Liquid ingress caused by object ingress? Imagine putting that on an insurance claim.
My main complaint is about posters complaining about complaints threads,its a MB !for fucks sake stop complaining.
Ah, the internet message board—where high school meets the townsfolk from High Plains Drifter. As far as I’m concerned, it’s here principally for kicks. Anyone who actually takes it seriously as a forum for arcane discussions is a fool. It’s just silly.
You forgot to rant about…
“I,for one, welcome our new ( insert anything here) overlords”
If this is a fucking message board, then how come I’m not getting any?
No one likes you?
Have you looked in your ass?
And thus it begins… :smack:
You’ve got me seriously curious about your point of view.
Is it something about this specific type of communications tool?
Is it ok for regular discussions, just not arcane discussions?
Also, (after looking up the definition because I’ve heard but never used the word before), do you consider the bulk of the discussions on SDMB to be arcane?
While I maintain my claim above, I also feel the need to explain it better. You asked, so you deserve an answer.
I see the internet message board as a microcosm of human life, and I see human life as mostly so much simian shit-slinging—although some people have better arms than others. I’m not claiming there’s nothing of value here, or that nobody here is intelligent or interesting or worthy of my time or attention, just as I won’t make such claims about life generally. But despite the noble intention of fighting ignorance, the bulk of what goes on in here is to my mind a kind of intellectual pornography. Despite noble intentions, there is little of the intellectual honesty that allows one to engage in real dialectic, to admit mistake as a matter of course and move forward on a topic in a way that builds intersubjective consensus. Even the most—forgive me—arcane discussions generally amount to so many turns at depicting ideas that are seemingly depicted only for the benefit of the author, to show the audience what turns on the author and to establish camaraderie with those who share the same noetic inclinations. I don’t find that very interesting.
Here and elsewhere I try to ask myself, “What’s at stake here? Why does it matter if my reasoning leads me hither or yon?” If I can’t give a satisfactory answer, I either drop the endeavor or reformulate it better. It’s easier to find such answers in the real world, but I find it difficult to find them here, for the most part. I see intelligent, talented people here exerting a lot of seemingly misspent energy, accumulating astronomical post-counts like so many collectibles on a shelf, and I find it a bit sad. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that we’re in different phases of life, with different objectives and expectations—we’re just different. For myself, I mostly post here for fun and I keep my objectives and expectations in check. This helps curb my constitutional inclination toward cynicism, and it keeps my posts terse, my post-count low, and blood-pressure manageable. It also pleases my wife, my son, my career, and my hobbies. I’ve been annoyed and I’ve annoyed others, but when my frustration mounts I usually choose simply to walk away from the confrontation for the simple reason that I can’t give a satisfactory answer to the question, “What’s at stake?”
This is for me a long post, and I apologize for being pedantic. I also apologize if I seem condescending, as that’s not my aim, and I’m not comfortable condoning condescension in the name of Almighty Truth. But life is a comedy as it is, and I just don’t have much time or energy for too many sub-comedies such as The Internet. All those epicycles make me dizzy while I’m trying to keep track of the sun and moon, and I depend on them to help make my garden grow. I’m with Voltaire: the three great evils in life are boredom, vice, and poverty—and we must cultivate our garden.
OK, end of sermon.
Subterraneanus, thanks for the answer, it was more thoughtful than I was expecting. You’re certainly more cynical than I am about the shit-slingingness of human life, but I can see your point about the SDMB. There are some posters that I really enjoy exchanging ideas with, but there are others that seem to fall into your description.
I don’t find your post condescending at all. You seem to have a very balanced attitude about internet message boards. Do you feel as balanced in your “real world” life or do you walk away there also? I ask because I’m wondering if a stable life away from message boards is one of the things that allows balance here.
A couple of times my message board life was virtually indistinguishable from my “real” life. That’s changed now, but I’ve never forgotten the seriousness of having real people behind the users’ names.
DONKEY!
I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there.
Ah yes I percieve your gambit,how in a philisophical sense obviously including Humanist symbolism,and lets not even mention Lehars Dialetical materialisim,LOL, would you define the incoherence of modern thought as a juxatopism to Pseudo Nihilistic Revanchisism ofArisotlian persuasion ,preferably NOT taking Existentilisim as one of the deciding factors ?
Or am I symplifying things too much?
If that actually makes sense, then I dub thee King of Dopeland.
Makes perfect sense to me, but then I have been drinking heavily since noon. 