Full Moon Madness

I don't know if it was the full moon or not, but it certainly seems like some sort of madness descended on the Internet lately.

I participate in a number of email lists on various topics, and this past week the majority of them descended into flame wars over various silly topics. It wasn't even so much people arguing principles as people becoming annoyed at the way in which another person was communicating.

Flame wars tend to raise the traffic on email lists quite a bit, although the value of the content drops quite a bit. So I've been skipping any discussion that has more than 20 emails in it lately, because it's a good bet it's degenerated into name-calling and comments on other people's characters.

It's an interesting study in psychology and sociology, the way the Internet allows us to behave in ways we never would if we had to look the other person in the eye while doing so.

So, full moon, or just Internet rudeness? I don't know, but I'm hoping it levels out soon, so the email lists can get back to normal.