>this info is all available in our own archives. but what is
>missing is context. now multiply that times a googleplex and
>you get the status of the whole internet. all the
>information is available, but how does one REALLY know
>anything from it? how does one give weight to various
>arguments and opinions when the mere fact of their existing
>appears to give them equal weight?
>
>but, if we're talking about fasting, and i read a post by
>uta, there's a level of credence i can give it because: a)
>his previous posts about the subject coincide with things
>i've learned about the subject independently, b) he actually
>practices these things**, c) resources that he cites in
>support of his views on fasting, etc., check out, to the
>degree that i've followed up on some.

That was a very good way of showing the difference between static text and text that you know have human interaction behind it! (Even if there is perhaps a fat white man being behind many of the nicknames...)

The phases you talked about are also true, i have been stuck in at least one of them.

>maybe i'm getting overly esoteric, but i'm thinking about,
>in addition to presenting the information, providing folks
>info on how to analyze the information -- knowing and 'ways
>of knowing'.

Yes.. So, not only doing a series of articles on how to analyze information like we talked about the last time this idea was up, but instead making it embody all aspects of the site. Such as by making "analysis of information/critical thinking" the overall message of the site. Making it its purpose. (In some way.. However it may be possible.)

>** when i mention different okayplayers as actual resources
>and real people, its from the perspective that while i've
>never met any of y'all, several of y'all have met in the
>physical, and lend some degree of corroboration to each
>other's existence. if utamoroho is NOT some tofu eating,
>capoeira-doing guy in atl, and is actually a middle-aged
>white man in indiana who also posts as solarus, ananse,
>kemetian, etc., in an elaborate cyber-hoax to get more cats
>eating wheat grass then i stand corrected.

hahah!!! sig material!

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proud okayphotographer: http://www.okayplayer.com/okayphotographers/

"Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness." — Marshall McLuhan