The Belgians invented French Fries. And the English invented Jean-Luc Picard.
The French invented B.O. Do you know nothing?
pan
LOL!!
en francais hwuh hwuh hwuh
You are getting me in trouble! I thought you promised not to tell! And I only said that after you said…[sub]Oh, this is public…[/sub]
Nevermind, carry on…
Well, now that we’re in the pit, can I say this: Could we make it a goddamn rule that when someone starts a tribute thread, and you don’t have something nice to stay, you just stay home?
I mean, jesus, I’ve seen tribute threads for people who didn’t turn my crank–who in fact had really pissed me off by being unfair or dimwitted or offensive. But my reaction was to decline to post. Not offer up reasons why I thought someone shouldn’t be appreciated.
If you want to start a bitch thread about someone, start it in the pit. Let a tribute thread to another poster stay what it is. If no one agrees, it will have a small number of posts and die a quiet, quick death, like that stupid tribute thread to that bossy, pointless bitch CrankyAsAnOldMan that Francesca started on a dare. I think that’s a classier way to go, IMHO, than to post a dissent to the thread.
What’s that joke about the women at the bridge club? Marge says “I heard a little something about Gladys the other day… I know our little rule is that you don’t have something good to say…don’t say anything at all. Well believe me girls (rubbing hands together) boy, is this GOOD!”
I’m sorry this happened to your thread, FarmerOak. It’d feel sorry even if I hated your guts.
Don’t sweat it, Cranky. No one has said anything mean or unfair, and the Farmer can certainly take a little criticism, when he dishes so much out.
But I appreciate the thought.
You may have missed it, Cranky, but Attrayant was not serious when he started this as a “tribute” thread. That’s why Coldfire moved it, and Attrayant acknowledged as much in his next post.
Sorry, but not as far as I’m concerned. I might be willing to go along with a “don’t say anything negative” rule of thumb, but I didn’t even do that when this was in MPSIMS. All I did was link to Farmer Oak’s own words. Information ain’t always sunshine and puppy dogs, but it’s certainly a prerequisite for an informed discussion.
Good lord, whoosh city. I completely missed the sarcasm.
Which makes me sorry I conributed to the thread at all, of course. I recall thinking it was weird that someone selected that “no one under thirty” comment for accolades, but it made me bark out loud so I assumed Attrayant had my same sick appreciation for certain overgeneralizing wisecracks.
I also have never personally run across a “bitch about this poster” thread in MPSMS, which contributed to my confusion.
But basically I’m just a goddamned idiot.
throws up hands, walks out feeling dumb again
Interesting theory, minty. The thought occurred to me, too, that he might be yanking my chain, considering all the out-of-context quotes he chose. But his OP was overwhelmingly complimentary, so I chose to accept it in the spirit it was offered.
So if Cranky “missed it,” she ain’t the only one. I’d be interested in Attrayant’s take on his own thread. If it was meant as a personal attack, it was certainly well-camouflaged, as Coldfire seemed to suspect.
Anyone else wishing to “attack” me would do so well as to choose language such as Attrayant’s:
Would that everyone would “attack” me in such a manner.
I realize that I am a newbie, and as such, I couldn’t possibly be smart enough to recognize sarcasm, much less use it effectively ;), but I was sure that this was a slam from the moment I read it.
Incidentally, I also made mental notes of the names of the dopers that eagerly offered their assistance in the bashing. Thanks for the character assessments. I’m sure that they will come in handy should I choose to continue posting in this forum.
I have not come back to this thread sooner because I’ve been receiving so many email notifications that I was sure it had turned fiercely ugly, and I didn’t want to see that in a thread I had started originally to pay tribute.
There, you heard it from the horse’s mouth.
I was confused by Coldie’s post:
I’ve been here long enough to know that, so clearly somebody else must have made some underhanded slight that I had missed. So I carefully re-read through all of the posts up to that point, but since I didn’t see anybody “cleverly disguising” any insults, I just figured that I must be dense and left it at that. I also didn’t challenge the decision to move the thread because past experience has shown me that it’s just not worth it; if a mod has read between somebody’s lines and detected an insult, the thread gets moved or locked and that’s the end of that.
So when I said (clearly with an unhappy preface):
I meant just that… what a damned shame it was that good intentions went rotten.
