When does criticism of a poem or other work become an insult to the author?
Obviously
is an insult to the author.
But if SDMB member Maximillian Farfel posts his original work Smarmy Tucklas* and asks for our input, how far are we allowed to go? If other posters aren’t allowed to tell us what they really think of our work, especially when they think it’s a horrible piece of dung, what’s the point of posting it?
Ganoush?
In the library with a candle stick?
He had it coming!
Yes. Otherwise, frank discussion of the show is impossible. If you don’t want to know anything about a program don’t look at its threads OR previews on TV OR reviews in the paper.
How about simply including a link that demonstrates the quote is, indeed, in the public domain? No link available? Tough noogies, you can’t quote the lyrics in whole.
I hope this isn’t a blanket indictment, because I’ve been commiting this exact infraction – verbatim – over in MPSIMS for the last couple months, and could conceivably do it in Cafe Society as well. I, of course, view this as providing a service to the SDMB, because I’m so damn arrogant. But in all seriousness, I think threads like that can be solid contributions to the board. Just sayin’.
I’ve been burned by those threads as well, and in your specific example, it seems impossible to effectively spoiler it, because you have to identify the movie outside the spoiler box, and regardless of how the bad guy wins, you know that they win.
One suggestion would be to set a time limit in the OP. Such as “What Movies have the bad guy winning at the end? Nothing more recent than 2002, please!”
A better suggestion might be to not include the movie name outside the spoiler, but rather an obvious giveaway that identifies the movie if you’ve seen it, but which would be meaningless if you haven’t. I’ll try an actual example, in response to the “bad guy wins” question. Hmmm, I can’t think of a good “bad guy wins” example, as Hollywood has issues with that, but I can think of plenty of “hero loses” movies:
In the movie with stylized heroin use and losing weight to appear on The Tappy Tibbons Show:In Requiem for a Dream, all the main characters suffer horribly at the end. The final “redemption” scene was annoying tacked-on Hollywood tripe, as was the final phone conversation, but otherwise a nicely dark and depressing tale of heroin’s triumph over the human spirit.
That would do it. If you don’t recognize the summary outside the spoiler, you know you haven’t seen the movie, and nothing has been spoiled about it for you. But if you have seen it, you most likely recognize the summary, and can happily read the spoiler commentary with impunity. It requires a bit of creativity for the poster, but I consider that a good thing. I just thought of a “bad guy wins”, one of my favorites that nobody around here seems to have seen.
Animated children’s tales concealing communist propaganda, much torture ensues:In ClosetLand, Alan Rickman accuses Madeleine Stowe of coding communist propaganda inside her children’s books. She finally breaks after relentless torture, and willingly drinks the poison at the end. Excellent performances by both actors; you have to love movies that only have two people and one set.
I agree that it would be annoying to carry on a full discussion inside spoiler boxes, but it’s an idea at least. I also recognize the impulse to read spoiled text can be strong. Who likes to feel left out? But still, it is an idea.
Look, if NO ONE ELSE IS POSTING TO THE THREAD, then it doesn’t need to be a thread on a message board. If you’re trying to provide information that gets updated from time to time, get yourself a webiste and provide a link in a thread. We’re not here to be an alternative to you getting your own website.
And, the more common case is that someone asks a question or opens a discussion and no one responds. That means that no one is interested. You get two shots (one when you open the thread, and one when you bump it), and if folks still aren’t interested, don’t pull it up to the front page. That’s the rule in Cafe Society. MPSIMS may have different views.
Ellis, Your comment on the hypothetical thread, “What are some movies where the bad guys win?” is well-taken. A thread like that, you’re stuck, and your thought is a good one. Thus, I repeat myself (like history): use common sense and courtesy. If you’re typing something that would spoil a plot for someone, figure the best way to use spoiler tags (or whatever) so as not to do that.
I can’t even begin to imagine us setting more detailed guidelines than those.
Is this necessarily sufficient? Would a Timbuktuian Doper necessarily know that the Nov. 11 episode of <some show> is the one that’ll be showing on TimBukTV three weeks from now? The title of the episode would help, of course, but that might not be something noticed by many viewers.
In the Cafe Society Board, I see that Art is one of the permitted subjects. That being so, may I post information on what’s going on in Kitemaking and Kiteflying?
Believe it or not, modern kitemaking is quite artistic and quite beautiful. Kitemakers (myself included), put a lot of time and effort into making what is essentially flying (and fun) artwork. Did you know that there are many kitemakers conferences held not only around the country, but in many places around the world as well? (My own local event is the annual Fort Worden Kitemakers Conference), which is held at Fort Worden State Park in the town of Port Townsend, Washington. There we meet other Kitemakers from literally all over the world.
I wouldn’t want to post this in your Mundane and Pointless Stuff Board, as this subject appeals to so many people and it’s anything but mundane and pointless.
In the Cafe Society Board people could talk about kites they’ve made or flown, or just saw flying in their local park. People who get interested in Kitemaking can get connected with people who could teach them.
I hope I didn’t talk your ear off, but kites,kiteflying (and kitemaking) are such a nice hobby or pasttime, and it’s something positive (and not preachy or political) that most people would find interesting. Well, I gotta’ get back to my sewing machine–there’s a nice boxkite itching to go flying!!
No, I think it would be a terrible idea to try to construct more detailed guidelines. I wasn’t actually looking for official feedback on this point, I was really just trying to offer friendly suggestions to my fellow posters on how to deal with something like that.
You seem a little pissed, so I’m putting my response to this in the Pit.
It seems to me that I am in the minority but I don’t mind spoiler boxes. I would rather have too many than too few. I don’t see what the big deal is about putting your cursor over the box. I say when in doubt, box it.
I, for one, welcome our new Cafe Society Guildelines!
II specifically like the “it’s okay to resurrect an old thread” green light. I’m thinking here specifically of a thread we had over a year ago about the novel The Crimson Petal and the White, where we had a lively discussion about the fate of one of the characters. I would love it if someone finally got around to reading that book, found the thread, and wanted to add his or her interpretation of what happened. In this kind of case, I think resurrecting the old thread is exactly what is called for.
/ass-kissing
I’m reading that book right now. Maybe when I finish it (it’s going a little slow - I’m too busy to devote a lot of time to it), I’ll look for the thread and breathe a little life into it.
Speaking for Trek Dopers, I welcome anyone who wishes to join in our discussions, regardless of how late. Subject to mod approval, of course.
:dubious:
BTW, did you guys unstick this thread on purpose? Just wondering.
Yeah, it had been up for a while and there weren’t any more comments, so I unstuck it. I can re-dis-unstick it for a bit.
I have a question about the “Use descriptive thread titles” rule: What about the mouseover thread previews? In my case, I admittedly wrote a non-descriptive thread title, but the mouseover preview made it clear what the topic was. So if you’d like us to write thread titles that make it clear what the topic of the thread is without using the mouseover thread preview, it might be helpful to make a note of that in the Forum Rules.
I thought that was obvious, but thanks, and I’ll amend.