-The big man and the bigger man

    This is more of a thesis/documentary.  It is not a lit, but something that
we all know but deal with.

    I remember when I used to modem at a young age.  I was not even over 5 foot
yet I still worked on the computer daily.  Always programming with that little
build in ROM Basic, and I loved it.  At the time I had one 5 1/4" Low Density
disk drive and a 300 Baud modem.  On  Commodore 64 or course.

    Most of us started young, some of us didn't.  I think it is better that we
all start young, as we should get to know that an ego will not get us anywhere
in the computer world.  Usually not, but there CAN be exceptions to that rule.

    That is where the topic comes in.  The difference between the big and the
bigger man.  I have found that usually smaller people are pretty rude, and the
bigger person is much nicer.  I came to learn this when I started to hang around
on the IRC more.

    I asked this one guy, he is close to 30 some years old, and has called to
a few hundred BBS's in his computer life (and I do not doubt him when he says
that he has called over 300 hundred boards in his life so far).  He is a pretty
mature man, and his opinion also makes a good point that all should hear.

    "The smaller man can use the computer as a weapon.  A weapon to make himself
look much bigger.  On IRC or local BBS's, the smaller man knows that all others
do not know how big he is.  They do not even know how important he is.  He could
be under 5 feet tall, and only 12 years of age, but make people think he is one
of the biggest people out there.

    "That is when the bigger man comes in.  The bigger man (or even woman) will
usually act nicer.  They are used to being portrayed as the bully of their
school, family, so on.  When they get onto IRC, they can be the person they
really are, and that is nice.

    "It basically comes to who is the pushover, and who is not the pushover.
Yet the biggest part that plays into this is the ego.  Smaller men/women will
always think they are 6'11" and 300 pounds, when in reality they are not.  The
best way for anyone to actually sound authoritive is to be on the IRC or a local
BBS.  No one knows what they look like, so they can basically do what they want
and how they want it.  And no one is to actually tell them how to do it."

    That pretty much sums it up.  The question comes down to who basically is
rude, and who isn't.  I am pretty big, around 6'3" and 270 pounds.  Yet you can
ask most of the people on IRC, and I don't act some bully trying to throw my
weight around.  I also know smaller people on local boards who have the ego of
twenty men, and are half the size of me.

    Computers do more harm then they do good in this aspect.  Going out into the
real world with an attitude like that is pretty hopeless.  I think we should all
face the facts.  Put me in a room with any man who has an ego, and he will come
out knowing he isn't as big as he thinks he ough to be.  Why?  Because computers
are a mask, and when in person, that mask comes off.  When the real face is
shown to others, then they all know he isn't so big.

    The point here is that is someone pisses you off on IRC or a local board,
just think about what I said.  He probably is a 5 foot midget that needs to get
his insecure self to feel better.  And this is a true fact, I have met a lot of
people in the BBS world locally, and it always is the same story.

    -MistaWho [EVOLUTION/REVOLT/LAPSE/POT]