I even said that I had searched all of Farmer’s posts to make sure that I hadn’t missed some unforgiveable transgression:
What I was trying to say when I wrote that was “I would not have authored this tribute thread if I had seen that Anthracite business.” How could it be read any other way?
I thought it was clear that I started the thread to welcome & congratulate the good Farmer. I used no winkie-faced smiley for the specific reason that I wanted my words to be read at face value, not with a wink-wink.
And then Minty’s comment right after that:
That really started some serious head scratching. Where did I say that? Or even imply it? I still don’t see it.
The only place I can think of where people may have smelled some sarcasm was in the, for lack of a better phrase, “general flavor” of the OP, and not in any specific statement I made. But the reason for that is that I was attempting to open a sort of “celebrity roast” type of thread (I even said this in my 2nd post!), where we would all get up and take a few pot-shots at the good Farmer and then comment on what a wonderful new addition he is to these boards. Clearly the posters responded as I hoped, until minty pointed to the ATMB thread where Farmer made some unpopular remarks. From that point this whole thread had a dark cloud over it and the “celebrity roast” atmosphere that I had tried to establish would never come to fruition. 
Please explain how I should have interpreted this as praise.
And that’s just ONE example from your OP.
For what it’s worth, as a very casual reader who discovered this first in the BBQ section, I didn’t understand why it got sent here. Still don’t. Unless it was later posts.
I took Attrayant’s OP to be sincere. But I’m from GQ so ignore me.
Of course, YMMV.
Okay so the entire OP wasn’t holy scripture sung by angels. It was me looking into my crystal ball, and just musing that maybe someday it might not be entirely impossible that member with such impressive style would some day make moderator. Do you feel that becoming a moderator can be considered as punishment for unpopular behaviour? If you do then I guess I can see how you read negativity into my “promoted to moderator” comment.
#s 2 and 3 were just included for yucks. It was a MPSIMS thread after all. I did not think the “banned” part would even be seen as semi-serious because I know that it is not my place to make such calls, in the same way it is not my place to do troll spotting. “I think so-and-so will be banned soon” would be totally out of line anywhere except in the pit. And since I did not post this remark in the pit, I was confident that it would be seen as a silly little jab. Sort of how the host of a celebrity roast might try to get some chuckles out of the audience by saying that the guest of honour will probably end up in jail some day, even though clearly the event is being held to give tribute.
And how do the guests know that the event is being held to pay tribute? Because it’s held as an awards banquet and not a press conference. The SDMB equivalent of that? I posted in MPSIMS where tribute threads are common, and not in the pit.
For my part, I wasn’t being sarcastic either. I am pretty fond of Farmer Oak I’m even jealous he hasn’t called me a wench. (he still hasn’t! What does a girl have to do to get some respect around here? Oh…um…)
Please don’t assign malicious motives to me unless I express them, thanks.
Well, for each example of read-between-the-lines-think-it-might-possibly-be-an-insult you can find, I bet I can find an honest straightforward no interpretation needed statement of honest tribute.
Clearly many people did. I bet that everybody would have continued posting along the same lines as Cranky, Katie & Medea had the press not leaked the unfortunate Anthracite incident on the 6th post. But I suppose we’ll never know now.
Since the intent was so ambiguous (apparently), maybe a moderator comment like “Hmm… is the intent of the OP to celebrate or slander? If the latter, then this will need to be moved into the Pit” - Instead of “That might be an insult- OFF TO THE PIT!!”
Just a suggestion.
You got it, wench. 
See. Somebody cares about my feelings.
And now, I feel special!
NOW I’M REALLY CONFUSED!!!
You know, the funny thing is, Attrayant, once somone suggested I look for the sarcasm, I saw it and thought it was a sardonic slam. Whereas before I read it as a sort-of sardonic praise. Funny how it can go both ways. I though it was sincere praise, then I didn’t, now I guess I do, although some agree, and some don’t, not only with the intent of your post (and the meaning of it and subsequent posts) but also with what they think the assessment of the poster is stating.
And look, when I take a bite from the other side of the mushroom, it makes me BIGGER!
I thought the thread was sincere when I posted.
Actually, I think was set me off in the GQ thread was that it was the third frog comment from you in two days (The Einhorn BBQ thread containing the other two). I overreacted, and I’ll take it back.
No hard feelings.
–sublight.