PAMHO / CTRL+D CTRL+W, The macroscopic world of posterity Options

[Ananda]

The issue of gratitude and extremely abbreviated replies emerged in a discussion at LinkedIn / Online Collaboration & Communication. I couldn't help but remember the COM / PAMHO days and all the macros and acronyms that went around, and I never really entertained the thought that there was much sincerity in offering obeisances with a macro. May be of entertaining value here as well.



Here's something from the memory banks on how "k" can be replaced with "ctrl+k" for a better facade of a response.

You no doubt notice from this second rant that you poked a tender nerve there with "Issue Um, 'Kay"! This strip from XKCD really sums it up well. http://xkcd.com/664/

Back in the days in a certain spiritual/monastic movement, I remember we had an internal communication system with a client that supported shortcut key macros -- for example CTRL+D for "Dear <studentsName>, Please have my holy greetings today", and CTRL+W for "I remain your ever well-wisher, Guru Moniesvarasti Swami." (Or something very much like that!)

Imagine then as yet another student writes, having worked his/her ass off on a volunteer project for the last six months, and then receives a message that's essentially written with the following great effort: CTRL+D, "Monk Joe", "It's great that you finally got this completed! Thank you for writing again.", CTRL+W

Really leaves you with a totally warm and fuzzy feeling! Especially after you've received the umpteenth one-paragraph letter using the same automated template, an use the same software and understand how the macros work...

I remember they also used acronyms for cumbersome things to write, like PAMHO for "Please accept my humble obeisances", and "YHS" for "Your humble servant". (Imagine that: http://pamho.net/) Then, when people turn even these acronyms into macros, it borders hilarious. I remember I would, with all the sarcasm at my command, sometimes greet people in person by saying "PAMHO" instead of the actual words of the "formal greeting".

It's much like literally saying "PBUH" after mentioning Mohammed's name; I don't know how the Muslims say it when they speak of the prophet, but I sincerely hope they don't just make pbuhhing sounds to be done with the formality. Peace be upon everyone, and it will be if we are a bit more considerate and grateful to each others. =)

[Ananda]

These are the more general thoughts that preceded the above trip down the memory lane. How does expressing gratitude work in your world?

=-=-

I went "?" and "wtf" when your "k" landed into my inbox...

In my world, there are two kinds of gratitude. Expressed and implied. Implied is when I know in advance that people are grateful. Expressed is when people take the time to formulate their gratitude in words.

Limbo is when people neither have the gratitude, nor a desire to try and write it in so many words, but need to do it in the scantiest possible way in any case to get it out of the way.

You have no idea how much it eats me when I write a detailed tech business article, for example, and the standard feedback from others is "great post", or something else equally elaborate and particular. More often than not, it tells me that the person has neither bothered to read, nor tried to understand the thinking and effort that went into it.

Similarly, if the feedback is "cool stuff" when I hack up what I would consider premium innovative code, while it's basically a positive expression, it doesn't really mean anything --- especially when there are already 1,000 other things labeled "cool stuff" that are completely trivial.

If something is worth responding to, then it's worth responding to in at least two or three sentences that actually comment on something and indicate that your effort has been registered. Otherwise, it's simply a "ticket closed" click with no personal communication at all, and might as well not exist.

[Ananda]

Speaking of LinkedIn / the OCC group I'm administrating, it may be of professional interest to some of the members here. (Hint hint, would love to see psy-Dhy and tech-Ech there for one.) Happens in the connection of several emerging dialogues and budding collaboration in the Organizational Change Practitioners group (OCP; 12K members) there.

I seem to now also be working on OakedIn, moving towards a more mature discussion and collaboration platform. Since we have a great many discussion / virtual community veterans here, I'd love to try and connect the professional and freak worlds to see what insights and avenues might emerge for everyone. See, I am building a house where the whole world can live in! YEWWA.

[ePiTau]

I briefly visited OakedIn and found there one link to a page in the same domain drafts/oakedin_thread_flow_and_media.png.
It looks like you are putting much much thought into this. Obviously, with all the experiences from GD, GR, and many other places.
Plus creating structures for online interaction and collaboration. It is difficult to get recognition and appreciation for work not many understand.
What makes it more confounding is the old doctrine that a desire to get even the smallest scrap of credit for something wonderful one might have created
is -- of course -- maya, plain and simply, a bloated mundane desire for name, fame and (can't remember the bad, bad 3rd one)[just remembered the 3rd one adoration, sometimes used in combination with distinction; these must be avoided if one wants to secure heaven]. Subtle sex desire, Mensch, don't you get it?

I liked psy-Dhy & tech-Ech. That alone might convince me to sign up. Although perhaps eq could also become an attractive variant (not sure yet, as I just started learning how to program in Common Lisp; "symbols should always be compared to other symbols with eq", I read in Land of Lisp, by Conrad Barski, San Francisco 2011.)

I really was at OakedIn, here proof:

A fruitful online discussion platform has to be be systematic and versatile,

I like the be be, puts some rhythm in the stream flow.

And YEWWA probably only sounds Jewish, but actually means Your Ever Well Wisher Ananda.

[Ananda]

SADHU! (Syncretic Access Domain Hub Utilizer) You have parsed all the codes.

As you know, pouring heaps of time and effort into projects that nobody really gives a shit about at the end of the day has been my trademark for long. They have of course contributed a wealth of hands-on experience and strategy formation in all things virtual community exchange, and I daresay that after moderating boards abounding with religious nutcases, taking on most things the "normal" internet audiences can throw at me are quite okay and easy-smooth. Especially in networks where you can't be anonymous, and where people with sound and balanced rational capacity sometimes predominate. (I know, it sounds quite utopian. I thought I was in heaven, until the LinkedIn software itself began to show its creepier traits when put to heavier use.)

The whole OakedIn deal, however, is strictly started in response to a screaming (expressed and implied) need of large audiences of people for more sanity into the caveman-level flat and messy discussion software on social networks. Thanks for the typo note, I will fix it shortly. Proof enough I've spent in total only a handful of (quite speedy) hours; the sketch was a few minutes. There are a good deal of very solid people who keep pouring in insights, so all that's really left for me is to syndicate the best concepts and model them into something usable. Yea, and code them up of course, unless I get a surprise budget to hire a legion of monkeys, or some enthusiastic and clear-headed open-source folks decide to jump in for whatever reason.

There are also a bunch of other projects that will run parallel to this, including a peer cloud platform, which is something of a SkyNet precursor if all goes well, and a Borg initiative if it goes excellent. And this time around (with no-one to screw around over my shoulder), it should actually also yield revenue in proportion to potentials. (Please don't get me started on how much of it was wasted in the most "ingenious" ways with the previous project... Evidently they thought I was in Maya too; all in all, a distinctly Hare Krishna experience all over again.)

I would intuitively call you IQ, but I can call you EQ too. EQIQ would make for a fine yin-yang balance.

[Gerard]

The issue of gratitude and extremely abbreviated replies emerged in a discussion at LinkedIn / Online Collaboration & Communication. I couldn't help but remember the COM / PAMHO days and all the macros and acronyms that went around, and I never really entertained the thought that there was much sincerity in offering obeisances with a macro. May be of entertaining value here as well.

Ridiculous acronyms and abbreviations like PAMHO and AGSP are still widely being used. But at least nobody can say that bhakti can't be efficient!

In Dutch there is another related phenomenon in creating new forms that I always liked, and still use sometimes. In Dutch the diminutive can be stuck to any word. So we attached it to 'dandavats' and 'haribol' and say 'dandavatjes!' or 'give my haribolletjes to X'. Using the diminutive creates a feeling of intimicay.
Does anybody know whether this was used in German or another language? It does lack decorum and is slightly irreverent so I don't suppose Germans would do a thing like this.

