Sorry, I know this question is a little dated as we’ve had this rule for a long time.
But uh, out of all boards on the internet, to make such a rule out of pure superstition; I’d think this would be the last board to do so.
Do the admins of this board really think somebody can be “wished” to death?
I know this sounds snarky but that’s really not my intent. It’s just the only reason I can think of why such a rule would be made.
I don’t believe that’s ever been given as the reason. My understanding is that if poster A wishes someone would kill poster B, then poster B dies somehow, then the cops will come a-lookin’ for poster A, which puts the Chicago Reader in the middle of Hurricane Shit.
I offer no opinion as to the realism of the fear, just that I understand that that is the motivation behind the rule.
I really hope that isn’t the reason. I thought it was just uncouth to threaten other people.
If the reason is “fear of legal liability”, I fear that the reason is just as silly and superstitious as the one given by the OP.
Not in real life. It works one whole hell of a lot better than doing it via the internet.
The usual rationale that I’ve heard is that Andy rants that he hopes that his ex-wife Betty dies in a fire… so Crissy, who’s just crazy in love with Andy, runs right out and burns down Betty’s house.
Well, damn!
Ummm, on a totally unrelated matter, can I change my picks for the Celebrity Death Pool?
Last time I brought it up, I was told that it’d be to hard to determine a real threat (“I know your address and will drive over to your house and knock your teeth out”) from a wish of death (“I hope you get hit by car driven by a drunken monkey”) because the line between a “line between threats, wishes, expressions of hypothetical situations in which someone ought to die, etc., is often fine,”
I don’t agree with this, but that’s what IIRC I was told by Zotti hisself, here
Note that there’s a “Drop Dead” may or may not be ok" exemption. Depending. Maybe.
And the origin of the rule can be found here Once again, it’s another of those idiotic rules that Lynn made up for the Pit (“no funny threads”, "no ‘pulling up a lawnchair’ posts). And it came about as so many of these things do because a single thin-skinned twit got butthurt that a poster told him to “Drop dead, moron, and quit wasting oxygen and food” The poster then had a hissy-fit that someone was encouraging him to commit suicide: TWICE!! So now it’s against the rules to say “Drop dead” or “I hope someone drops a house on you” :rolleyes:
(Follow Desmostylus’s link in that thread for more background)
Can you say “I hope someone goes all east witch on your ass?”
Oh, my. Tears are rolling down my face.
“Can you wish for someone to be clinically brain dead for 10 minutes, then revived?” I can’t believe someone as funny as Tars Tarkas stopped posting 6 years ago! 