Does anyone else avoid The Pit or GD?

I check on GD fairly frequently–but rarely read threads which have gotten onto a second page without me noticing them. I almost never respond to GD threads with more than a couple dozen posts, because people do get too passionate, and too prolific. I read somewht more Pit threads–though I pick and choose which poster’s thoughts I want to read, and almost never post.

You know – Great Bedates. :slight_smile:

:smack:

GD is barely readable.

It is not Great.

And it is rarely a Debate.

[MP]

Yes it is.

No it isn’t.

Yes it is.

[/MP]

It is rare that I go to the Pit. I guess it is good for people to have an outlet, but when I do go there, it seems like a lot of people are angry a lot. I often think “gee, if this is the worst thing to happen to you all day, your life is pretty darn good.” I also often wonder where they get the energy to be this outraged all the time.

But each to their own and maybe venting on a message board is better than going off on a co-worker.

I sometimes want to start a post in GD, but not because I’m interested in the debate, but because I want to hear both sides of the debate. For instance, I would like to hear both sides of a debate on term limits in congress. I am probably for them, but maybe only because I haven’t heard the other side. However, since I don’t actively take a part in the debate, and I’m told that this is bad form, I don’t usually start posts in GD.

I avoid GD mostly because I’m not bright enough to post there. Sometimes I like to read threads just to see how many times I can be persuaded to change my mind. I usually agree with whoever posted last.

I like to read the Pit threads while they’re fresh, before they get down to the personal insults and dead-horse-beating, but they are depressing sometimes. I want us all to be friends and play nicely together!

Yes, I see what you mean. I’d never thought of it like that before…

I don’t post in GD, but I do sometimes in the Pit. However, I will never start a thread there again, just because of the devolvement into Pitting the Pitter. I don’t even post a lot here in IMHO, because I’ve still been called names (not to the extent of breaking Board rules). I have asked a few questions in GQ; no name calling there, excellent advice given. Usually, I’m beaten to the punch in ATMB. So, you just see me mostly in MPSIMS and sometimes CS.

I haven’t looked at the Pit in years.
Same for that Cecil’s Little Helpers forum.

The only places I avoid are the Comments forums. The Pit can be fun, and GD interesting, if you take it all with a large bag of salt.

When I first started lurking I was scared. When I first joined, I was a bit intimidated. Then I waded in, and found that especially in GD, if you try to be a reasonable person, you can have a good discussion with other reasonable people. All I do is tune out the crap I don’t like, or, if I’m in the mood, challenge people to back up silly claims.

Cafe Society, OTOH, bores me. I only go there if it is a REALLY slow day. ATMB is more interesting to me. I never ever go to the Cecil or Staff Reports. I’d rather read the dictionary.

I avoid GD. I already know how “The Argument Clinic” goes.

I recently “tried out” Great Debates and was very disappointed with the level of discourse. It struck me more as a marriage of IMHO and the Pit, than a place for really debating anything.

I had always been scared to go there–now I’m basically bored with it.

I read GQ, IMHO and the Mundane Pointless one (I can never remember what the acronym is)…

GD is like that Geraldo show ep where they started throwing chairs at each other…
CS has too many spoilers for TV shows that I like …
And I really don’t see the point of the Pit, how does that being there help to fight ignorance?

That which angers you, controls you.

screaming about it isn’t going to help.

I read GD and the pit often; the pit because I find a lot of it pretty funny and while most of the things aren’t worth getting really upset over they are that little piece of stone in the shoe that just irritates until you get it out in the open. It’s validating to see that somebody else may also be irritated by the same thing and useful to vent in order to be able to set it aside and move on.

In GD I don’t usually care whether people are convincing each other, I care about whether or not they can convince me or at least cause me to re-examine some of my beliefs. I’ll skim over a lot of the yes-it-is, no-it-isn’t posts but I find value in considering conflicting arguments even if it’s just to help confirm what I already understand to be true. There’s a lot of wasted bandwidth there but I find enough worthwhile to take the time to find the gems.

What I always avoided (2+ years lurking before joining) were MPSIMS and CS. I’ve been reading MPSIMS fairly often recently because there are some funny and/or poignant tales there that make it worth it. I don’t understand CS at all because there just isn’t any substance to latch onto. When I do stop in there I never get more than a few posts in before thinking “I can’t possibly ever care about any of this”, especially when I could be having a good laugh over in the pit.

YMMV

That’s not always true. I’ve changed my mind on a couple of issues based on what I’ve read in GD threads.

I don’t avoid those areas, but I should. As it is I don’t go in there very often.

There are a couple people who have ruined GD and the Pit for me. I consider them almost unreasonable, and it just drains me to deal with them. They think they’re debating, and I think they’re asses.

I check out the Pit every now and then, if I’m really bored and have already checked out IMHO, MPSIMS, and CS. I hardly ever start Pit threads anymore, though, because I completely agree with Incubus: it can be quite tricky. I have zero patience for people who take Pit OPs too seriously/literally, or who read too much into them, or who will reply with something like “gee, if this is the worst thing to happen to you all day, your life is pretty darn good.” (No personal offense intended, Khadaji!) I wind up wanting to Pit the people who reply in Pit threads more often than I agree with the OP.

I avoid GD entirely. If I post in a thread that starts in a different forum but then gets moved to GD, I will stop following it. I tend to get way too involved and worked up over online debates, and engaging in such is probably the quickest way for me to get myself banned. So I just don’t go there. :slight_smile:

freckafree I could pit you if you want y’know.

For being a wimp maybe :smiley:

My “home” is GQ. The PIT can be OK at times. But warningwarningwarningwillrobinson. If you post a rant there, don’t expect it not to come back and bite you on the ass.

I avoid MPSIMS.

I like GD, but it does seem like too many threads there are started by semi-trolls, and then hijacked. Then the “debate” goes on and on andonandon which two, mabey three posters with tiny little nitpicks about what the other poster has said, ignoring the OP entirely. The Richards thread is a good example of this. Satrted by a newbie who has been accused in the PIT of being a troll, it went off in a tangent about "nigger vs cracker’ and then it became just about the other’s posts and “well you said this, thus you mean…” :rolleyes: