internet laws

Internet laws, or Why I don't get involved in very many discussions and usually resist the urge to comment.

(Found somewhere in a series of comments and duly plagiarized)

Godwin’s Law
The most famous of all the internet laws, formed by Mike Godwin in 1990. As originally stated, it said: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

This now applies to guns and gun control.

Poe’s Law
"Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor  it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing." 

This also applies to gun control.

Rule 3
States: "If it exists, there is porn of it."

There is even tractor porn.

Skitt’s Law 
Expressed as "any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself"

I think this is erronious. 

Scopie’s Law
States: "In any discussion involving science or medicine, citing Whale(dot)to as a credible source loses the argument immediately, and gets you laughed out of the room." First formulated by Rich Scopie on the badscience(dot)net forum.

Well, they do have a cool boat!

Danth’s Law (also known as Parker’s Law)
States: "If you have to insist that you've won an internet argument, you've probably lost badly."

Nobody ever wins one anyway.

Pommer’s Law
Proposed by Rob Pommer on rationalwiki(dot)com in 2007, this states: "A person's mind can be changed by reading information on the internet. The nature of this change will be from having no opinion to having a wrong opinion." 

Now I understand!

DeMyer's Law
States: "Anyone who posts an argument on the internet which is largely quotations can be very safely ignored, and is deemed to have lost the argument before it has begun." 

"I believe the above is in quotes!"

Cohen’s Law
Proposed by Brian Cohen in 2007, states that: "Whoever resorts to the argument that ‘whoever resorts to the argument that... …has automatically lost the debate’ has automatically lost the debate."

Also in quotes. 

The Law of Exclamation
First recorded in an article by Lori Robertson at FactCheck(dot)org in 2008, this states: "The more exclamation points used in an email (or other posting), the more likely it is a complete lie. This is also true for excessive capital letters."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!