# Acceptable conduct in the Pit - NON-PIT RULES APPLY **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 17, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615 "2008-12-17T19:33:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/21 "2008-12-17T20:20:53Z")
Was there a particular event (or thread) that prompted this? If so, which? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/22 "2008-12-17T20:23:00Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > I like the title edit idea too, or even an icon if appropriate. I’m guessin’ that can be done fairly easily, should only be required infrequently and would be pretty hard to miss. > > Some threads do get pretty rough. I thought your post said “I ate a dildo.” I vote for title edit. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/23 "2008-12-17T20:23:16Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > What about putting in a “Pit thread title [Mod:NPR\* after post #124]” > > \*Non-Pit Rules. That’s pretty much what \*\*Duke \*\*suggested in post #3. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/24 "2008-12-17T20:24:42Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Was there a particular event (or thread) that prompted this? If so, which? [This one.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=496627) ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/25 "2008-12-17T20:25:02Z")
This sounds like a bad idea to me too. What triggered this? ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/26 "2008-12-17T20:25:37Z")
Cool. I can Pit someone, really ratchet shit up getting in people’s grills, vent myself to my satisfaction–and if I’m lucky, when I’m done spewing poo like a masturbatin’ motherfuck, the whole thread gets shut down and sent to Sunnybrook Farm, so no one can get in a few last licks on me? Coo-well. I love this idea. I’m gonna start Pitting a whole bunch of you right now. Let’s see, where’s that list of people I hate? I knew that was gonna come in handy someday… New motto–Pit hard, Pit fast, Pit now 'cuz Pit threads get their Pits taken away quickly! ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/27 "2008-12-17T20:26:08Z")
Ed, this is your board and I realize you’re only trying to make it better, but I see problems with the new policy. It seems to me that this will increase the overhead for the mods and cause confusion for everyone concerned. If a thread falls into that dreaded trainwreck category, lock it or let if fly as a trainwreck. Not really a big deal, I can easily avoid it. All this does is open the door for subjective judgment and questionable “official” actions, which I believe is the cause of most, if not all complaints by the members. Mods have their hands full with legitimate concerns. This just seems to open the door for selective application and enforcement against certain members. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/28 "2008-12-17T20:36:15Z")
It makes sense that **Contrapuntal** ’s link is the one that explains the rationale behind this move (I had previously declined to read that thread beyond the first few posts). I still think it’s a dumb proposal, though. Just make the rules clearer, and suspend posters when the rules justify doing so. To me it seems posters get away with much more jerkish behaviour nowadays; in my first few years as a Doper, the ban-hammer would be brought down much more quickly, and suspensions were not used. Not that this was a good thing, but some of the posters in the **Euthanasiast** thread don’t seem to remember how it used to be (or weren’t around, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/29 "2008-12-17T20:37:44Z")
Shouldn’t this be a sticky? ---
**Author:** ![Bambro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df705f/32.png) [@Bambro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambro)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/30 "2008-12-17T20:37:50Z")
I don’t understand. If there are going to threads, where in the middle of the thread, a mod blows a whistle and declares that the thread has got to start following the rules of the other forums…why not just move the thread to the other forum? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/31 "2008-12-17T20:38:27Z")
The question about acceptable thread titles is still left open as well. Could you clarify if “misleading” thread titles are ok or if thread titles must be 100% factual? (Especially since this whole mess got kicked off from confusion over that “rule”) Could you clarify? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/32 "2008-12-17T20:39:53Z")
> [@Bambro](#): > > I don’t understand. If there are going to threads, where in the middle of the thread, a mod blows a whistle and declares that the thread has got to start following the rules of the other forums…why not just move the thread to the other forum? Wild ass guess : Because whatever behavior got it moved would violate the rules of that forum. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/33 "2008-12-17T20:41:57Z")
