online world is different than the real one, so we don't expect to act online exactly as we would in the real world. And we can get away with a lot, partially because the expectations are different, and partially because there's no physical proximity or accountability in many cases. But it seems reasonable that, if you're going to post something online, you ask yourself: if I were in a room with the other person, would I be embarassed to have responded the way I did online?

Because, Thomas, I guarantee you that if you (and those like you) would communicate in the real world the way you do online, you wouldn't do so for very long: you simply would not have anyone to communicate with.