Additional Straight Dope Forum Suggestion

Fascinating.

I was going to say “sorry I overslept, everybody” but considering the cheap-shot artists who popped up, it’s more of an experiment in allowing tactical cowardice.

I will however, be only checking in every two hours, so feel free to claim victory again in those periods, you goofy little squirrel.

The purpose of the Straight Dope is to fight ignorance.

You can fight ignorance without being rude.

Exactly.

The out-of-towners come to Bourbon street for the different community standard of Bourbon street vs. their Hometown. It is of zero consequence what the community standard is on other streets in New Orleans (Esplanade was quite nice, though not exactly quiet), and as far as I could tell, you will NOT be arrested for showing whatever you want on Bourbon street, even during Lent.

You’re much more likely to be arrested for biking across it after 7.

Yes, because a thread like this is not an attention-grabbing trick of any sort. And whenever you post attempting to support our ever-dynamic duo, that’s not an attention-grabbing trick either.

Just admit it. You were all set to ascend to the throne as SDMB Resident Straight Supremacist, High Jackass and Knower of Jack Shit.

Then Joe and Jersey showed they were born to lead by example, while all you could do was dodge factual information as it came flying at you. Your attempt to ski the SDMb Mountain of Fact Moguls left your knees shot, and now you’re here sipping a martini that’s half-painkiller because you just couldn’t cut it doing the kind of heavywork that comes natural to Moose and Squirrel.

Just in case you are interested in pursuing facts, go check and see A) how often I run through threads naked and B) what the context is. Usually it’s for birthday threads. Yeah, it’s a gimmick. Yeah, it’s silly. But at least I ain’t posting in purple or using the list tags ad nauseam.

Um, Ace? I would probably have been arrested for it, A. B, it was neither the time nor the place and C IT WAS REALLY FUCKING COLD! HELLO, SHRINKAGE?:wink:

Yeah … here’s the thing, though. There’s the part of me that runs through MPSIMS threads naked on occasion, and there’s the part of me that takes people to task for poor argumentation and faulty logic.

Which of those people, remind me again, is a royal fucking jackass whose sole supporters on this board seem to also be Royal Fucking Jackasses?

I don’t remember the last time someone complained about me running through threads nekkid. Your gimmicks … well, one only need look at this thread to see popular opinion rear its ugly head.

Right. Remind me to use this argument next time I go to Weirddave’s house and attempt to run nekkid thru his yard.

BTW, the only difference between GD and a dopefest, for practical purposes, is that it’s kind of hard to happen to have a cite handy on a particular fact;) I’ve gotten in debates at fests and listened to the. The rules of debate still apply fairly well. When people make logical leaps, they’re called on them. It’s quite lively, if at times a bit fast and confusing. Get in the same room as gobear, Bluesman, Weirddave and Airman Doors and once they start discussing politics tell me that there’s one difference other than the lack of cites and the fact that it isn’t all typed out.

That we say things in one place we would not say in another need not necessitate (and, in fact, does not necessitate) that we are allowed to do so one place or another. That one person called another an asshole in GD where she would not have done so in person doesn’t mean it’s approved.

The standard in GD, you may be shocked to learn from all the time you spend therein attempting to debate, is not to maintain a system with as few checks as possible but a system wherein facts and logic triumph over opinion (sometimes hidden under the guise of “Biblical Truth”) and … well, faulty logic.

No. The purpose of the Straight Dope, and of this MB, is to fight ignorance, not to be pointlessly or brutally honest at the expense of decorum. The recent “Partner has a tiny dick?” thread is evidence enough of that. And the only place, really, where brutality is tolerated much at all is here. This is why people will, instead of suggesting that you read a book before you attempt to educate someone else, tell you to fuck off and read a fucking book. Same honesty. Different flavor.

If you truly believe that a system of “as few checks as possible” regarding ANYTHING is the purpose here, examine the very nature of GD. If someone says something, often a cite is called for. Another word for that is a check … in other words, making sure someone isn’t just extending their opinion to act as fact. And if you’re going to make the argument that this is how we should runs things in GD, I doubt you will meet up with even your two Hypochristian friends agreeing with you there. The strength of their argument, if one can call it that, is their constant citations of selected Bible verses. Without that they are reduced to an ugly mess of bigotry, self-promotion and … well … ignorance.

