That is, you can communicate with me without worrying too much about my 'feelings', or that your opinion may upset me. I will take your words for what they are, and not argue about how your communications are presented. I am not asking to be insulted - I simply ask you to be straight.
Declaring yourself to be operating by "Crocker's Rules" means that other people are allowed to optimize their messages for information, not for being nice to you. Crocker's Rules means that you have accepted full responsibility for the operation of your own mind - if you're offended, it's your fault. Anyone is allowed to call you a moron and claim to be doing you a favor. (Which, in point of fact, they would be. One of the big problems with this culture is that everyone's afraid to tell you you're wrong, or they think they have to dance around it.) Two people using Crocker's Rules should be able to communicate all relevant information in the minimum amount of time, without paraphrasing or social formatting. Obviously, don't declare yourself to be operating by Crocker's Rules unless you have that kind of mental discipline.
Note that Crocker's Rules does not mean you can insult people; it means that other people don't have to worry about whether they are insulting you. Crocker's Rules are a discipline, not a privilege. Furthermore, taking advantage of Crocker's Rules does not imply reciprocity. How could it? Crocker's Rules are something you do for yourself, to maximize information received - not something you grit your teeth over and do as a favor.
"Crocker's Rules" are named after Lee Daniel Crocker.
I found out about Crocker's from @bacardi55 who is doing great work on tinylogs
I love the tinylog aggregating browser gtl - take a look. There is a lot to be done in tinylog space, and I totally intend to do some of those things.
Back to sl4. Looking at the website, I was somewhat put off by the terrible terms encountered there, such as 'transhumanism' and 'singularity', which immediately communicates, to me, 'a bunch of assholes with too much money, backed by a mob of morons who think that someday they will move out of mom's basement and live forever'. Hey, they invoked Crocker's Rules, so that is just what I think on the subject of singularity.
To be fair, I have not really read through their site or seen the mailings from their list. They do appear not to take themselves too seriously:
I have no objection to flames, but flames aren't allowed to be boring. Biting sarcasm and witty insults, please - not four-letter-words used as punctuation.
Yes!
On SL4, arbitrarily high levels of rationality are permitted. If you've ever been shot down in a conversation for being too rational, you know what I mean.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean!
My partner heard me cracking up and I gave them a quick tour... The reaction was appropriate:
Sounds like a bunch of spectrumy programmers who say they won't get upset, but will probably lose their shit if you take them up on it!