And the irony is that reversing webs, or even hiding your ability (for women) probably were just "good manners" once! At least I'm pretty convinced the whole point of hiding your ability was simply not to display the glow of saidar, and the same for reversed webs. There were probably used most when displays of channelling could have been impolite/annoying/distracting to people around you (that would happen often in a society with many AS), and for security/discretion motives, for instance to protect a weave to unlock a personal ter'angreal, to make or unmake a ward on personal stuff, or to use the ATM and such. In the WOS, like so many other refined niceties of the AOL (like Gateways...), this was turned to lethal use.