Here is an excellent opportunity to point out the different between honesty to the point of being rude, and honesty that answers the question.

If I were being rude, I would say something like this:

“Ace, only a fool (how very appropriate! We have a winner, folks!) would think you have defended yourself against anything but your keyboard. And frankly, I think the keyboard’s starting to pull away on points.”

However, since there’s no need for that, let me just say:

"Ace, if you believed you had defended yourself adequately, all of GD owes you an apology for mistakenly allowing you to come to that conclusion. Please be confident that someone will be by soon enough to rectify this grand disservice to your person and your status as the perpetual GD mistaken student will be emblazoned for all to see. You were wrong in the beginning, you are wrong now and you will continue to be wrong even after your passing from this Earth. Scores of nations will remember the great Acehole, who defended the mental midget, the moron of 59th street and, most of all, the common jackass. far and wide did he fling their arguments, and sadly all but one came up short. But oh! that one was so true none could dispute it. And so, the greatest truth of them all is:

The Acehole is wrong."

See? Much more polite.

So to you, it’s an oasis of like minded people in a sea of hate? Even GD or the just MSPSIMS?

So it doesn’t bother you that the standard you suggest for behavior is opaque, incoherent and multiply contradictory? (you suggest that all opinions can be represented with tact and that some opinions can never be said.) Because everyone will know you meant well and interpret things accordingly?

You didn’t mention actually getting or giving any Straight Dope at all. Not important to you, Giraffe?

“You humans and your social conventions are illogical and inconsistent! Does not compute!”

In your OP, you felt that the general condemnation of your statement about the victims of the Rhode Island nightclub fire and JerseyDiamond’s comment about Eve were indicative of censorship by the SDMB membership of unpopular ideas, which conflicts with the notion that we are here to dispel ignorance and have factual discussions. My opinion is that in both of those cases, the statements were rude and contributed nothing to the discussion. As an individual, I came away with the opinion that you and JD are assholes for saying them, when they weren’t necessary to the discussion and served only to be caustic and cruel. Many of individuals on the board came away with the same conclusion.

Now, you’re here in the Pit, crying about how you can’t say whatever you want without people yelling at you for being an asshole. I don’t give a shit about whether you find the rules of society confusing or inconsistent. I don’t give a shit if you think the board rules should be changed. Since neither you nor JD got banned, I don’t really see how you think the board rules are relevant at all. Act like an asshole, and people will think you’re an asshole. End of story.

Since we’re not a hive mind, if everyone on the board is yelling at you, a normal person might take that to be indicative of a problem on their part. You take it to be a problem with social rules in general. That’s because you’re a moron.
**

Making dramatic statements? No, not really.

“You humans and your social conventions are illogical and inconsistent! Does not compute!”

In your OP, you felt that the general condemnation of your statement about the victims of the Rhode Island nightclub fire and JerseyDiamond’s comment about Eve were indicative of censorship by the SDMB membership of unpopular ideas, which conflicts with the notion that we are here to dispel ignorance and have factual discussions. My opinion is that in both of those cases, the statements were rude and contributed nothing to the discussion. As an individual, I came away with the opinion that you and JD are assholes for saying them, when they weren’t necessary to the discussion and served only to be caustic and cruel. Many of individuals on the board came away with the same conclusion.

Now, you’re here in the Pit, crying about how you can’t say whatever you want without people yelling at you for being an asshole. I don’t give a shit about whether you find the rules of society confusing or inconsistent. I don’t give a shit if you think the board rules should be changed. Since neither you nor JD got banned, I don’t really see how you think the board rules are relevant at all. Act like an asshole, and people will think you’re an asshole. End of story.

Since we’re not a hive mind, if everyone on the board is yelling at you, a normal person might take that to be indicative of a problem on their part. You take it to be a problem with social rules in general. That’s because you’re a moron.
**

Making dramatic statements? No, not really.

Someone tell me again why they unbanned this little doof?

It’s an debate thread that grabs your attention, not a pointless, contentless, throwaway line. And here we are debating the content – how novel.

Did you want it to be more boring and dry?

At that time, plenty.