[ePiTau]

The issue of gratitude and extremely abbreviated replies emerged in a discussion at LinkedIn / Online Collaboration & Communication. I couldn't help but remember the COM / PAMHO days and all the macros and acronyms that went around, and I never really entertained the thought that there was much sincerity in offering obeisances with a macro. May be of entertaining value here as well.

Ridiculous acronyms and abbreviations like PAMHO and AGSP are still widely being used. But at least nobody can say that bhakti can't be efficient!

In Dutch there is another related phenomenon in creating new forms that I always liked, and still use sometimes. In Dutch the diminutive can be stuck to any word. So we attached it to 'dandavats' and 'haribol' and say 'dandavatjes!' or 'give my haribolletjes to X'. Using the diminutive creates a feeling of intimicay.
Does anybody know whether this was used in German or another language? It does lack decorum and is slightly irreverent so I don't suppose Germans would do a thing like this.

Germans do it as well. Maybe not so abundantly, but it's there. The diminutive suffixes are -chen and -lein "Chen und Lein machen alles klein!" goes an old German rhyme for kids (-chen and -lein make everything small). What comes to mind is Hallochen and Tschüßchen (Tschüß is a Northern German way of saying Goodbye, it really does not require a diminutive, but that's what some do. In Hamburg they sometimes put on the suffix -ing instead. Meaning-wise this is impossible to interpret. It's probably just done to give it a nice touch, a special spin and feel to increase the intimacy. The German dialect spoken in Switzerland, however, uses the diminutive -li a lot. Teufli, a little devil -- just to keep the discussion here sane.

[Dhyana]

Speaking of LinkedIn / the OCC group I'm administrating, it may be of professional interest to some of the members here. (Hint hint, would love to see psy-Dhy and tech-Ech there for one.) Happens in the connection of several emerging dialogues and budding collaboration in the Organizational Change Practitioners group (OCP; 12K members) there.

I seem to now also be working on OakedIn, moving towards a more mature discussion and collaboration platform. Since we have a great many discussion / virtual community veterans here, I'd love to try and connect the professional and freak worlds to see what insights and avenues might emerge for everyone. See, I am building a house where the whole world can live in! YEWWA.

Hello Ananda,

When I visited OakedIn, and read about identifying valuable content for storage in oak barrels, I thought about a simple piece of functionality in an otherwise sh*tty forum software at avanza.se (an online investment bank).

There, every company whose shares can be traded, can have a dedicated forum for those interested. Moderating is extremely hands off, so forums will at times veer way off into ditches (mostly when stocks plunge...). All the same, some contributors write extremely valuable texts.

When one is logged in, one can give any other text a "thumbs up", "thumbs down" or "report to moderator". This is how it looks (you will probably see a non-logged-in version):

https://www.avanza.se/aza/press/forum/forum.jsp?forumId=1033

The specific forum you are seeing is for BlackPearl Resources, a heavy oil company. This particular forum has some real researcher / detective types, and some people who collect others' valuable contributions and log them elsewhere on the net.

The thumbs can be used for a variety of purposes:

1. Feedback to the writer, of course, and "agree/disagree with".

2. Polling. Someone writes, "The Swedish Riksbank says we do not have a housing bubble. What do you think? No bubble -- thumbs up on my text. Bubble -- thumbs down."

3. Asking for advice. "Is this the proper time to invest in this company if I have a horizon of 6 months?"

4. Organizing, "stand up and be counted": "How many of us are going to the company presentation in Stockholm next week? So we book a large enough venue?"

It occurred to me that such thumbs, or a separate dedicated button, could also be used for voting whether a given text should be pinned, added to a database, etc.

[Dhyana]

There are also a bunch of other projects that will run parallel to this, including a peer cloud platform, which is something of a SkyNet precursor if all goes well, and a Borg initiative if it goes excellent.

Ambitious you are! SkyNet, wasn't it the evil guys in Terminator?

I would intuitively call you IQ, but I can call you EQ too. EQIQ would make for a fine yin-yang balance.

