Plain and simple, this serves as a perfect example of why we drive new people away from the Boards. Who wants to be a member of our forums when we pick apart your first post like a couple of jackals on a deer carcass? I too prefer grammatically correct writing, but if anything chaps my ass about the Dope more than anything else, it’s this particular brand of self-satisfying nitpickery.
Maybe, just maybe we can have an unwritten rule whereby we don’t drive away new users by being a bunch of assholes?
I agree with you, it’s mean. And also pointless. And generally speaking, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth when anyone belittles another for either their intelligence or their lack of education. This is one of the most irritating things about the Dope.
Exactly: don’t begin the torture until they’re hooked on the Dope like the rest of us, and can’t get away. C’mon folks, this is basic Abuse and Exploitation 101 stuff.
I guess that’s the ideal. But it seems like if you don’t come into the board bowing and scraping then that’s the treatment you’ll get. I assumed the idea was to make sure new members were up the abuse that would eventually be heaped upon them no matter what they do.
Well, Boyo got his well-deserved warning, so how about some praise for Idle Thoughts rather than scorn for Boyo, unless you prefer being all negative and shit.
I clicked my way to the OP in the thread Agent Foxtrot linked to expecting to see one of those semi-literate walls o’ text that we often see from new posters. I was surprised to find a perfectly coherent and readable post. I was easily able to understand the situation the OP was seeking advice on. There are probably things in there that don’t qualify as flawless formal written English, but casual and understandable is perfectly fine for message boards, even this one. Bad form on Boyo Jim’s part.
I’m aware that I ended a sentence with a preposition and ended the post with a sentence fragment. What else did I do wrong?
Well, as you can see from my join date, I’m new here. And the very first thread I posted to had a response from the OP full of emphatic, profane cursing. Since I had lurked for a few months before signing up, I knew that this was just this particular Doper’s way of showing he was passionate about the subject. Didn’t bother me a bit. If you lurk here for very long it should be obvious that a fairly thick skin will be required from time to time.
Dorothy Parker was a professional asshole who got paid for her wit. There are only maybe 3 people on the whole board who can get away with this, because they’re incredibly, consistently, intelligently hilarious. If it needs to be said, **Boyo Jim **is not one of them.
It would not have been so odd if the original post of that thread had been poorly written, but it wasn’t. I thought maybe Boyo just lost his mind for a minute but he came back later to defend his critique. Huh. I wish someone would point out to me what was wrong with the post. (answer: nothing)
ETA: As a sometimes grammar nazi, I don’t think this is necessarily a flaw of the Dope that we criticize posts that are poorly written, no matter if by a newbie or an old timer. What is wrong here is that this wasn’t a poorly written post!
On the flip side, dnguy0 got a real nice welcome in part because of the perceived rudeness, so maybe we’ll get a new member that’s a nice kid and looking for someone to bond with.