That your online personality has changed, only underscores your acknowlegment that it is still different from your offline personality.

And then there’s the amusing riff part of you – I ask again, why are you different in different places, and should it surprise anyone?

Sure it does. We approve people calling each other “cum-stained goat-felching fuckwads” online. Seen that at the Dopefests lately?

And sometimes, they do not. Some opinions are barred against calm factual assualt, which begets rudeness, which sometimes works to wake up and sometimes doesn’t.

You can’t eradicate all ignorance without some rudeness. What ignorance should we leave untouched, and what rudeness should we allow in the core of the SD?

But Giraffe thinks the point is the oasis of nice, thoughtful people. Suppose I were nominally, pointedly honest (which is ok by you) and he takes offense (since it’s not ok by him).

Who, if anyone is correct as to the purpose? The stated purpose of the MB is to fight ignorance. If we’re moving away from that, let’s update that and be done with it.

C’mon. The context is checks with respect to the SuperEgo. That refers to internal censorship, not “check out my cites, man.”

Don’t think I pigeon holed you, Ace - you personally set up the dichotomy of “they’re Christian Repulicans, while I’m Atheist Independant”, but thatnks for playing anyhow. In any event, any distance you can put between your position and positions I hold will be welcome. I hate it most when people do a poor job of defending a position I agree with.

That makes no sense. You might as well say that the community standards of New York City allow me to blow up skyscrapers.

And setting foot on Esplanade shows that God must favor the innocent–that’s not a place you want to stray.

This is life. It’s not a choice between the straight dope and common courtesy. We can have it all.

Correct, and also the correct interpretation of Billdo’s cite.

That’s a consistent standard – I don’t agree with your analysis in either case, but at least it is a consistent standard.

Hey, you swung at the pitch and ended up with a contradictory pile of puke on your hands.

Don’t blame me.

You should have said, then:

*"We have an opaque, contradictory, and ever-shifting set of multiple community standards depending on the following:

  1. The forum that you happen to be in (MSPSIMS, GD, GQ)
  2. The moderator on duty
  3. How much on the good side of that moderator you are
  4. How many friends you have online
  5. Whether you’re professed to be a minority group or not
  6. Whether your opinions are Politically Correct or not
  7. Your tone in delivering those opinions.

And that’s the way we like it. Hope you can jitterbug all over in attempting to hew to those shifting standards. Dance, monkey, dance!"*

I would’ve shrugged my shoulders and said, “yep, that’s what I thought” and been done with the discussion.

Indeed

Naughty, naughty Ace. Given that you were the person tossing around what is and is not permitted by the SDMB yesterday, I’m shocked, shocked! and appalled to see that, rather than simply truncate gobear’s post, you saw fit to edit the content and change the meaning of what he wrote.

Didn’t you get banned for exactly that same thing once before?

IIRC, the kid was banned because he broke an explicit rule against misquoting someone else. It was a relatively new rule, however, and after two weeks, he apparently convinced the admins that he was sincerely sorry for breaking the rule and wouldn’t do it again.

His assholery has never gotten him banned. Me, I just pay him no mind. I mean, if you enjoy feeding the chimps at the zoo while they fling poo at you, that’s your business, but I’d rather stay away from the monkeyhouse.

Daniel

No offense, chief, but WTF are you talking about? Esplanade was no more dangerous than Park Slope, I spent most of my time there. Uptown was much more decrepit, but still no worse than Dumbo. Everyone was cool.

As for Bourbon street – Bourbon street is a social standards exclusion zone. All the time. I haven’t the foggiest fucking clue what you think that has to do with blowing up skyscrapers. Do we have a corner where that’s socially acceptable in NY?

Shit.

I misread gobear’s original post. I apologize for the accusation of editing his post.

Fenris

In other words, the only possible outcome that makes sense to you is someone telling that you were exactly right all along. Since you’re exactly wrong, it is clear that trying to explain things to you further is futile.

And what I should have said is what I did say:

*We have a very simple rule that works in almost all situations:

  1. Act like an asshole, and people will think you’re an asshole.*

eyes slowly refocus Hmm, I think I heard a reference to New Orleans. rummages Ha! Got it. slips a new CD into the HiveMind™

Wilkommen to the Cabaret!

Enjoy,
Steven