I’ve been reading some of the recent train wrecks as of late and have noticed that some of our normally prolific Dopers are always absent in these threads.
I know there are like a hundred good reasons NOT to get involved in these threads, I’m just curious if there is one reason that stands out more than the rest.
Does it just seem too Jerry Springer-ish to you?
Just not your idea of fun?
??
'cos it’s the type of behavior that one should have outgrown by middle school.
If I’ve got something to say on a subject, and which hasn’t been said, I’ll usually post it. Although by the time a thread is an evident train wreck, often the opposing camps are pretty well entrenched and anyone else is pretty well ignored.
I think this sums it up well.
What about you, Shakes? I remember we had an exchange about this once, after you said you’d stay out of a spanking thread because it would become a trainwreck. It was a good exchange 
But what are your reasons for not rolling up your sleeves and getting in there?
having spent a fair amount of time as the target of dogpiles here I don’t wish it on other people.
Oh, I’m just a sucker! I do still find myself getting into train wrecks. I just didn’t want to do the spanking one. I’ve done that one too many times.
Sometimes my emotions get the best of me and I simply MUST say something because somebody on the internet is wrong.
And other times I naively think I can go in there and drop a couple of posts and be done with it. But of course it never works out that way.
I will say this though: Sometimes (not always, but sometimes) those train wrecks have caused me to change my world view or at least give it serious thought. That’s a good thing I think.
There’s enough drama in my life without adding pointless arguments to my own personal dogpile. I don’t know if I’m a prolific poster, but I’ve been around since the early days. I’ve seen enough pile-ons that I’d just as soon stay away. If it’s something I’m particularly passionate about I’ll add my two cents but I rarely look back as I flee the firestorm.
I love trainwrecks that are about an issue that I care about. Especially when they expose previously hidden imbecility.
But a trainwreck is only fun when you are there from the very beginning. A lot of stuff gets said over the course of a 20+ pages. Unless it’s especially riveting, ain’t no one got time to wade through all that.
I like some dogpiles too, but I usually don’t post to them. Sometimes a poster has been working my last nerve for years and I never had the guts to say anything, but a dogpile thread allows me to vent vicariously. I usually won’t post because I don’t want to contribute to overkill, though.
Back in the day…
I seemed to get in early on threads that later became train wrecks or pile ons back when I first joined, but the fun either would wear off quickly or it wasn’t really there in the first place. Still, I did keep on in some, like the Shat On Cookie thread.
Basically, it just isn’t the same type of MB anymore. So, why bother? (imho, ymmv, idgas)
Most of them are just plain boring to me, especially those that revolve around some hot-button issue. They almost instantly degenerate into nit-picking about definitions and arguments and exactly who said what about whom when, with both sides condescending to each other. That gets old fast. I get that for people who really care about those issues, the minutae of the arguments can be interesting, but my eyes glaze over.
If I want to watch people be unpleasant to each other, I eavesdrop in the mall or at work.
You gotta be there early for the real fun. You gotta have a sixth sense to feel a wreck coming on. You gotta know how to interpret that ominous rumble from the rails, the piercing screech of the iron beginning to echo off the concrete walls of the tunnel…ah, yes…a trainwreck is abrewin’.
But if you wait until it’s crashed, the fun is gone out of it. You can still laugh at the funny posters’ take on the whole thing, but you really can’t get into the thick of things unless you get there early.
I’m not a normally prolific poster, but I like to be heard. I am for threads with smaller post counts, generally.
I’m not prolific enough to be considered, I suppose, but having not been banned since my joining, I suppose I’m long-term enough to weigh in.
Typically, in a trainwreck thread, so many opinions have been espoused that invariably someone has posted whatever I would have posted. So, best I could do would be a “+1,” which seems pointless.
Anyway, being in school, I figure if I’m going to get involved in a pedantic knock-out-drag-out, I might as well do it in a setting where I get some academic credit. For shits and giggles, not worth the effort.
I don’t like arguments. Especially (and I know this sounds egotistical) if there’s a lot of discussion/debate/posts on the side of the argument that I’m against.
I extremely rarely wade into Great Debates at all for this reason.
I am not exactly a prolific poster, but still…I agree with EmilyG.
I’ll occasionally hit-and-run a dogpile if it amuses me. Usually nobody pays any attention.
And the things I know a lot about are not provocative, so I don’t get involved in many heated debates.
I get more entertainment out of making silly polls about pointless shit and giving advice about mundane stuff.
I come to the dope to escape train wrecks.
I can only usually get on the Dope for 15-20 minutes once or twice per day, barely time to skim the thread titles, look for a few interesting to read, and maybe put in a quick post or two, so time is the big one. A corollary to the time factor is that a really good train wreck has nearly always run to 3-4 pages before I ever see it so it has already reached the point of a tiny handful of stalwarts shooting away at each other from across a nomansland littered with corpses. Why wade into that when anything new I might have been able to add has long been said and ignored.