I know everyone here knows this already, but I must restate it:This is the best message board.
I know this because I have bene on others; supposedly christian ones.
Things go nice, or so it seems, then an admin and a poster jump on you, calling you names, twofaced hypocrite, fake, child, dumb, so on and so on.
You calmly ask for proof; they tell you to shove it.
No one else defends you.
This is the best board.
I know my rant will not get a 10, I’m not much for swearing, too.
So just commiserate with me.
I’ve sampled a lot of message boards, and nothing else comes close. It’s no accident that this place is by far where I spend the most time whenever I’m on the Internet.
I just recently saw Doug Thompson, an interesting journalist whom I have come to admire, totally spin out and leave his own website and message board.
I strongly suspect that his reason for leaving was almost entirely due to one person, a december-esque partisan of unusual obstinacy.
Doug basically said he had to check out because he had lost all faith in the process of political discourse.
The People of the Straight Dope have not yet lost that faith, although we bear our own share of burdensome participants. Like me.
Thanks for having me aboard, everyone. Thanks to those of you who work every day to ensure that the central, noble mission of this place does not divert from its stated goal. And thank all of you for not collectively giving up.
I agree this is the best message board…if only it hadn’t have eaten my last four posts. I dunno why but it’ll be loading things just fine cruising around but when it comes time for me to post it decides to die.
Two of the posts were exceptionally long ones very frustrating. So I’ve resigned mostly to lurking the last two weeks.
Here’s to hoping this one goes through crosses fingers
The poster formerly named december was a dissimulator bar none. Carefully couched in politeness, december trolled these message boards for what? maybe two years? In that time he tirelessly adopted uninformed Wall Street Journal Op-Ed pieces as his own rationale for how the world worked and tenaciously defended those positions long after they were ripped to shreds by our more fact-driven readership. He was eventually banned for being a jerk. While many of us (but not me) saw his jerk-ness right off the bat, it still took months and months for the weight of evidence against him to finally prove justifiable enough to ban him.
I think he has taken his undeniable sophistic talents to other places, and driven those poor participants insane as he nearly did to us.
Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was an annoying little twerp called december. His modus operandi was to be the [JeffK]Worst Conservative Debater EVAR[/JeffK]! He would troll in GD with misattributed quotations, stupid arguments, and all the persona of a warthog with teritary syphilis. His mind was as purest admantium, completely impervious to reasoned debate or, indeed, much of the outside world. He eventually pushed the bounds of civil discourse one too many times and so was smote with sore wroth by the Admins (Peace be Upon Them).
My post was composed with the BBQ Pit as its sole target. Plainly put, it sticks out like a sore thumb in MPSIMS and I’m feeling as exposed as a nudibranch in a fishbowl.
After lurking for a week, I had to register to support the OP.
One thing that I’ve noticed that really impressed me here is the proper use of the english language. I’m sick and tired of reading posts that aren’t capitalized or are written in internet shorthand, “ur cool”, or “u 2”. I was ready to gouge my eyes out. I’m not the greatest at writing, but the intent is there.
I love this message board too. What I think makes it so great is how people are so accepting of newbies. Here, they’re welcomed with open arms, but anywhere else, you have go to through some hazing to be accepted. :rolleyes: This message board, to put it simply, rocks.
