Religious technologicalus stupidus!

There's a French saying going like this: Où y a de l'homme, y a de l'hommerie! (Where there is man, you'll find human stupidity).

For the last ten years, I've been following comments on blogs as a bad rerun of "Dallas". It does not matter if the blog post is right or wrong, commenters eventually will fall in disgrace and pure religious fever...

I've always been curious about technology and found my best and hottest stuffs over the years. I can have been convincing and arrogant sometimes but never disgraceful when putting my mind on the table.

There seems to be a human trait, quite strong actually, to consider other's choice as bad if they are not like ours. Remember the Windows/Linux war that was raging as far as hundreds of comments on a post stating that one was better than the other one?

What is more intriguing is the energy used to explain how wrong the previous commenter is. The vast majority of time, the commenter is relying on a specific and unique personal experience or on some obscure stats found on the Internet.

We all know that stats tell a story and not facts. It's all in the way you consider the numbers. Personal experience can be too specific to be considered as a general behaviour of the subject. Personal taste may not be shared as much as we would think of.

When the comment contains the word:
- sheep
- moron
- stupid
- zealot
- noob
- fan[Product Name]
- WTF
- Get your facts straight
- FUD
- suck

You know the list already... The thread has lost complete control and is not even rational about the subject.

I have to say that in all those blogs and forums, I've found at least one that moderators did a really good job to keep some rationality in the threads: iPadForum.net. One of the rare space where ranting is not allowed. The Ubuntu forum is also well maintained and keeps a good quality in their posts.

If you feel the urge to prove that you are right, there maybe another reason than the fact that you are right:
- that's the only thing you know
- you're too stubborn to admit that the other one has a valid point
- you spent too much money and feel guilty about it
- you are not qualified enough and don't know how to make it work
- you think that everybody on the whole planet shares your point of view and tastes
- you need to be recognized

There is no pride in owning. You go to the store and buy it, that's it. The choice was yours and yours only, be it good or bad.

Sharing how you like it, how you use it or why this one is more suited to your needs is something worth sharing. Shouting to the whole world and you are the king will only make you look like a "Religious Technologicalus Stupidus"...

Meep! Meep!



Patrick Balleux