If you call him IQEQ, that would have a similar ring to R2D2

I have a bit of fear of LinkedIn (as of all things unknown). It is rather unpeekable from outside, all I know about it is that you are supposed to provide your (ideally impressive-sunding) credential, your English work title and current position (mine being, at home in front of a job seeker website...)

[Gerard]

The issue of gratitude and extremely abbreviated replies emerged in a discussion at LinkedIn / Online Collaboration & Communication. I couldn't help but remember the COM / PAMHO days and all the macros and acronyms that went around, and I never really entertained the thought that there was much sincerity in offering obeisances with a macro. May be of entertaining value here as well.

Ridiculous acronyms and abbreviations like PAMHO and AGSP are still widely being used. But at least nobody can say that bhakti can't be efficient!

In Dutch there is another related phenomenon in creating new forms that I always liked, and still use sometimes. In Dutch the diminutive can be stuck to any word. So we attached it to 'dandavats' and 'haribol' and say 'dandavatjes!' or 'give my haribolletjes to X'. Using the diminutive creates a feeling of intimicay.
Does anybody know whether this was used in German or another language? It does lack decorum and is slightly irreverent so I don't suppose Germans would do a thing like this.

Germans do it as well. Maybe not so abundantly, but it's there. The diminutive suffixes are -chen and -lein "Chen und Lein machen alles klein!" goes an old German rhyme for kids (-chen and -lein make everything small). What comes to mind is Hallochen and Tschüßchen (Tschüß is a Northern German way of saying Goodbye, it really does not require a diminutive, but that's what some do. In Hamburg they sometimes put on the suffix -ing instead. Meaning-wise this is impossible to interpret. It's probably just done to give it a nice touch, a special spin and feel to increase the intimacy. The German dialect spoken in Switzerland, however, uses the diminutive -li a lot. Teufli, a little devil -- just to keep the discussion here sane.

Your reply seem to be about the use of the diminutive in German in general, but I wondered, do or did devotees combine Sanskrit words with the German diminutive and made up words like Haribölchen, danvatlein? Murtilein seems plausible.

[Dhyana]

The issue of gratitude and extremely abbreviated replies emerged in a
In Dutch there is another related phenomenon in creating new forms that I always liked, and still use sometimes. In Dutch the diminutive can be stuck to any word. So we attached it to 'dandavats' and 'haribol' and say 'dandavatjes!' or 'give my haribolletjes to X'. Using the diminutive creates a feeling of intimicay.
Does anybody know whether this was used in German or another language? It does lack decorum and is slightly irreverent so I don't suppose Germans would do a thing like this.

Polish devotees definitely did this when speaking informally, affectionately or jokingly. Polish is an inflectional language where you can mold most words as you please.

For example, Haribolcio instead of Haribol.
Prabuniu (vocative singular) instead of Prabhu (woman addressing her husband)
Prabciowie (nominative or vocative plural) instead of Prabhus (a brahmacari addressing his fellow devotees)

Some of these words more than border on ridiculous.

[ePiTau]

Your reply seem to be about the use of the diminutive in German in general, but I wondered, do or did devotees combine Sanskrit words with the German diminutive and made up words like Haribölchen, danvatlein? Murtilein seems plausible.

Haribölchen, I have heard, but it would have to be in a joking, unserious mood. Dandavatlein doesn't work, it would have to be Dandavätchen, but that I have never heard. And Murtilein? No way. You would be considered insane if you said that, unless of course you talked about a really small murti. But if you said this, for example, about the ubiquitous, obligatory, life-size polyurethane angel, Prabhupada, they would ship you out on rails.

[Ananda]

Ridiculous acronyms and abbreviations like PAMHO and AGSP are still widely being used. But at least nobody can say that bhakti can't be efficient!

Indeed. One of the things I can vouch for is that the spirit of "totalitarian service" does make you optimize and streamline things; or at least that's what I did, starting at the age of 15 from revamping the puja paraphernalia cleaning operation from an hour to 25 minutes sharp, the whole set carried over at once across the temple building, and cleaned and arranged in an optimized order. Then again, I may simply be raving mad and obsessive about optimization, I don't know.

