My reg date is recent but I lurked here for over a year before registering. Am I still considered a newbie? 
I’ve seen cliques here – look at the flirt threads, for instance.
The difference between the cliques in the SDMB and on other message boards is that the folks here are more embracing of newcomers. It’s a big party, where a lot of folks know each other – but strangers are given a warm welcome (or at least folks don’t look at 'em funny), and given enough time, they’ll be one of the regulars. The cliques definitely do not run the board, though. A shared common mindset among the individuals that post here have more of an influence in shaping the SDMB than does any of cliiques here.
On some other bulletin boards, the dynamics of the cliques (is that a word?) is closer to what you would find in a high school in an upper middle class suburb south of Denver. The clique controls things, and it’s much harder for a newcomer to feel like “a part of things.” If one member of a clique doesn’t like what someone said, everybody gangs up. Small transgresions are not soon forgiven, if ever. The cast of characters changes slowly.
Just one person’s observation.
It looks like you just don’t get it. She surely means you.
You are exactly the kind of person who is a pill around here for those of us who just come to post a few things.
You latch on to any minor point and refuse to let go. Then a couple more wheezes with high counts will come in to back you up. Why are the high-count people such a nusience to people with low counts? Because a person with a low count (read “with a life”) can’t get back often enough to defend themselves. There will be three or four high-counters tag-teaming it in the pit, proclaiming “victory” and declaring the low-counter must be licking their wounds - all before the low-counter has returned to notice the responses.
You don’t remember the cruel things you said about That Girl, but I do. You don’t remember the acid reception I first got from Satan, but I do.
You are like the rich folks in The Great Gatsby, who run over other people and think the main problem is that they will be late to the next party. “Careless” the word in that book. “Uncaring” works, too.
Moderator’s Notes: DoZ, your post reeks of a personal attack. You well know posts like that do not belong in ATMB. I suggest you either, one, offer an apology, or two, start a damned Pit thread where people can respond to you in kind. Offering up your petty sniping in a place where the object of your attack is forbidden to reply stinks. It is totally unfair. Consider this a formal and final warning. If I see any more underhanded remarks from you in an inappropriate forum and they’ll be your last. Am I clear?
DoZ said:
What the hell are you talking about? How does my observation constitute “cruel things,” let alone “about” That Girl?
I’m sure you’ll be stunned to know that I don’t keep track of everybody who shows up, and I reallydon’t keep track of everything everybody else says to them.
But your mention of Satan is interesting in the context of this thread–in which my response to That Girl was in response to her response to Czarcasm, which in turn was in response to Silly Rabbit’s “[**i]t depends on who your friends are, who’s [sic] butt you kiss and how long you’ve been here.” Because an amazing number of people seem to believe as Silly does–I’ll go out on a (not very long) limb and assume you’re one of them. And Satan would be a logical target for such resentment–high post count, early reg date, one of the most noted people here. A cliquemeister fer shure–he’d just have to be the poster boy for your resentment, right? Right?
Except…
<<<dramatic pause>>>
YOU’RE STILL HERE AND HE’S BANNED!
Which, in case you aren’t paying attention, makes the whole freaking subject ridiculous.
I’ll assume that “you” in this case means everybody with a four-digit post count–otherwise I have to conclude that you follow my posts a lot more closely than any sane person would. In either case, this may well be the silliest comparison I’ve ever seen around here that didn’t Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot.
Insert “involve” between “didn’t” and “Hitler;” make a note that Preview Reply is our friend.
Except Satan loved being antagonized for simple remarks, and most people don’t. I saw where you just patted yourself on the back for being called surly. Nice guy. And the surly types have UncleBeer to fall back on. I’ve never seen him defending anyone with a low count.
As for UncleBeer - you don’t get it either. You’re also in that category, were before you were a mod, and still are. If you want this in the pit, you are free to move it. Any thread that starts off swearing belongs there anyway, as I recall.
DoZ, I know why I’m here. Why are you?
Your posts clearly demonstrate that you don’t think much of this place, so again, why are you here?
Yes, a long term poster who screws up for the first time will be cut more slack than a newbie who’s done the same thing. But if the same long term poster has a history of crossing, or coming close to, the jerk line, I’d say the newbie will be the one who gets the better treatment. It goes both ways.
If you’re new here, you are under probation. But it’s a pretty lenient kinda probation, and I don’t know why so many people get so steamed up about it. You’re not going to get banned for having written too many dull posts, or for having bad grammar. The “don’t be a jerk” rule is mighty hard to break unwittingly.
Right now, as it happens, I’ve logged in again when I normally wouldn’t have. Why? Because I got into exactly one of those defend-yourself traps we’re talking about. Did UncleBeer really have to step in to defend poor little MysterEcks? No. He’s pretty immune to criticism, more’s the pity. And he seemed to be dumping on elmwood and That Girl, trying to shift the complaint off his shoulders. Not particularly self-aware.
So, why did UncleBeer do it? Because he likes to argue. Whenever you see him on this forum, whether a person comes to ask about bold lettering or how to logoff, he comes in ready to start a fight. So he did it to create a situation where I have two choices- 1) I can come back next week when I normally would and find that several other people have joined the dogpile and I have been banned, essentially, for being a target for voicing an opinion. Or, come back and defend myself and be knocked for only seeming to post to defend myself.
