I loved the internet when it was a wild and wooly place filled with flame wars and uncivilized behavior. It was a creative anything goes environment, a virtual Wild Wild West. No rules. No rules at all. Unless you were a Systems Administrator with root, and then there were a lot of rules, although they were more like an oath or a pledge than they were a rule set. I miss those days. Not all of it, but a lot of it.

Rules are kind of like laws, although not as expensive. Like, you don’t get a ticket for putting your seat back while riding in an airplane – but rest assured, it will be complained about on twitter and if you are really lucky, or really unlucky, some ridiculous dick will take your picture with their iPhone and post it along with the tweet.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a really considerate person. In 3D life, I open doors for people, I pick up garbage left by others and put it in the bin, I do my own dishes and clean up after myself … I try not to be noisy or disturbing. Being a considerate person is just a lot of common sense. Treat people in the same manner that you would like to be treated. That’s really the only common law that we need. Just don’t be a dick. Be a good person.

Every time I spend any part of my day on twitter there is at least one tweet about some new rule list, or (gag) etiquette list, or some complaint about some doofus not following “the rules”. It makes me cringe. It makes me not want to go outside. It makes me think that people that post that stuff are traveling on some sort of parallel Earth, or through their very own personally programmed hologram, which is cool, but it’s just, hey, I’m not participating in that storyline. Where was the consensus that made up these new social rules? Oh. Yes. In your head.

Making up rules for everyone else to follow only means that you are going to be the one that is disappointed when no one is following them. Consider not caring for awhile. Consider not being concerned. Consider not stooping that sort of jackassery.

Chill out baby, relax.