I applaud this! You’re a long time Doper and almost an institution here, even with so many who respond negatively to you. Hopefully you can find that many of those who disagree with you, on politics or other issues, can come across their positions honestly, and you’ll find that many liberals are decent folks who really enjoy engaging on the issues and have no interest in personal insults.
“I just want to say just a few words about stewardii. They have… (he is interrupted by crowd shreik of laughter) Stewardii is plural for Stewardess. Uh…I think there are many incongruities in the English language as far as plurals are concerned. For example, it seems to me that the plural for Yo-yo should be Yo-yi. How about, one sheriff; several sheriffim. Um…one goof; a group of geef; uh…one Kleenex, several Kleenices; one Blouse, two Blice …Two Jackii.”
–S. Berman
Glad to hear it. That’s a fine gesture on your part and I applaud it. It’s not really the case that you “upset” people by having dozens of posters on an Ignore list, more that it inhibits the flow of discussion, but whatever. Baby steps.
I’ll point out once again, however, that if being insulted in the Pit bothers you that much, there’s a simple solution: don’t post in the Pit. If you have an argument that holds water logically, you should be able to post it in one of the other fora, where everyone has to play fair. Just a thought.
Cool guy!
Actually, you (any you) will still have plenty of people to talk at. What you won’t have is anyone or anything to read.
Never mind. Just realized the flaw in my position.
I don’t mind being insulted if there is some reasoning and thought behind it. What I object to is people responding to a post of mine by simply calling me a stupid motherfucker and telling me how hateful I am. That is totally lacking in class.
You know, I once had a poster talk smack about fucking my dead mother in a Pit thread, and what did I do about it? Not a goddam thing. It’s the goddam Pit, for cyin’ out loud.
In any event, I have suggested, three times, an easy way to rid yourself of all those horrible, low-class people without having an Ignore list that makes the board unreadable. If you don’t want to avail yourself, that’s fine, but if all you want to do is keep picking at scabs, because you really do enjoy it or whatever, I’m afraid any sympathy I might have for your position is at an end.
Good luck.
There is a thread in the Pit currently where your first entry into the thread is mis- characterizing the OP and insulting liberals to boot.
We all face the challenge that if we’re trying to change our public persona, we’ll be graded on being the “old me” long after we’ve started doing our best to be the “new me”.
The things the changer can do to help the process are:
- Be consistently the “new me”.
- Expect to be graded as the “old me” for much longer than feels “fair”.
- Announce to the relevant audience that you are making this change.
The things the audience can do to help the process are:
- Take note of the announcement and offer encouragement.
- Reset your personal scorecard back to as close to zero as you can manage.
- Be honest in assessing your reaction to each post on its own merits, not your memory. The “One free bite” rule should be in effect.
Facebook. If you block someone, they can’t see your posts, either.
He isn’t, though. He often says he is, but sadly the first post of his in this very thread is a typical example of his mode of engagement, simultaneously accusing everyone else of abuse, namecalling and refusal to constructively engage while doing the same.
I appreciate that, but that is not the main issue with the poster in question. Heck, quite a few of us have been propping up his “Stupid Liberal Idea of the Day” thread for him.
First the specific:
Can you please clear up my confusion here? (As I for one never heard of you having an ignore list that you trumpet about before this and don’t particularly care one way or another about it. Probably I’ve just scrolled past any such pronouncements in the past. My ignorance is now reduced.)
If the op is accurate you place people on “ignore” based on them namecalling in the Pit?
Is not namecalling what one who goes into the Pit should expect? There are many who namecall, some with style, wit, and panache, some in ways that just embarrass themselves, who then post completely appropriately to rules in other fora, answering specific factual questions in GQ and Cafe for example, making very reasonable or challenging points in GD and IMHO, or asking very interesting questions.
I certainly would not say you “suffer” by not seeing those posts or engaging in reasonable discussions with other posters outside the Pit, but you do prevent yourself from seeing factual answers to specific questions and prevent yourself from reducing your ignorance.
Now if someone is consistently posting worthless and annoying and/or childish content outside the Pit then I can understand not wasting time reading the content. But seriously how hard is it to just skip or minimally just skim over what they post?
That brings to the general.
What value to the Board or its members does an ignore feature bring over posters just paying more attention to posters whose content they value and in general skipping the content of those who annoy them?
