In theory, people contribute here because they enjoy The Straight Dope, are intelligent, are reasonable, etc.
Why, then, should we have a forum for people to use ad hominems that in non-cyber space would either get them sued or beaten? If they don’t enjoy the conversations, they could leave. If they are abusive, they could be banned.
I’m starting to think that the Pit feeds on itself and is quite unhealthy.
Bucky
In general, I agree with you. In specific, my own posts there have been enlighted and fun. But I don’t get into the venom-spitting much. That part’s for shut-ins who have no real enemies in city traffic to vent on.
In any online forum, from the earliest BBSs to the glory that is vBulletin, there are arguments and flamewars. it happens, has happened, will happen.
The idea behind creatign the Pit was to provide a place to shove all the flames that would otherwise interrupt, clutter, and derail more civilized conversations. It ain’t perfect, but I much prefer having the Pit to the alternative.
Very rarely do I check out the Pit for the reasons you mention. But I am glad that it is kept in that one forum instead of ruining the others.
Absolutely. I know people who’ve been posting for over a year who haven’t set virtual foot in the Pit. And there’s no reason to.
Me, I’ve been wearing asbestos undies since 1988 or so, and I have an awfully thick skin, so I spend time there. Once in a while, there are some surprisingly good discussions, and I even recall a thread being moved from the Pit to GD. Go fig. 
In theory, also, people contribute in the Pit because they enjoy that sort of thing, and if they don’t like the Pit, they can just stay out of it. Actually, this works pretty well. Like Phobos, I don’t post there, but I’m glad we have it.
In addition, sometimes a person just has to vent. Saying “darn” just ain’t the same as breaking out into a stream of language that would make Denis Leary blush.
One real problem with the pit is that some people think that it’s real, and accepted, and think it’s OK to work off their steam on other forums.
A lot of mean people in the pit, getting really worked up over some of the most trivial “problems”. I also can’t help but wonder if they won’t go postal at some SDMB function.
Fonz;
Give us Dopers more credit than that. We post to the Pit because we know that saying such things anywhere else would be completely unacceptable. What goes in the Pit usually stays there because once it’s in the Pit, reason has failed (or was never there to begin with) and emotional venting has taken over. We understand and accept that. We can fight tooth and claw in the Pit, joust according to rules in Great Debates, and toss a ball around everywhere else. Only with newbies or trolls is there any blurring of those boundaries. Long post short: We can tell fantasy from real life.
Now for the rest of yez. I like the Pit. I enjoy laughing at some of the wittier flames (UncleBeer knocking down and dragging out CompactDiskMilk, for example) and seeing how we all really think and feel beneath the fronts we put up in the ‘civilized’ fora. Even the Pit has rules, you know, and Bodoni, Alphagene, and Corrado aren’t at all afraid to enforce them. Maybe I like the Pit for the same reason I enjoy watching football: Chaos according to rules. The Pit has true emotion contained in a rather dry media (the printed word) and some hilarious stuff. I don’t want to ramble, but sometimes the Pit is just what you need.
This is a reasonable approach. Derleth claims she can tell the difference between the pit and reality, but that’s not how her pit rants sound. She really gets into it.
Any medical man like myself will tell you that one of the biggest ways children get beaten is when houshold rage is allowed to “vent”. Violence doesn’t vent, it feeds on itself. As each stage is found acceptable, another line is drawn until it goes too far. I hear it all the time- we alyways played rough but never broke bones before, or sure we broke bones, but never knocked anyone out before, or …
The answer is to lower the bar on what’s unacceptable, not keep raising it.
Ooh, now show us how to do that mind-meld thing, or the nerve pinch. Oh, and aren’t you supposed to have green blood and pointy ears or something? 
First off, I’m a MALE! Use HE when referring to me in the third person.
Secondly, I do know the difference between fantasy (my Pit rant) and reality (that which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away) and the distinctions are strong in my mind. I’m not going to go postal and quote from one of my rants as I gun down helpless yak-felchers.
Thirdly, what are you talking about? If you could give me a link to a rant, I’d gladly explain my state of mind at the time. I honestly can’t think of any rants I’ve done recently. I might have commented on rants, given suggestions, but those were all in fun. I’m never serious in the Pit. What little time I spend there is spent laughing.
You say that Derleth is out of control in his pit rants… Are we to assume, then, that he is otherwise in the other fora? Apparently, then, he can, indeed, tell the difference between the fora.
By the way, it just occured to me that this tread can be construed as a complaint concerning the administration of the SDMB… Ought I to move it to the proper forum <evil grin>?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by P G B *
**
Fine, the minute toddlers actually start getting smacked around in my forum, we’ll consider disbanding the Pit. Venting is bad? Medical men like yourself feel that the alternative, namely repressing anger, is good? Never heard that one before. It’s irrelevant anyway. This is a message board, not This Boy’s Life.
I’m with Derleth, I give enough credit to Dopers that I don’t feel like they need to be protected from the Pit. If they are intimidated by confrontation or just don’t like that forum, then they’ll stay out. There are people who aren’t big MPSIMS fans, so they don’t spend a great deal of time in it. We’re not running a day care here.
Besides, anyone who has been in the Pit there long enough knows that truly viscious attacks or gratuitous insults aren’t tolerated in the Pit. Anyone who waltzes in there just to say “Bucky’s an asshole” will get a virtual whooping from me or my co-mods. It’s not some acid-spittin’ free for all.
And some very amusing stuff happens there too.
Honestly, I think it’s the people compare the light jabbing and poking that goes on in the Pit to something like child abuse are the ones who could use a reality check.
The main reason I can’t get interested in the pit is that it seems so lowbrow. Nothing is dicussed is it? Not like the other forums.
Oh heavens no. There is no discussion at all.
We all sit around and say “poop” and “crap” and call each other “assmunches” and threaten to kill and then sue each other’s corpses.
At eleven o’clock we break for a light lunch.
Then don’t go there.
(Actually, I wish you would. You and I need to “talk.”)
Occasionally the old AOL forum would get bogged down with board disruption from a very small group.
What am I saying?
Usually the small group was one really trollish person.
IIRC The Pit was invented early on to throw the trollish thing somewhere and leave the other areas a bit cleaner.
For that reason alone I say…Long Live The PIT!
Don’t go there much.
But God Love It!
Just my two cents, but one of the things I really like about this board is the choices we offer.
I’m sure we don’t even come close to covering the full spectrum of human interest, but we do try to have something for most everybody.
If you dislike something you see here, don’t read it. Stop. Close the thread, leave the forum, look at something else. Heck, log off the computer and go outside, look at the sky, play with your dog, go lie down in the leaves. Life is too friggin’ short.
your humble TubaDiva
Is that why my serious thread on what makes for an effective insult was locked for 2 months? I had to get a mod to unlock it. Why was it locked? Because 7of7 made simple post “It turns out you can call someone a pencilneck, and he will cry. Poor baby.” This was very similar, but far less inflamitory than other comments on that thread.
Almost every thread there that you lock is because “I’m bored with this”, or “this insult is too tame”. Who cares? Other people are posting and you’re bored. Go watch some Jerry Springer or Slapdown and come back refreshed with your blood lust restored off-site.