The Question and Answer Board

[Was (Bob)]

Ummmm.... I've been observing on the sidelines here and this is a slinky that keeps getting helped onto the next step every time it stops.

The more rules you have the more rules that can be thrown back at the administration.

And the fewer and less explicit the rules are, the more people will intentionally abuse the spirit of the rules.

It's kinda like... Oh, I dunno. Maybe like starting a thread for the purpose of something like (snatching a topic out of the air) questions and answers about the site or some such thing. With few explicit rules. The "spirit" of which is basically to keep the thread useful for others. But the rules aren't explicit enough, so you add a rule and maybe even give another avenue so people won't keep violating the spirit of the thread.

But, then they're onto something else and forgetting about the spirit of the thread (which is analogous to "the rules"), so you add yet another rule, then they comply with the letter of that one but not the spirit again, so you add another one, etc, etc.

Some people tend never to get the spirit of any rules or simply refuse to comply. Only the letter is meaningful to them. Rationalization of how their conduct is within the letter of the law is typical.

And since they'll only comply with the letter, you end up with more rules so they can't throw "But you don't have a rule against that" in your face.

Kinda like how some of us keep having to create new threads because people won't let a thread that should be benefitting new users live up to the spirit in which it was intended.

Not anybody I can think of. Just some people are like that.

<g>

Bob

PS. I'm a busy guy, so if someone wants to convey a thought to me, it's generally a good idea to just do it, rather than expect me to go through a tedious exercise of attempting to decipher what they're saying. When faced with that challenge, I usually don't even bother.

PPS. I'm not, however, above toying with others for my own amusement, so I think the next time I'm at a softball game and a foul ball heads for the bleachers, rather than yelling the boring and cliche "Heads up!", I'm going with something more like "When in the coarse of hunam ivents a lobbed hoarse hyde wrapped orb becomes a stray missive it would be commended that all does in its path kindlingly pervert their intention skyword in an intent to undermine the path of sad orb and as quitly as possible improve themselfs from its path less day be bobmotized buy said fast moving orb."