The harm to the Board is that it goes against the stated mission of the Board: facilitating categorical ignoring is pretty obviously antithetical to the reduction of ignorance.
Advertising your ignoring content seems dumb to me, having large numbers of posts ignored potentially makes for a more difficult and confused conversation in a thread, but hey if that makes one a poster whose posts gets skipped more often, no big deal to me I guess.
The only value I can see the ignore feature adding though is for those who are have dispositions of such sensitivity that even having to skip over content that offends them raises their blood pressure. I hope that there are in fact very few of those around.
Speaking for myself, I don’t think having an official Ignore List is significantly better or worse than a mental “Oh cripes, that idiot never has anything worthwhile to say” list and scrolling past. Which is why I don’t use the Ignore List.
I don’t see how my mental list vs. using the board feature affects the mission of the SDMB any differently. Maybe I am missing some brilliant and cogent posts. Nearly always, though, when I give in to temptation and actually read something from a Doper on my mental list, it is the same old same old and I haven’t missed much. YYMV - mine doesn’t.
The downside of the Ignore feature is that, once someone announces that so-and-so is on their Ignore list, so-and-so realizes that the ignorer isn’t going to read or respond to their brilliance, or is not going to feed their trolling, or both.
“How dare you not listen to me” infuriates some people. Sometimes it’s because you have him dead to rights and your post is unanswerable. Sometimes it’s because it’s hard to have a pile-on when the pile-ee has half the pile-ers on Ignore.
Maybe I have a thicker hide than some. Of course, I haven’t been the subject of the kind of constant attacks, in the Pit and elsewhere, than some have.
Regards,
Shodan
I suspect that your mental list skip over is not as complete of a filter as is an ignore list. Mine sure is not.
A short factual reply with link to citation you might read before realizing it came from “that idiot.”
No question that the mental list allows one to skip longer winded posts by some and prevents worthless back and forth engagement. But sometimes isn’t a one and done response correcting explicit misinformation posted by one of those who deserve the “that idiot” label is worthwhile in service of lurkers?
Thank you Shodan. Well said.
One thing I will note is some people manage to make their cases with little emotional tone. Others lead with emotional tone and the meat of their case can hardly be discerned through the noise of the emotion. If indeed their case even has any meat beyond the emotion.
Speaking just for me I’m much better at following the first kind of post(er). The second kind doesn’t get much traction with me even if I share in whatever POV they’re trying to push.
IMO life is far too short and far too complicated to spend time hanging out with angry people. No matter how well-justified they (or even I) think their anger might be.
Typically not. The ones I skip over don’t usually do “factual”.
What often happens, when I don’t notice the user name before I read the post, is that I get two sentences in and say “who is this idiot?” Then I read who the idiot is, and don’t read any further.
I’m not that public-spirited. I participate on the Dope for my own amusement.
Sure, once in a while I give in to the temptation to FTT. But the posters I have in mind don’t usually give anything to refute - it’s almost equal parts spin, snark, and stupid. I try - not always successfully, but I try not to respond to something I haven’t read. The lurkers have to take their chances, and often someone else takes up the gauntlet.
Regards,
Shodan
You are ignoring a perceived huge benefit of having an Ignore List: those who possess them can emphasize to the ignoree that he/she is being ignored, which apparently generates much satisfaction for the ignorer. :dubious:
I’ve never put anyone on ignore here; there have always been lots of topics and threads so that one which deteriorates into idiocy can, um, be ignored in its entirety. And it’s easy enough to skip over posts from those who have nothing useful to contribute, even for amusement value.
It’s a different story on another site I sometimes visit, where forums spawn relatively few threads which go on for a long time, partially due to input by angry ad hominem-wielding nincompoops. In that case, it’s a relief to block their verbal detritus, and it’s not important to me whether they realize I’m blocking them.
I mentioned it, but as a drawback (for some) rather than a benefit. I imagine it generates as much satisfaction in the ignorer as it does fury in the ignoree.
FWIW I opposed the change whereby one can say who is on one’s Ignore list (in the Pit). Because it leads to the kind of passive-aggressive “neener neener I can’t HEEEEEAR you” stuff that drives, apparently, some people crazy.
What seems odd to me is the attitude of “so-and-so is stupid and wrong and trolling and mean - and I want him to pay attention to me”.
Speaking in general, I hope is clear.
Regards,
Shodan
I find using the scroll wheel much easier than using Ignore.