Adults who tattle

[Turek]

It have neither the responsibility nor the authority to correct my peers.

[Isamu]

@Lynn_Bodoni

Cue “It’s Suppertime” from Little Shop of Horrors.

I just remembered that I only have that movie on VHS. I’d better surf on over to Amazon and remedy that…we still have a couple of VHS players, but neither are hooked up to a TV at the moment.

Nice call! God I love that movie.

[tim314]

@fluiddruid

Ok, so what are we talking about here, specifically? Because I find the concept of “tattling” really should be limited to stuff that doesn’t matter.

Running to the manager of a movie theatre because someone brought in an outside soda? Tattling.

Running to the manager of a movie theatre because a group is being so loud and disruptive that nobody can enjoy the movie? Not so much.

At work, telling your boss that your co-worker was 5 minutes late from lunch? Tattling.

At work, telling your boss about your co-worker constantly shirking work? Not so much.

In my experience, most of the people who cry “tattling” are people who are not doing petty things, they’re doing stuff they know full well they shouldn’t be doing and who are impacting other people negatively. Knowing that, why would they respond well to someone telling them to pretty please stop being douchebags? In general, they don’t. Sure, don’t sweat the small stuff, but I’m not going to put myself into a big conflict with someone who is going to start with the “you’re not the boss of me” line of reasoning.

I agree, it totally depends on what the person is doing.

[tdn]

@ghardester

I saw you kill that man, and I’d like to talk to you about it before I tell anyone.

That’s not tattling, that’s blackmail.

[Fiona_Greenlee]

@BigT

The point of telling people is so that the mods don’t get a bunch of reports. It’s quite useful with spammers, especially.

As someone who has modded before, you get a bunch of reports anyways. The “reported to the mods” comes across as an annoying teacher’s pet, waving a hand frantically to tell the teacher that Susie is late when the teacher already knows. I always found that behavior far more annoying than multiple reports.

[kaylasdad99]

@ghardester

I saw you kill that man, and I’d like to talk to you about it before I tell anyone.

@tdn

That’s not tattling, that’s blackmail.

Actually, it’s neither. It might be a prelude to blackmail, but the statement itself doesn’t actually contain any offer to not tell the authorities.

Sherlock Holmes, for instance, on more than one occasion, declined to turn his perpetrator over to the fuzz, after satisfying himself that the cause of justice was better served by not doing so.

[tdn]

@kaylasdad99

Actually, it’s neither. It might be a prelude to blackmail, but the statement itself doesn’t actually contain any offer to not tell the authorities.

Well, not yet, it doesn’t. But it’s a dandy way to start.

[i_am_a_scientist]

@kaylasdad99

prelude to blackmail

sounds like a noir film

[kaylasdad99]

Yeah, it kinda does, doesn’t it? I was originally going to call it a “precursor to blackmail,” but “prelude” resonated better with me. Thanks for cluing me into why it did.

[Freudian_Slit]

@kaylasdad99

Actually, it’s neither. It might be a prelude to blackmail, but the statement itself doesn’t actually contain any offer to not tell the authorities.

I prefer extortion. It sounds cooler 'cause of the x.

[Incubus]

I have a coworker like this. If she finds out you were doing something that was against the rules, no matter how minor, she will LOUDLY comment on it when a supervisor is in earshot. If anyone confronts her, she goes crying to the supervisor about it.

She’s also incredibly nosy and will go out of her way to find dirt against you that she can leverage if you call her out on her asshattery. Even if the supervisors take what she says with a grain of salt, she still puts you in a situation where things become a much bigger deal than they need to be.

[Daithi_Lacha]

@Freudian_Slit

I prefer extortion. It sounds cooler 'cause of the x.

I wonder what kind of film could be made with the title of XXXtortion?

[JSexton]

@kaylasdad99

Actually, it’s neither. It might be a prelude to blackmail, but the statement itself doesn’t actually contain any offer to not tell the authorities.

Sherlock Holmes, for instance, on more than one occasion, declined to turn his perpetrator over to the fuzz, after satisfying himself that the cause of justice was better served by not doing so.

I plan to make a film about this murder. Interested in purchasing the distribution rights?

[tdn]

@Daithi_Lacha

I wonder what kind of film could be made with the title of XXXtortion?

It will star white women and black males.

[Chickie]

@Daithi_Lacha

I wonder what kind of film could be made with the title of XXXtortion?

Hot! I do love me some hardcore tortion!

[Patch]

@kingbighair

snitches get stitches

Excellent! My motorcycle jacket is torn. Can they repair it?

[kaylasdad99]

@Daithi_Lacha

I wonder what kind of film could be made with the title of XXXtortion?

@Chickie

Hot! I do love me some hardcore tortion!

Nekkid personal injury lawyers?

Welllll, maybe. With the sound off.

[Gfactor]

Don’t tell the teacher, but I’ve moved this thread from The BBQ Pit to Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share.

Gfactor
Snitch Moderator

[BigT]

@Gfactor

Don’t tell the teacher, but I’ve moved this thread from The BBQ Pit to Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share.

Gfactor
Snitch Moderator

All right, who tattled?

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@Fiona_Greenlee

As someone who has modded before, you get a bunch of reports anyways. The “reported to the mods” comes across as an annoying teacher’s pet, waving a hand frantically to tell the teacher that Susie is late when the teacher already knows. I always found that behavior far more annoying than multiple reports.

As someone who’s on the mod staff of THIS message board, I have to say that it’s very helpful if the first person who reports a spam post also makes a note of it in the thread…because otherwise, we WILL get a report from everyone.

The SDMB is too big, really, for any one person to read every post in a forum. We value the people who report violations, if they’re genuine violations.