unsubscrive: Re: On Godwin's Law

Joseph M. Reagle Jr. (reagle@rpcp.mit.edu)
Mon, 16 Mar 1998 17:31:07 -0500


>You did a search on altavista for Godwin's law, right? Did you think
>to verify the accuracy of the source you quote? No, I thought not -
>but we'll get to that in a moment.

http://www.netmeg.net/jargon/terms/g/godwin_s_law.html

>1. Joseph loses the argument, by Godwin's law as stated above (and
> Greg's assertation of convergence is not just a variant of Godwin's
> law).

Your argument assumes I learned off of Godwin's law off of Usenet, and it
must be incorrect. However, as you stated, I got the definition off the Web,
and as any good reporter knows, if it was on the Web, it must be true.

>3. By continuing the thread as we are doing, we are providing a
> practical demonstration that Godwin's law is, indeed, wrong.

Reagle's addendum is that: As an online discussion grows longer, the
probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one AND the
signal to noise ratio approaches 0.

This is the case for nearly any thread, the very word "thread" implies a
decreasing signal to noise ratio. (Why I change the subject headings when I
can. <smile>)

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