I’m not convinced that we need to limit or control newbies. We currently have around ten active threads revolving around Phaedrus or NewtonsApple. (Last week’s racist invasion is last week’s news.) The participants in those ten threads, however, tend to be people who choose to jump in and get muddy.
If ten threads sounds like a lot, consider that I keep my preferences set to “Show last 2 days” and I have over two pages of threads available on each of GD, the Pit, and ATMB. (The trolls tend to stay away from GQ, MPSIMS, and the two “response” Fora.)
It simply isn’t that hard to avoid the riffraff. I admit that N A disrupted a couple of threads pretty badly, but we have recovered from the disruption without anyone being mortally wounded. In the midst of all this chaos, there are still several civil Debates being carried on, a lot of General Questions are being answered, there is still ample Mindless, Pointless Stuff being Shared, and quite a few old Regs are beating each other up in the Pit with no interference from outsiders.
Ya know, this seems to be turning into a pretty decent debate. I hesitate to suggest that it be moved over to GD, however, due to all of the Pit-ready interaction at the beginning.
But here’s an idea: Lynn, why don’t you make arrangements with MBagnall to move the thread over to the LBMB? He can run it through his potty-mouth filter, then ship it back over to GD, all bowdlerized and sanitized for our protection. I’m sure he’s been itching for an opportunity to do us a favor. :rolleyes:
Of course truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.
Mark Twain
Science fiction author and screenwriter David Gerrold once wrote (I’m paraphrasing to the best of my ability here), “My Daddy once told me, ‘Don’t wrestle with a pig. All you’ll get is tired and dirty. And the pig enjoys it.’”*
Trolls are pigs. I have therefore resolved never to knowingly wrestle with a pig or feed a troll ever again. I will also never BE a troll or a pig. (It’s why I never went back to Left Behind. The temptation to be a troll Over There is too great. Also, Daddy gets tired of beating his head against the wall after a while.)
*It was in reference to his difficulties working for producer Fred Freiberger during Star Trek’s third season.
I’m an athiest, I’m not sure that MBagnall would even acknowledge my existence…
Lynn
With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead.
tomndeb has it right. Once the dust settles from something like this, things don’t look quite so disorderly. There are always going to be posters who know exactly where to lob the genades, and there will always be those who like to play with them. These things appear to be cyclic, don’t they - kinda like sun spots. There are some good reasons that people use the freemail. The lunatics generally don’t seem to last very long, anyway.
Two observations: 1) interesting direction taken by this thread; 2) NA’s “high I’M…” thread managed to survive him and his idiocy.
A couple problems I can see with that is:
(1) I imagine there are people who find the MB through the “Comment on this column/answer” link of a Straight Dope column or a Mailbag answer. What would be the point then of having that link there for someone who’s never been to the MB part of the site (or perhaps never been to the site at all) before, since they wouldn’t actually be able to start a “Comments” thread.
(2) There actually are people who lurk for a time and do not register until they have something to post. While that is okay if it’s a response, what if it’s a new question? Do we want to force somebody to crank out 50 posts somewhere just so they can ask? Do you think they will? Or that they’ll hang around for 10 days? Or both?
(3) At least once, someone sent a question in to Cecil and got a reponse that they might try posting it in GQ. I don’t remember if that was the person’s first post or not, but can you imagine the reaction if they had found out they couldn’t post it after being told to try that?
I’d also like to point out that it is Mundane (not Mindless) Pointless Stuff I must Share.
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
“[A]gainst stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.” --J.C.F.S. as quoted by H.M.
Two observations: 1) interesting direction taken by this thread; 2) NA’s “high I’M…”
thread managed to survive him and his idiocy.
Endquote:
Yes, I noticed that too, and it makes me uncomfortable. If we assume he’d been around before with another username it makes you wonder why he wanted to collect information on the real lives of users.
When I made this proposal, it was strictly that - a suggestion that I wanted to explore. I fully agree with the criticism you raise that it prevents writers to Cecil from posting their question or response here.
It also is a permanant solution to what, I hope, may be a short-term problem. But I do see it as preferable to banning free e-mail accounts totally. The question/response to Cecil issue could be avoided by having a moderator post something, but I can see that it would not encourage new posters to stick around…
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
FTR, I don’t know who the Mundane, not Mindless, Pointless Stuff comment was directed at, but I cannot recall ever having said anything to that effect.