You should see that is exactly the situation that doesn’t occur on other boards. Yes, I prefer other boards greatly, such as OpalCat’s. But, like her, I come here now and again and comment on whatever I see that I feel needs commenting on. As do most of the posters on every board.
Well, now Miss Creant, looks like this thread might turn into an example of what you were asking for.
I never saw anything malicious. They had a policy (one you might consider sometime) of not allowing flaming. The one thing that stuck in my mind was the time UncleBeer was caught with his I-Pee# stuck in his zipper- He was banned for flaming, and then caught using a sock puppet. His logged IP# was posted for Lynn to confirm or deny. It was a small ISP in Ohio. He wrote to beg for his number to be removed from the board, using his normal email address. With that confirmation, his name was gleefully removed.
I recall that overall that site had a better accuracy rate than this one. Pretty much none of the posts on some of your forums go unchallenged. How responsible do You feel for the inacuracies people post in MPSIMS, for example?
Come to think of it, if you’re going to keep knocking it, it might just be time for a new version. Slightly different format, perhaps. The last one ended up as a dozen forums, some about word usage and books, some about Photoshop and web design.
Most of what you feel needs to be commented on is the running of this message board. And this message board is not run simply for people who want to take potshots at the mods and admins. So goodbye.
Quite possibly, you didn’t see what I saw. Or perhaps you didn’t see it from my point of view. In any case…I certainly never confirmed or denyed UncleBeer’s IP number. Nor did anyone write to me, asking me for such confirmation. I do find it ironic that a board dedicated to using sock puppets would object to someone using a puppet.
{Edited to insert a “not” where it should go. Thanks, thinksnow. Lynn}
[Edited by Lynn Bodoni on 09-06-2001 at 10:01 AM]
I feel kinda like Ulf Samuelson now.
[/obscure hockey reference]
For the record, just in case real people who don’t already know better read this thread…
The late DoZ said:
Hey, you takes your appreciation wheres you can get it.
Well he’s certainly known to chastise those with not-so-low counts when he finds it necessary…including one MysterEcks a time or two. :eek:
Post count snobbery is pretty silly…in either direction.
Does it occur to you at all (rhetorical question at this point, of course) that it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with what he felt was you acting inappropriately for the forum? And that had the situation been reversed the Moderator Note would have been addressed to me? I realize that a “yes” answer to these questions makes it harder to feel like a martyr, but consider it anyway.
I’m immune from it if it’s from a source I don’t respect, yeah. Kinda silly to be otherwise, isn’t it?
Number one, I was dumping on neither–if either of them interpret my opinion in that way, I will apologize to them(not to third parties who want to get offended on their behalf) and try to clarify it.
Number two, what complaint was I trying to shift off my shoulders? The only one I see complaining here is you.
Not
particularly self-aware.
So, why did UncleBeer do it?
[Edited by Lynn Bodoni on 09-06-2001 at 05:47 AM]
So * of course*I hit Submit when I meant to hit Preview, and of courseI have a coding error in what I didn’t mean to submit yet. This is the third time I’ve screwed something up in this thread–that’s extraordinary even for me. I’d better quit while I’m behind for the moment.
If some kind admin or mod would make the end of “He’s [me, that is] pretty immune to criticism, more’s the pity” a close-quote so I look less stupid, I will love you forever, or at least for the 60 seconds after I see it. Or maybe not…sure as hell somebody will think it’s a perk of the 2000-post club, or some such thing.
Now wait a minute. This seems to be the only thread where she has made comments about the mods. And she came to give simple, correct information about the OP. Then jerks dragged her into a spitting contest. Seems she predicted exactly how the board works. Old timers can start fights, but if you defend yourself, even on a single thread, then somehow you are the bad guy. Not my idea of Fighting Ignorance.
No. The spitting contest was of “her” own devise. Anyway, discussions and criticism of staff actions belong in the Pit. I’ll move this thread there since you clowns from So. Cal. appear to be unable to follow the forum rules. (I’m constantly surprised how many famously stubborn SDMB disruptors apparently live in or near San Jose.) You’d think one warning and subsequent banning would serve, but I guess not. You guys are far too set on your attempts to disrupt and disturb to heed the warning signals of your own destruction.
Oh hurray. The UncleBeer fan club is back in town, rising to the defense of each other.
No, fuckmallet. You’ve logged in again because you hit the post reply button. Not because of some intricate mind-trap that UB laid out to ensnare you.
Are you suggesting something ludicrous like UB having mind control powers? That’s so silly that…
…must kill the queen …must kill the queen…
From when I was the newest of the new. Fresh out of the box. UncleBeer not only defended me here but also in another related ATMB thread.
In short? You guys are wrong. Go post something constructive and quit pitching a fit.
I said it before.
I’ll say it again.
Anyone who spends more than one-third of their time here complaining about the administration of this board really should find somewhere else to go.
And if we have to push you out and lock the door behind you, oh, well.
Excuse me while I go off to research some posting histories…