I recently read a thread that was closed down because an administrator thought that the posts, which were apparently not offensive in and of themselves, might serve as a bad example for newbies. Well, my first reaction to this news was to pout because I had not yet received my own personal Satan-scorching and I had been looking forward to it for days. But after I was done pouting, I thought that there might actually be something interesting to this idea.
I mean, what other bad examples can we, the “non-newbie” SDMB community, set for the newbies? Several things came to mind: assuming people are unable to read with comprehension before they have 500 posts, biting hands that feed us, generalizing a personal disappointment into a systematic injustice. Unfortunately those things proved difficult to demonstrate in a vacuum. Therefore, I decided upon the ever-popular thinly disguised new thread to replace an old one.
This is quite egregious on my part, and I am sure if Satan happens to notice it that he will flame me appropriately.
You were next in line, too. He’d been putting a lot of effort into yours. He was just about to post it when he found out the thread was closed. It was damn good, too, if I do say so myself.
And now you’ll never know what he had to say. I’m sure that just eats you up.
What – salt in my wounds? Is that the best you can do?
Surely you can kick my dog while you’re here, too?
(Having read your note on teh “Ignore” thread, I can only imagine the contents of a flame you thought was damn good. sigh)
Newbiew:
Were you paying attention? That was a blatant hijack which had only tangential connection to the OP. Don’t ever do that. Unless you do.
You might get flamed for it.
Or people might laugh. Or be interested. Or entertained. Or annoyed. Best not to take the chance, obviously.
Do we really need a fourth thread on the same goddamn theme? Even meta-humor stops being funny after a while-- the horse is still dead whether you’re just beating it or putting on a puppet show with its cold, lifeless head.
The whining martyrs of this board-- almost exclusively the most veteran of the veterans-- have publicly analyzed every single adminstrative action taken on this board over the last three months in agaonizing detail. Then they analyze the analysis. Then start three more threads about how they expect the admins to react to their analysis of the analysis. When is enough enough?
Here’s a proposal: if the admins did something you didn’t like, express your displeasure. Once. Then shut the fuck up! If your life is so disrupted by the loss of the “Satan’s Flames” thread, feel free to go visit it at Opal’s board. Just quit whining here.
Why don’t you just ask him what it was and quote him in your signature? He’s got a listed email, so he must get sacks and sacks of letters, same as that TV host whatzit.
**LYNN, WHERE ARE YOU?!?**They’re doing it again. I’m a newbie and I demand protection. They’re sitting a bad example. I came to the pit unwillingly, I was uh, er, lured…no…dragged here…yeah, thats the ticket. I was dragged here against my will…HELP.
First thing a newbie should learn. DON’T COME TO THE PIT.
And fuck all yall who lurk in the pit, looking for a reason to curse and then get upset because the thread they looked in on isn’t venomous enough for the bile they need to disgorge.
A lovely example of the phenomenon known as: entering a thread to bitch about its existence. Truly one of the more seductive and insidious of newbie traps. Truly, though, you have gone above and beyond the call of duty by squeezing so many bad examples into one post!! The gratuitious insult, the misrepresentation of another poster’s position, the administrative suck-up (which, admitedly, is not universally considered bad form), and (my personal favorite) the lovely meta-humor present in your portrayal of a newbie who obviously cannot read with comprehension while having less than 500 posts.
I am curious as to whom you have categorized as the “most veteran of the veterans.” Shirley Ujest? Rilchiam? Lissa? AHunter3? Jess? PLDennison? StrTrkr777? Kat? Flinx?
These (among quite a few others who aren’t tripping off my fingers at the moment) are certainly among the most veteran of the veterans, going back at least a year and a half into AOL.
I don’t care if people want to fight over the quality of the MB. (They were doing that when I showed up in November 1997.) However, it is getting a bit wearisome to see such broad generalizations flung about in the debates. (I realize that you said the biggest whiners were the most veteran of the veterans, not that the most veteran of the veterans are the biggest whiners. It is still too broad a brush to paint across the myriad of posters who are here.)
Can we keep the analyses (and the complaints about the analyses) focussed on specific issues, rather than setting up “us vs them” scenarios? Please?
Next on MTV Deathmatch–watch Spiritus and nurlman duke it out.
Or maybe a softball game, newbies v. veterans, losers are condemned from posting anything but a single smilie expressing their approval or disapproval of any given thread.
Oh no-- you guys caught Notthemama with that one on the “definition of ‘newbie’” thread. I ain’t giving no hard and fast definitions.
How about something vague: a “veteran” is someone who ought to be used to the kind of nonsense that periodically surfaces on message boards in general, and Straight Dope-type boards (AOL, a.f.c-a, etc.) in particular. Someone who’s seen a few troll invasions. Someone who’s had to deal with HTML or images getting shut off, or having a popular thread shut down.
In other words, someone who ought to understand that, on a moderated board full of intelligent people, there are bound to be personality clashes and unpopular decisions from time to time. Veterans-- posters who have weathered such storms in the past-- should know that nothing is ever gained by endless hand-wringing over these flare-ups, and that arguing about them and analyzing the situation are nothing more than the online equivalent of picking at a scab. Even the requisite jokethreads– like this one-- that inevitably follows these traumas do nothing but prolong the agony a little longer.
These are the “veterans” I’m talking about. People who ought to know that “this too shall pass,” and should keep the bitching to a minimum. In times of crisis, the board needs the veterans to lead the return to normalcy, not to fan the flames.
That being said, I accept that my bitching about other people bitching is Exhibit A for the prosecution. I plead “not guilty” on the rest of Spiritus’ other counts.
