Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwen Morse
That's a tricky question. I think forum behavior is probably governed by the same social conventions as face-to-face conversation (although people tend to speak more *ahem* freely than they might in actual personal interaction). ...
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Some years ago I found a really good article about this trait (of speaking more freely), but like much on the Internet it seems to have disappeared. In particular it considered what it might do, over time, to affect the way that people began to behave in face-to-face conversation.
Thanks for your response. I believe that you are probably quite correct, that the smooth running of forums like these depends more on the courtesy of the participants than it does on rules "agreed" to at registration. And, having recently gone through the sign-up on Amazon just to see it, I think your analogy works all too well. At least most computer software vendors are direct enough to present the conditions at installation, much as this forum does (even if most people ignore them), they are not hidden as they seem to be at book sellers.
Of course that still leaves the question of what happens after you discover the hidden rules. You say you won't dignify them with a response. I suspect that that is what Amazon presumes will happen, that people that find and dislike the "rules" will continue to purchase from them regardless. That way their rules continue to exist in case they are ever needed but they still get the income stream, even from those that don't really approve/agree with their behaviour. There is probably sufficient momentum in all this now that the current situation will continue. It's not as if a handful of people abstaining from buying from Amazon are likely to have much effect on them any more. To that extent I can see that people will consider themselves forced to continue in this way if they ever want to buy new release ebooks.