Random rant: Formspring character limit

I tend to piss and moan quite a bit about "the man" and how "the man" is changing things just for fun and for no benefit whatsoever. What can I say, I'm a social liberal. But I complain about the government enough, and that's why I'm kind of sad that all of my current elected officials are democrats: I have nothing to complain about. Well, I could complain about Ted K., but he's not socially conservative, so not about that. Well, actually (TANGENT ALERT), I don't really know what he is, because he's never made his own decisions until we were co covered in shit that his only real decision as governor was to cut cut cut. ANYWAY, I was thinking, what if "the man" wasn't the government at all, but a social networking site, and what if they're doing something that's not particularly dangerous, yet sufficiently pisses me off? So, my next rant will make you think that Formspring is killing grandmas or something, but it's mostly just for fun. But, you know, if someone from Formspring does so happen to read this (and I did send a question to their CEO, but if he wants to read this too, you know, that's cool, because the question I sent him could only be 255 characters), that would be fine...

The question I would always (rhetorically) ask government (not that they were listening or anything) when I was still ranting about government is, "What are the consequences of enacting this law, and what are the consequences of not enacting it?" For example, my feelings about Gay Rights (I did promise a post on gay rights, so here's something) are that, if you allow gays to marry, basically, gays will be able to marry and, you know, have the same rights as everyone else, but rednecks in Alabama will be sad because some people they've never met in their lives are slightly happier. If we don't let them marry, then we'll have entire group of people discriminated against. Now, you have to ask Formspring the same question. With a character limit, people will get short, to the point questions. You also can't ask long questions if you so choose, and it discriminates against people who tend to use good spelling and grammar, and people who tend to be pedantic or loquacious. If there isn't a character limit, then people who really don't like getting long questions will be forced to press the delete button. Oh, the humanity! It's just another instance of "the man" intervening where he shouldn't be. I can see why somebody wouldn't want long questions, and that's all fine and dandy, but that's not Formspring's problem. Of all the types of questions that people don't want, I don't think that the long questions are the most bothersome. & if u rite lyk ths, it mite b ezr 2 rite shrt q's, but who wants to read that? Besides, I think it's fair to say that the kinds of people who write longer and more intelligent questions do not write like that, so it is punitive on two levels. I don't understand why Formspring has specifically chosen to intervene on this issue. There doesn't seem to be much of a benefit. They tried it, perhaps for a good cause, but it looks like it has made more people mad than it has made people happy. I don't know anybody who actively believes that the character limit is a good thing, but I know plenty of people who actively believe that it is a bad thing. That's okay, because that's how we make progress. Now we know that it didn't serve its intended purpose, or perhaps it did, but it caused a bigger problem. In other words, we now know that it's a bad idea. That's life. Now it's time to change. It's time to move on. It's time to take a break from our past mistakes. It's time to stop dragging our feet, and fix the problem.

Still not convinced? Which of the following is the best question?

What is your opinion of Lao Tzu's quote? (40 characters)

LT 1ce sed go 2 da ppl lrn frm dem live w/ dem start w/ wat dey no bild w/ wat dey hav da best of ldrs win da jobs done win da tasks acomplshd da ppl wil say weve dun it rslvs wat do u think

(190 characters)

Lao Tzu once said, "Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say, 'we have done it ourselves.'" Do you agree with that quote? Why or why not? (294 characters)