I've been resisting the temptation to write something like this for a while. My rants on this topic, stupidity, generally end up condescending and arrogant just like when most other people rant about stupidity. I don't really want to do it but the internet gets too much. I would spend about 12 hours a day on average reading, that is reading books, journals, forums, newspapers and the varying levels of communication attempts found on the Internet. I write professionally so reading isn't just a way to pass the time, I do it to put food on the table. Don't get me wrong I love reading and writing but sometimes the Internet causes my eyes to bleed.

Now given you are on Slashdot you have probably read things before. Not the case for everyone here of course as it is glaringly obvious you don't all read your posts or the "fucking article" before making said posts. In this writers view Web 2.0 is hastening the process and sending standards down to the bottom. I'll cover a few examples and we shall see if anyone wants to add their $0.02 adjusted for inflation.

Gaming Websites

Whilst certainly not being a bastion of journalistic integrity, mastery, punctuation or even reporting something at all of value to people. They lack almost every trait of something that should ever be written to quote one piece without providing a link because I simply do not want anyone else to see it granting them the ad revenue "I give this game 9 BOOM headshots! Out of 10". There is nothing in a phrase like that that does not cause my eyes to bleed and wish for a nuclear holocaust. These sites lack anything of value at all. They are filled with outlandish claims of really crap games actually being enjoyable which stem from where the article commission comes. Honestly anyone who reads them to try to draw some information on whether they should buy a game or not they really should sterilised. What do you expect when they give things an average rating of 90%? With their scientific evaluations and strict selection criteria for new games (whether a distributor buys the article) why expect anything more than an article written from the knees with a writing style that makes you feel like you were there in time for the moneyshot. In all honesty just ask a real life friend they can tell you whether a game is shit or perhaps worth the money/torrent bandwidth.

If gaming journalism sites were the worst there is things would not be as bad as they really are. I encountered a problem with a game, Medieval Total War II: Kingdoms, I know you are thinking the problem was they were sleeping at release to let out a title like that but no. The problem lies in the games scheduler and windows scheduler conflicting. All you need to do to fix it is disable the games access to more than one processing core. Now I've seen that happen before in several games that have "Dual core support" but didn't actually think that hiring real programmers would be a good idea. So the game has shit threading and suffers the inevitable concurrency conflict or memory problems any multi-threaded/process program ails with. The fix is usually to hope they got it right on one core and just limit it to that one core. The posts on the forums regarding a quick fix to the issue while the developer gets their finger out were absolutely horrific. The people there could not even form basic sentences. It was as if reading from alphabet spaghetti with statements like "You copy reg noob. Paste and directX confg". Get that man an English class or a lobotomy, with great haste.

Myspace, Facebook, and other Web2.0

I'm not going to rant here for long. There isn't much more to say after you complain about the grammar nazi stuff like the repeated use of like in every fucking sentence. Like seriously, like did you see that like concert like, that guy like almost like moved. No one wants to ever read ninety nine percent of the crap that is constantly publish on those sites. Not now not ever, no one fucking cares about your hair or how much you hate your ex or whether your stepdad won't let you listen to My Chemical Romance. When future generations look back on our past I hope they miss Web2.0. I would end my life if I were an archaeologist who discovered an ancient "datacentre" with primitive magnetic storage only to find it was some 13 year old kid's blog.

I'm not one of those people who hates people. I have no objections to people who aren't to bright or can't speak to well. I just think the Internet isn't some shining beacon of learning for everyone. Some people collectivising are merely getting dumber on the Internet now than they ever could in isolation. I have been reading letters sent by a group of lower working class factory workers from the 1890s lately. They reviewed books, discussed politics and current events, debated and questioned in their correspondence. The insightful thing about it lies in their lack of formal education. This group of men and women whom in the 1890s had only had a 4th grade formal education were writing on such difficult topics with a finesse and vocabulary that lacks from academic journals today.

The level of language aptitude is in decline. I will sigh at its demise but I will not mourn its loss. I believe in sticking with the times. The good old days never happened. Language will change as it always has. I simply see it as being on a downwards spiral, language is losing expression in favour of simplicity. Orwell's 1984 doublespeak is coming not from above but from us all.

Just to explain my edit. You have many types of typo. A black typo is one nether you or your editor sees until it is in print. Seeing as this wasn't edited at all I'm not surprised I made some mistake. Nothing written is perfect first time and I really shouldn't drink and post. :)

I'd first like to say I'm a socialist. Yep, one of those red's Nixon told you were under your bed at night. I don't see anything wrong with that and I don't think anyone balanced should. People can believe whatever they want as long is it doesn't hurt anyone else. Now if you believe all socialists are about violent revolution or democrats are really socialists you need to get yourself a book and start doing some self educating about the world. See I view that capitalism is not an ideal system, I also don't pretend to know what is but I know we can do a whole lot worse. I ask you this do you really think capitalism is the last form of society in history? And on the topic of worse I honestly think a free market is worse than our current system. Yes Slashdot will hang me for a statement like that but I'm unfretted by your ropes of flame. See really a free market advantages only those already in a higher position in society. It will mean the death of concepts like the self-made-man and upward progression. How do you figure you say, well its simple really a completely free market will only make it easier for those who already have money to keep their money. Do you really think a free market will stop monopolies? How do you stop monopolies and other underhanded tactics whilst staying free? The honour system? How do you stop partnerships and other agreements killing competitors? How do you stop coercion? The answer is easy and almost certain you can't if it's a free market. This is the trap its stuck in, without any interference you will create a monster with any interference you have nothing different to the monster we already have. So how does free market philosophy deal with this problem give me your solutions.