Philosophy of Knowledge

1. If knowledge exists outside of a single person's skull, said knowledge should be expected to be known by anyone or everyone, and no one is able to be surprised if someone knows of said knowledge.

2. If knowledge exists on the internet, anyone who could possibly be interested in said knowledge, and many who would not be interested in it, knows it.

3. It is impolite to assume that a given person knows a piece of knowledge, despite the two rules above, and, when mentioning knowledge without knowing that the other member(s) of a conversation know of this knowledge, said knowledge may be referred to specifically or generally, but, if referred to generally, should be stated in such a way that it is not awkward for anyone who does not know of said knowledge to say so.

4. In a blog or any written record, anyone reading a single post should be assumed to have read all other posts - there is little or no point in restating things. However, it is polite to provide a link to the post explaining this knowledge, for the sake of new readers or those with bad memories.

5. Once knowledge exists on the internet, it cannot be removed from the internet. Attempts to do so are considered to be rude, and will be ineffective, or increase propagation of said knowledge. No matter how much one wishes for something to be secret, if it is on the internet, it will not be. Thus, one should exercise all due caution and consideration before placing knowledge on the internet, and should remember that there is no going back.

6. All users of the internet or other venues allowing anonymous communication, or in fact any communication, should develop a sense of humor, the ability to ignore things which they dislike, and the ability to recognize and deal with trolls and idiots.

7. Debate is good, but only when both sides consider what the other one has to say, and act upon this. Both sides should also take care not to fall into an attack upon the other party, and to present new arguments, or reinforce existing arguments, instead of saying the same thing over and over.

8. Due to the popular knowledge of Godwin's Law, I hereby replace the phrase Nazis with Geese, making it far more humorous, and less obvious. The new law follows:

"As a discussion grows longer, the probability of Geese, Gooses, or Goslings being mentioned approaches one. At this point in the discussion, all relevant knowledge has been stated, and the discussion may be safely ignored. This does not apply to discussions about Geese, Waterfowl, Birds, Lakes, Oakland, or Canadian Things."

9. All commentators should observe the 2^3 laws of the internet, and carry this knowledge across the internet, so that it may be acted upon by all. Rule 9 is not one of the 2^3 laws, but its inclusion is considered to be polite by the writer of these laws.

10. These laws may be modified freely, as long as they always can be described in a x^3 format. Thus, Possible numbers of laws include 1, 8, 27, 64, etc. This law may be circumvented by pointing out that it is law number 10 of the original set (2^3 mark 1), and thus is not included in the actual ruleset. However, the rules are more fun if it is included, and therefor all are encouraged to consider it a valid law.

512. There may only be 512 laws, and any set including 512 laws is to be described as 2^3^3 mark x. After all, 512 should be enough for anyone! (Proposed maximums also include 134217728, or 2^3^3^3. If you need more than 134217728, you may safely be ignored by everyone).