Shaddup, cunt.
…and so it begins. This has to go 10 pages.
While the advent of mundane and unpointed posts in the BBQ Pit reflects an evolution in its use which may not be entirely welcome to traditionalists, and may not best reflect the structure of the Board, I disagree with the assertion that pitting politicians, or public figures, or phenomena in general is inappropriate. The BBQ Pit has served as a forum for grievances between posters, but it does not have this as its exclusive goal.
The Board exists as a community, and a community can make good use of acceptable ways of expressing and dealing with stress, internal division, and disagreement among its members. For a message board, a forum like the BBQ Pit – exclusive domain of vitriol, accusations, and arguments of personality rather than fact – can offer this kind of safety valve. It’s a good way to keep the rest of the forum civil, and contribute to community cohesion. It does for the virtual community what the landfill or the latrine does for the city or the campsite.
But even more, the Board also exists on a basic philosophy of fighting ignorance. And anger – key currency of the BBQ PIT – is in fact an important tool for this. We share fact, opinion, and philosophy in the other forums, and these are all of great importance. Sometimes ignorance is widespread and structural, and a frequent symptom of that state of affairs is widespread and structural injustice. Anger is the response to that – to a systemic pressure or gross injustice, to a great malice or an unspeakable tragedy. And this anger can be the motivation to speak out, to cry for change, to stir us to use our abilities and our creativity to bring about that change.
Governments have been brought down, social systems overthrown, taboos shattered, and peoples liberated by the confluence of knowledge, will, and the refusal to accept the things that deservedly drive us to anger. And that first step is indeed knowledge. One cannot fight injustice if one has not noticed it. One cannot call out the malice of a tyrant if it happens in obscuring darkness. And as much as GQ will teach a member about the practicality of nuclear space propulsion, and GD about the nuances behind opposing views of proposed legislation, the Pit will point out the abuse of power by a leader or the outrageous consequences of poor planning.
The Pit is not simply a place for members to verbally beat each other up. Sometimes your conscience requires you to kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight, and – as far as people learning from each other on a message board can be expected to change the world – the BBQ Pit is the place to do that.
“taboos shattered, and peoples liberated by the confluence of knowledge”
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m always up for some taboo shattering and liberation.
WOLVERINES!
Two for one.
Please don’t do it again. No warnings issued.
**Gfactor **
Pit Moderator
And thus are our traditional pit values eroded by liberal permissiveness. Pit used to be a pretty good place till the hippies fucked it all up.
Why don’t you just fucking find a board that caters to your fucking needs? Why should the rest of us care about whether or not your fucking “board experience” is up to your standards? Who the fuck are you, anyways?
Seriously, can we stop this shit already? As in today? What has ivn ever done that mods need to cause “death” over? Be kind of a dick? Not against the rules, for fuck’s sake. Are you one of those people who calls everyone you don’t agree with a troll? Do you think the mods (!!!11) are going to get him because he’s not nice? Okay, the guy’s kind of a dick. Big fucking deal. No moderation “death” required.
Well that would certainly explain why I haven’t seen anyone say what I said in a while. 
Sure it is.
Just so you know, I’m stealing that metaphor. So, thanks, in advance.
Oh get over your bad self.
First, it was a fucking joke. I didn’t realize I had to include the requisite smiley face to clue you in.
And secondly, being a dick is being a jerk and we got a rule for that.
And just so you know, I myself borrowed it from the song “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” by Bruce Cockburn.
Wow, what a major contributor to society.
Being a jerk has been justification for banning for quite some time now.
I haven’t seen any such person on the boards or in a beastiary.
In any case, it’s quite legitimate to point out that by his own admission, the fucker hates posting here. The very experience is an unpleasant one, and he goes to great lengths to point out, over and over, how horrible most people here are (and, by extension, what a pretentious twat he is by feigning superiority via discernment).
Posting here only to complain about the joint has been grounds for banning for quite some time now, too.
To say nothing of the fact that continually posting to a board you don’t like in order to pick fights about how (almost) everybody there sucks and is less smart/cool/wise than you are… is pretty fucking trollish.
Ya know, MsWhatsit was right about it being too long, and not worthy of a careful read, but now that St. Anger has brought this to my attention, I’ve got to ask: Are you really reporting up to five Pit Threads per day?
And how’s that working out for you? 'Cos I’m not remembering seeing a lot of mod smackdowns here. Or do you have another complaint thread in ATMB about how they’re not responding to your reports?
I am certain that ivn1188 did not lay forth to garner the sycophantic praise of other Dopers, and he’s likely to view this as a further pollution compromising the ideals and purpose of the Pit, but I though the OP was masterful. Easily the best rant of the month. The responses from Revtim, Telemark, and kaylasdad raise it to the level of fine performance art. Once again, I am reminded of the occasional value of lawyers to society.
Who likes to pit other posters anymore when we can’t say fuck all that’s fun to say to someone when they piss you off? I haven’t been annoyed enough to pit anyone but I wouldn’t want to bother knowing I’d have to have the damned rules list open while I write so I don’t get warnings. And I think a lot of the shit I tend to say is no longer allowed. Not everyone wants to spend time crafting creative and “non offensive” insults that follow the rules. I prefer to be succinct and call someone a cunt rather than a “ridiculous dragon-breath spawn of the devil” or some shit.
I think we will all get a clue as to where ivn gets all this free time when he selects option 1 in this poll:
Well, err, then let’s carry on. Boodles light rocks? Splash o’ lime? I guess I just get irritated whenever people do the “Ooh, we don’t like him! Let’s report him!” bit. You may have been joking, and I may have been too irritable to see that, but it’s not uncommon for the type of “Hey! We don’t like you, so you’re in trouble!” BS afoot. So my post may not apply to you, but it still applies to the rest of the mob.
“Kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight”
You might want to let Bruce Cockburn know that too.
ETA - Shit, beaten to the punch.