In Dutch there is another related phenomenon in creating new forms that I always liked, and still use sometimes. In Dutch the diminutive can be stuck to any word. So we attached it to 'dandavats' and 'haribol' and say 'dandavatjes!' or 'give my haribolletjes to X'. Using the diminutive creates a feeling of intimicay.
Does anybody know whether this was used in German or another language? It does lack decorum and is slightly irreverent so I don't suppose Germans would do a thing like this.

I am reminded of some "intimacy truncation" words, like "prasse" for "prasadam", which sounds much like talking about a good pal — which I guess is quite true for the otherwise deprived brahmacari consortium! At least you can love and enjoy holy food in addition to trying to exclusively love the frequently busy and out-of-office Transcendental Head Directorat. Zanardi will no doubt have a bunch more of those to share. To the best of my knowledge there is no diminutive for kaupina, yet I feel that coining one would be justified, given its diminutive organic function in the transcendental processes.

Oh yes, and there was "hartsiboltsi" for Haribol used by some, "literally" rosin-head (you know, the substance you make glue, soap and sealing wax from). I don't think anyone intended it in that sense though.

[Ananda]

Then I visited OakedIn, and read about identifying valuable content for storage in oak barrels, I thought about a simple piece of functionality in an otherwise sh*tty forum software at avanza.se (an online investment bank).

The thumbs can be used for a variety of purposes: Feedback, Polling, Asking for advice, Organizing .. It occurred to me that such thumbs, or a separate dedicated button, could also be used for voting whether a given text should be pinned, added to a database, etc.

This is an excellent idea, thank you very much for sharing. The better modeled all these practical feedback functions are, the better people can contribute and collaborate towards a growing and more durable body of knowledge. On that note, I would also love to see such a thing here at GR, given that this is a very valuable community with lots of brilliant insight, insight that deserves to be syndicated into an easy-access form for people looking for insight on the issues we have covered many times over in abundant detail.

Ambitious you are! SkyNet, wasn't it the evil guys in Terminator?

This is the Borg mode I'm on about. Wherever I fly around the cyberspaces, I tend to observe and outline the "technological distinctiveness" for assimilation. This is something of a both professional and personal quest for an integral super-symmetry of existence. Been looking for that Omega Particle for a while now, losing a large quantity of vehicles to Omega explosions while trying to harness the power of the substance.

"Seven of Nine displays an interest in the scientists' methods, hoping to save the omega particles and harness them, because she believes them to be perfection - infinite parts working together as one (like the Borg) - despite ample Starfleet and Borg evidence of their danger. The Borg are expected to assimilate it at all costs, even though they have experienced the loss of a large quantity of Borg vessels to Omega explosions while trying to harness the power of the substance. Seven notes, however, that the ability to harness Omega would make the Borg an unstoppable force..."

SkyNet is simply an example of a careless implementation of an otherwise brilliant concept. I have been modeling plans for a system that takes it into the context of human networking and cross-platform connectivity, organic web platform networks that share resources, data and participants, with enough AI thrown in to make it proactive and responsive to emerging needs. I also have the AtMatrix file open since over a year now, modeling the human psyche and the "response loop" between psyche and environments into a learning and growing personality grid. Something for later...

[Ananda]

If you call him IQEQ, that would have a similar ring to R2D2

I have a bit of fear of LinkedIn (as of all things unknown). It is rather unpeekable from outside, all I know about it is that you are supposed to provide your (ideally impressive-sunding) credential, your English work title and current position (mine being, at home in front of a job seeker website...)

I also did not use it for a good long while despite having the account, but the discussion groups there are by far the best of any I've ever seen online. For one, there is no anonymity which cuts down the troll factor a great deal, and again people are there primarily for professional networking, which means that the average person there is likely to have a bit more substance and rationality in the blend. It has proven quite invaluable in working towards building a substantial network of professional minds with shared interests, in the domains of spirituality, technology, virtual collaboration, organizational dynamics, systems thinking and abstraction, and so on.