I would prefer more formality and civility in GD, and had always pretty much assumed that. I like decorum and civility, it allows much more subtle forms of invective. Indeed, I’ll not soon forget how surprised I was that “liar” was acceptable (albeit briefly). But if you make the Pit the Pit Lite, it blurs the distinction, its like being damned to Heck. Let the brimstone bubble, and the sulfuric stenches rise. I’m a big boy, I can take it, and can even dish it out, if I can overcome my natural timidity and reserve. Let the GD be the place for sipping tea with pinkies akimbo, with strict insistence on formal politesse. That will make it the perfect forum for arguments that no one much gives a shit about, and are therefore not tempted to emotive outbursts. But sometimes, rarely, a ooster deserves to be spitted from rectum to uvula and broiled over a bubbling vat of rat turd stew. Let it be the Pit, sez I! And, oh, by the way…Ed who? ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/34 "2008-12-17T20:45:38Z")
So we’re still supposed to pretend that there really is a Cecil Adams, other than it being a pseudonym, and the staff is still free to be rude and unethical all they want? Gee, no wonder the business is not doing so hot in these troubled financial times. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/35 "2008-12-17T20:46:28Z")
If a “worthwhile discussion is underway” but is being derailed by naughty language then why not just move it to GD or IMHO? That is where “worthwhile discussions” belong. Expecting folks to notice rule changes in the pit is just asking for a train wreck. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/36 "2008-12-17T20:47:19Z")
I love this. Ed and the mods have obviously spent time and effort to try and resolve pit issues and obviously think that they have come up with a reasonable solution, and already he’s being laid in to. I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns in to a train wreck, despite the admonitions that it can’t. Really, the motto of the SD shouldn’t be ‘Don’t be a jerk’. It should be ‘Thou shalt disagree’. I’m not saying who I think is right or wrong (at the moment). I just love the fact that when it comes to the running of this board, it seems almost inevitable that it’ll be pistols at dawn. Wouldn’t it be strange and interesting if, one day, everyone said ‘Yes, I agree’. I’m not holding my breath, though. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/37 "2008-12-17T20:49:47Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And, oh, by the way…Ed who? The Head. ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/38 "2008-12-17T20:55:58Z")
> [@Bambro](#): > > I don’t understand. If there are going to threads, where in the middle of the thread, a mod blows a whistle and declares that the thread has got to start following the rules of the other forums…why not just move the thread to the other forum? Why not just lock the damn thread? I don’t understand what this new rule is supposed to accomplish. I agree that mods and admins should be given respect when they are acting in official capacity. But really, this new rule boggles. ---
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/39 "2008-12-17T20:56:15Z")
I think for the most part the mods do a thankless job, and I for one think they deserve our respect, if only for that reason. Too often I have seen members of this board derail a thread over the most mundane nitpicking. Tempers get raised and often ruin an otherwise interesting thread. I’m not sure that making a thread a “non-pit” thread will work, but I can see where the idea came from. As Ed said, this is an experiment, let’s give it a try. If it doesn’t work, something else can be tried. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615/40 "2008-12-17T20:58:40Z")
I don’t like this idea at all, and I don’t see anything wrong with the way the pit was running before. If the rule was “start a new thread to argue with moderators instead of arguing in the same thread they moderated in” I wouldn’t mind it. First, I think you’ve failed to actually identify a problem with the pit. You’re trying to fix what you haven’t demonstrated to be broke. Second, even if there was some sort of problem with the pit, this solution is like trying to spread butter on your toast with a sword. Even if it works for buttering your bread, you’re likely to have a whole new set of problems because of it. Third, this feels a lot like throwing your weight around just because you can. We all know you’re in charge, but take a step back and look at what you’re doing here. There’s no damned reason to put the new cover sheets on this TPS report, but you seem so excited to enforce this new rule when you’re barely even a contributing member of the community. (Hi, Opal!) Either you think the pit is a worthwhile place, or you don’t. Making a half-pit, half-something else forum out of it where the rules can arbitrarily change mid-thread because a moderator doesn’t like someone’s tone (who isn’t breaking the rules) is just goofy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acceptable-conduct-in-the-pit-non-pit-rules-apply/477615.md?page=3)