Poor forum etiquette

Quote: mkl654321

Thus, we are left with what should be the overriding consideration, in ANY interactive situation: should I, or should I not, act like an asshole? Unfortunately, most of today's generation of socially stunted internet kiddies wouldn't even understand that question.

Wow.

double post (wish I could delete it - JB!)

Quote: mkl654321

should I, or should I not, act like an asshole? Unfortunately, most of today's generation of socially stunted internet kiddies wouldn't even understand that question.

Even more unfortunately, you seem to have chosen the former position.

Quote: mkl654321

The fact of the matter is that "you have to expect this sort of thing on the internet" is used as an excuse for people (many, many people) to abandon the simple, common courtesies of human discourse.

Completely 100% agree. But the fact of the matter is that people do throw out the common courtesies when conversing on the internet. And we just can't expect for such a large population to suddenly convert back to proper behavior. Thus, I stand by my original statement that it's much better for us to get used to it, don't let it bother us, and move on with our lives.

As a similarity, I'm always amazed at how horrible a public men's room looks. I believe that 99% of these guys would NOT be as disgusting in their own private bathrooms at home. So why do they insist on peeing on the toilet seat, not flushing the toilet, throwing paper towels or toilet paper on the floor, etc, etc? Is it simply because they are not responsible for cleaning it up themselves, and thus they figure it's ok? Or is it because of the anonymity and the fact that they will not be held accountable? I've noticed that in bathrooms with a bathroom attendant (matron?), guys are a little better at keeping things clean. Is it because if they throw that paper towel on the floor, someone is there to see them do it and thus the anonymity is gone, so they don't do it?

The anonymity that the internet provides as created all kinds of social misbehaviors that have become commonplace. My only argument is that the ability to ignore those misbehaviors and focus on the good should also become commonplace.

WRT public men's rooms, I just assume that the jerks that behave that poorly in public really do act that way in their own houses.

Quote: konceptum

As a similarity, I'm always amazed at how horrible a public men's room looks.

You should see a public women's restroom. As part of my summer job while attending school, we maintained a recreation area. Trust me, at least here, the women's room was always much worse than the men's.

Quote: timberjim

You should see a public women's restroom. As part of my summer job while attending school, we maintained a recreation area. Trust me, at least here, the women's room was always much worse than the men's.

In college I worked as a supervisor for a janitorial company that cleaned office buildings. When someone called in sick, it was usually me who ended up doing the cleaning. In my opinion, the mens' restrooms were dirtier, but not significantly. I suspect it is because at the office everyone is more likely on better bathroom behavior than in a totally public one. Also, the womens' restrooms were often better furnished, with nice furniture and magazines.

Quote: mkl654321

Well, the assertion made in the comic is idiotic, simplistic, and untrue; other than that, I have no quarrel with it.

You missed the point entirely. I would explain it to you, but I think you would miss it again anyhow.

Quote: rdw4potus

I don't see the reason for the casino to cheat. At least not for the house. I get that dealers will cheat for themselves. I can accept that managers might specifically screw over a-hole players (kind of hope that actually happens...). But, why on earth would the casino cheat just to pad the house's bottom line? They can just change the rules!

By the same logic, why would the dealers cheat if they could just change jobs and become lawyers? :)

A statement "casinos never cheat" is just as universally quantified a statement as it's opposite. Frankly, I find this point of view a bit naive and a bit of wishful thinking - it is understandably a lot more comfortable thought that one's losses are attributable to universal laws of nature (such as statistics) than falling victim to common fraud.

I don't buy an "argument" that casinos have no reason to cheat, because they have house edge. The same can be said about any profitable business - why would anyone cheat if they can make money without cheating? Yet, we know, that banks, corporations, governments, phone companies, stock brokers, medical offices all cheat (for the formal logic fans, by "all" I mean that "there are entities that cheat in all of the above categories", not that all doctors cheat :)). I don't see any reason to believe that casinos would somehow be exempt from that rule, and just happen to be universally honest and ethical.

I don't know very much about insides of gambling industry, and from what I see as an outsider in the land-based casinos, it does seem that cheating there is a feat hard to pull, and dangerous. But I would have to say the same about Enron's SEC filings and Maydoff's accounting books, so this is hardly a compelling argument for me. Common sense and life experience on the other hand tell me, that in any situation where cheating is technically possible, no matter how hard, someone will cheat. Once again, I am yet to see a convincing argument to exempt specifically casinos from that observation.

I do know a lot about software industry though, and for that reason I can't bring myself to believe that most online casinos are honest. All the talk about regulations and software audits makes me want to laugh. A person making such claims either has an agenda or simply has never seen the insides of a commercial software system. Playing online, your only hope is the honesty of the particular casino owner (which is, in most cases, an unknown, and, because of my life experience, I just have to assume the worst).

About ten years ago, there were many online casinos in the .ru zone, offering what they called a "randomness guarantee" to make it easier for people to believe they were honest. Basically, before you start playing, they would let you download an encrypted file, that contained all the outcomes for that session (say, a sequence of cards in a blackjack shoe), and after the session was completed, they would give you the password to decrypt the file and make sure that the outcomes of the game were not based on your actions during the session (they could not make you bust every time you decide to hit, because they would not know when you would). On the surface that sounded pretty good and solid, but in reality, obviously, did not help very much - all they needed to do to up their advantage was to put a little fewer 10s and aces into the outcome file that there ought to be. After a while, a few websites appeared that offered people to upload their decrypted outcome files to do the frequency analysis. To my knowledge, the actual analysis was never performed, because they never collected enough data - shortly after those site appeared, the offers of this "randomness guarantee" started to disappear, and are now a very rare find. Makes one wonder if there is any kind of an underlying reason for this coincidence, doesn't it?

P.S.: Dorothy: the "I never gamble" statement seems a bit too universally quantified next to your thread about not getting a pair after a long online session :)

Quote: rdw4potus

Even more unfortunately, you seem to have chosen the former position.

And confirming my point, you have chosen to call me an asshole, albeit in a circumlocutory way.