I would not worry much about "current position". You have enough history to whip up a fat CV (just model up all your experience, in more generic terms where necessary) in any case. I have found that if you make sense and have substantial insight to contribute — and I am absolutely confident the people here have no problem in that! — then nobody will be staring at your current titles. Quite pragmatic at the end of the day, and as proof positive that novel thinking is welcome, even my Wisdom Wheel model and associated quaternary cycles and cyclic models have sparked a good deal of interest. If you hang around at sh*tty Swedish forums with a professional interest, a solid networking platform with over 80M users the world around should make for interesting waters to explore and see what you may uncover in the way of new work opportunities and other valuable leads.

[Brainiac]

It's much like literally saying "PBUH" after mentioning Mohammed's name; I don't know how the Muslims say it when they speak of the prophet, but I sincerely hope they don't just make pbuhhing sounds to be done with the formality. Peace be upon everyone, and it will be if we are a bit more considerate and grateful to each others. =)

On IRC chat they used to refer to Mohammed as "Mohd", which was even funnier. Mode pibooh!

[Dhyana]

I also did not use it for a good long while despite having the account, but the discussion groups there are by far the best of any I've ever seen online. For one, there is no anonymity which cuts down the troll factor a great deal, and again people are there primarily for professional networking, which means that the average person there is likely to have a bit more substance and rationality in the blend. It has proven quite invaluable in working towards building a substantial network of professional minds with shared interests, in the domains of spirituality, technology, virtual collaboration, organizational dynamics, systems thinking and abstraction, and so on.

Wow. That sounds very promising.

I checked your account, there is lots and lots to wade through! Yet you have only worked on filling it in for a few days, right? You are a hard working turbo ant! A whole turbo anthill, actually

I found your list of languages astounding, and the idea itself -- to combine *all* languages -- provocative!

English
(Native or bilingual proficiency)
*
Finnish
(Native or bilingual proficiency)
*
French [school major]
(Limited working proficiency)
*
Swedish [school minor]
(Limited working proficiency)
*
Danish
(Limited working proficiency)
*
Bengali [classical/modern]
(Professional working proficiency)
*
Sanskrit [philosophical]
(Professional working proficiency)
*
Hindi [modern]
(Limited working proficiency)
*
Pali
(Elementary proficiency)
*
Romance language group
(Elementary proficiency)
*
Indic language group
(Elementary proficiency)
*
Nordic language group
(Elementary proficiency)
*
PHP
(Native or bilingual proficiency)
*
SQL
(Full professional proficiency)
*
HTML
(Native or bilingual proficiency)
*
CSS
(Native or bilingual proficiency)
*
Javascript
(Professional working proficiency)
*
Python
(Limited working proficiency)
*
Perl
(Limited working proficiency)
*
ASP & VB
(Limited working proficiency)
*
BASIC
(Limited working proficiency)

I would not worry much about "current position". You have enough history to whip up a fat CV (just model up all your experience, in more generic terms where necessary) in any case. I have found that if you make sense and have substantial insight to contribute — and I am absolutely confident the people here have no problem in that! — then nobody will be staring at your current titles. Quite pragmatic at the end of the day, and as proof positive that novel thinking is welcome, even my Wisdom Wheel model and associated quaternary cycles and cyclic models have sparked a good deal of interest. If you hang around at sh*tty Swedish forums with a professional interest, a solid networking platform with over 80M users the world around should make for interesting waters to explore and see what you may uncover in the way of new work opportunities and other valuable leads.

Some seriously good points.

A question: can I set up my account in such a way that only others who have LinkedIn accounts can read it in full? (Your account seems to be set up to be completely open -- I can view your full profile if I Google your name. I would only need to log in to view additional content -- like full text of what others say about you, etc.

But when I google my sister, I get only her name, current title, location, and pic. Nothing else. I guess she has set it up that way?

She is protective of her privacy and so am I (I guess).

BTW, I didn't know you were presently based in Danmark, not in Finland! Does that have to do with your... pacifism? Just curious...