I do, and I feel like a total wimp. (And, oddly, though I’ve read a thread or two in The Pit, I’ve never read anything in GB.)
My husband is a very smart and very angry person. In the entirety of our married life (28 years), I’v either been listening to him vituperatively ranting about whatever (sotto voce, in another room – it’s creepy as hell) or have been listening to a milder form of his rant in which he asks, “Don’t you agree?” or “Am I wrong about this?”
Over the years, I’ve learned that agreeing and disagreeing seem to fuel the fire equally.
I’m a witty, engaging, intelligent person. I have strongly-held beliefs. But anger and a demand to respond on the spot make me clam up.
I feel like I’m a wiimp for not wanting to engage in battle. Does anyone else feel that way?
I used to be scared to post in GD, but not so much any more. The Pit, on the other hand, is why I joined the board in the first place, and is the first forum I check when I log in.
But there only seem to be a couple dozen GD arguments, just reworded over and over. And they’re all of the abortion/gay rights/creationism/ pseudoscience/ environmentalism/ military/gun-ownership variety where no one–in the history of the universe–has ever convinced anyone on the other side that they’re right. So I generally avoid it, even to the point of ceasing to participate in a thread I was a former member of if I notice it’s been moved.
The pit? Never. I rarely even browse the headlines. If I want to listen to a bunch of people insult each other, I can visit a kindergarten (although they’d probably call the police about the strange middle-aged guy hanging around the kindergarteners.)
I’m as opinionated as they come, but I don’t see the point of arguing with folks who, by and large, aren’t listening.
Amen. Also, I find GD posts pretty quickly devolve into the same cast of characters hashing over the same issues again and again and ignoring other posters. PosterA hates PosterB and they just follow each other around the GD nitpicking each other to death.
The thing that kind of bores me about GD is not only are they the same arguments, but a lot of Great Debates are fought between a whopping two people for 99% of the thread. Seriously, I’ll keep scrolling down, hoping somebody other then the two posters has something to add.
Pit threads can be fun to read, but writing pit threads is tricky. It is REALLY easy to have a pit thread blow up in your face, and have everybody else make you feel like a total idiot. Being ‘immensely pissed off’ about something can often be felt as simply being ‘whiny’ by other people.
Or be found to be “not worthy of a pitting” as if there is an objective scale that the topic can be judged upon. I thought it was just a place to gripe. The value being the eloquence of the complaint.
I have never been to the pit. If I want to argue and spew insults and have everyone ignore what I have to say or tell me how wrong I am I can call my parents and try to debate politics. I don’t need it from other people too. I would rather come here to ask advice, read funny stories about other people’s lives, and discuss things that I find interesting than get into an online fight with someone I’ve never met before. I know I have said things that have pissed off other dopers and I know other dopers have said things that piss me off too. No need to slam one another, we just go about our merry way and agree to disagree. (Unless, of course, they are starting pit threads about me that I don’t know about since I never go in there. And if they are what does it matter? I never see it so it doesn’t effect me.)
I think that is one of the reasons I like this board; they split those two into their own section.
The PIT is sometimes fun if the rant is, well, less than serious - but when taking on serious topic, the bile spilled there actually turns my screen green. In addition, people will take a word or phrase, nitpick to the point of absurdity, and beat that dead horse into the ground.
GD seems to attract people who have hours of time to research a subject and post 138 links and quotes in one response…some of those debates get so long winded, even with just a few responses, they are on page 14. Granted, I have started a few, just to get some idea of how Dopers feel about a subject - but I think I have had more success in starting a similar thread in this section.
At any rate, am quite happy to see that those types of threads are kept separate from other threads…I don’t appreciate being called a fuckin’asshole because I thought a film was good, or my recipe for mac and cheese is different than yours. I prefer wit over vitriol.
I will, however, probably succumb to a few visits to the Pit during the 2008 elections, but am not looking forward to it.
Cafe Society, IMHO and MPSIM only. Sometimes visit the pit, but for reasons given above in may posts don’t feel inclined to contribute. I think I have once in five years.
I don’t feel wimpish about it, the articles that I find wittier and amusing are more often found in the sections I visit.
I don’t ever read GD. I lurk a lot in the pit and sometimes post. For some reason I love to read about really stupid (pittable) things people do to/in front of other people.
