(We do?)
That’s odd, I didn’t see that post from Lute Skywatcher.
AFAIK. Might have changed.
Wait a minute, books get favored in that you let things written in this century make the “high brow” mark, yet all films don’t? You’re ignorant!
Maybe wires have been crossed. I know you’re not allowed to tell someone they’re on, or were on, or are going to be on your ignore list. But I’ve seen plenty of other “reported” posts when someone’s tattled on someone else.
I guess the mods/admins don’t much care if someone wants to let the person know they think the post is unacceptable & have reported it.
The instances you have seen have probably almost all been spam of some sort though. That’s different. It’s a courtesy to other members, and the mods to say “It’s ok, I reported this, you don’t have to.” so the mod’s inboxes don’t fill with reports on the same incident of spam.
Edit: never mind.
It’s not a rule, per se. It’s true that we don’t want people using the report post button as a weapon in an argument (which I think happened in the past at some point), but it hasn’t been a problem for as long as I’ve been a mod. And as long as you’re not doing that, I have no problem with someone mentioning they reported a post.
This doesn’t make you an elitist. It makes you an idiot.
This is going well. I can only begin to wonder how the OP thought this thread would develop.
It would seem that no one who died that recently can be high-brow, according to the OP’s definition. In fact, Proust probably just barely squeaks by himself.
what would you have us call a forum for all things entertainment/food/art/etc?
or
what exclusively ought we to discuss in a forum called Café Society?
I agree. I don’t get the point of the thread. Telling us to only discuss high-brow topics? Disparaging our taste? Is he wondering why Cafe Society exists? What?
Susan
Despite the rather incendiary tone employed by Small British Shop Owner, I think he is articulating something not entirely unreasonable. First, setting aside the distinction between “highbrow” and “lowbrow,” two extremely relative terms is necessary to get to the core of the discussion. That is: the prevalence of Cafe Society topics about cinema, television, “genre” fiction (though I loathe that term), and popular music, and the corresponding dearth of topics about art, theater, literature, non-fiction, and classical music. It is possible to notice the disparity without judging any of the above-named categories or even thinking the current imbalance is undesirable.
I believe that even a cursory overview of the recent topics in the Cafe Society forum will lead to the conclusion that the disparity I’m talking about is real. Two questions arise: “is the current situation a bad one?” and “what can/should someone do to change it?”
The topics in CS are almost entirely driven by taste. To say that the state of the forum is bad is essentially the same as saying the posters have poor taste. That’s a perfectly valid opinion to hold but it is virtually indistinguishable from, e.g., me complaining there are too many Star Wars threads and not enough Star Trek ones. The fact that the content of the board reflects the taste of the posters is just an indication that the board is doing its job properly. So I am finding it difficult to get all that worked up over the state of that forum.
Yet there is one small wrinkle in the fabric of what I just said, though large enough that it is what inspired me to make this post. Taste is clearly subjective. Yet The Straight Dope Message Board prides itself, rightly, on being a confluence of the savvy, the well-informed, and generally bright. I don’t mean to be over-the-top, but a stroll through GQ will confirm this assertion. And yet in spite of that, it is always somewhat disheartening for me to see threads about art and literature plummet like a stone while the TV threads are born on the wings of their multiple pages.
Don’t get me wrong here, I like TV as much as anyone.
So what can be done about it? Other than the oft-repeated and utterly logical “post about topics you like” mantra, I doubt there’s anything. I have at times pondered how to craft fascinating and enjoyable threads about subjects I enjoy (or at least want to ramble on about for a while) and not come up with anything stellar. Combined with a general lack of available time, I rarely venture forth from the cave. But, yeah, that’s about it. I don’t think I’ve said anything that has not at least been implied in this thread already, but this is something I’ve actually been thinking about for a while so I thought I would chime in.
The keyboard thing is usually a really bad joke. A keyboard is $12.
I agree with Procyon. I have seen many threads that I thought I could sink my teeth into drop like a rock. I don’t agree with the Hi/Lowbrow thing, and I don’t think there should be any expectations of CS being anything but what it is. Heck, many of the popular GQ threads are poop or fart related. But for me the lack of responses to threads that seem to me to be about real “art”, and pages long threads about more popular stuff is disappointing. But, hey, it is what it is.
Part of the reason that low-brow (for lack of a better word) topics are more popular is that it takes a hell of a lot more of an intellectual and emotional investment to debate fine art or literature. Even incredibly intelligent folks need to turn their brains off every once and a while and read a murder mystery or watch “The Simpsons.” Since the board is predominantly used for recreation, it’s not really fair to fault the participants who use it to discuss entertainment rather than . . . whatever “high-brow” is. It’s not like the SDMB is a peer-reviewed journal or a symposium on postmodern thought.
In other words, of course we’re low-brow. We’re human. Like St. Augustine said, “Inter faeces et urinam nascimur,” and I guess we’re going to shoot the shit until we die, so you might as well get used to it.
If the topics here are not sufficiently elevated for an individual, then that individual should perhaps find a different place to have those needs met. I don’t say that to be snotty – I have several interests that the board really isn’t suited for. So I go elsewhere to talk about them, where there are people who share those interests.
Damn, I can’t believe he agreed with this.
So, like, if someone filmed an opera, would SBSO’s universe implode?
Oh God no :smack:
Still the way you’re going I can’t see you lasting all that long.
I was hoping for some entertainment, but this thread is just way too low-brow for my tastes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date at the ape fight tonight.