Depends on the subject. But if its a multi-page thread that I hadn’t read up to that point I usually don’t bother to go back and read through. The recently closed threads in ATMB for example.
I try to avoid them for the most part, even on the couple of occasions when I’ve been the cause. I may be in the mix early on, but when it becomes apparent that it’s going to go on and on, I’m out. I also avoid the advice-to-the-lovelorn threads that have seemed to increase in recent months.
I confess to tossing in a snarky comment once in awhile when the mood strikes, but I don’t come here to have arguments or take people on. While the wrecks and 'piles can be fun to read, joining in the fray doesn’t do anything for me.
You got it. I’m allergic to drama. It’s just a message board. I come here to be entertained and occasionally enlightened. I don’t get emotionally invested enough in this place to take anything said here personally. If I encounter a trainwreck, I’m most likely to roll my eyes, shrug, and move on to a different thread. There are some posters who always seem to be singled out for particularly vicious [del]abuse[/del] snark, even outside of the Pit, and I just can’t understand why the abusers don’t just get a life.
It is a question of subject matter. I avoid the threads on rape and misogny because nothing good can come of them. I love a good dogpile, especially when it is me that is the subject of ridicule. I’m stupid and I love it. But some subjects are inherently clusterfucks.
Sometimes it is sort of like arguing with your nut uncle at Thanksgiving dinner - what is the point?
I am vehemently anti-gun, and there are a few like-minded out there, but whenever a gun poll or gun discussion thread starts, I seriously believe someone sends out a link to their NRA cronies who will ONLY pop in to SDMB for these threads. They will then pile on anyone who doesn’t believe we have the Constitutional right to own nuclear weapons, let alone every machine gun and flame thrower. So yeah, if it is early in the thread I will make a comment, but then I get 38 people piling on and it gets kind of tiring. Geez, in one thread they were trying to make me believe the average hunter carries a hand gun to shoot wild beasts that jump out and attack them on wooded paths in Butte, Montana - thus hand guns are really important for hunters. Yeah, right - but again, what is the point of arguing with the gun nuts? They ain’t budging and neither am I - so any thread is doomed from the get-go.
That said, I will occasionally jump in to at least offer a bit of support for the poor schmuck who is getting beaten up by the thread bullies.
They tend to move pretty fast, so if you’re not following along in infancy it can be cumbersome to wade into. And even if the OP gets you riled, by a couple of hundred posts in either what you wanted to say is covered or the whole thing has spun off somewhere unexpected. Sometimes it rapidly boils down to a few competent combatants going at it, and that can be intimidating.
Of course once you’ve played in a few it does lose some appeal. My favourites are when it’s getting intense and someone drives by with something witty, wise or amusing and changes the whole tone of the thing! I don’t care for when the participants start to turn on each other because they have history, I lose interest if I’m reading along!
That’s not allowed by the [del]Gestapo[/del] mods any more because it might offend one of them.
By the time I start reading through the 5+ pages of those threads, most aspects of my views on the matter have already been expressed (though, usually, my opinions are more moderate - and there’s not much room left for that).
Or, occasionally, a ‘trainwreck’ thread is about a topic I don’t have much of an opinion on.
I read all that shit from beginning to end though. Love it.
It’s often that the topic just doesn’t interest me enough to contribute.
There used to be (several years ago) a LiveJournal (maybe DeadJournal) that updated SDMB trainwreck news. Some of the best zingers came from there. At the time, it was fun to try to guess who was who matching from there to here.
That’s pretty much what I think, too. The endless nitpicking is unbelievably tiresome, too.
How come some posters have the number of posts they made on their posts and others don’t
They’re guests, not members. Some have been around for a very long time, but either can’t or won’t pay to play.
I don’t care for them. Sure sometime I will be there at the start, but after it turns into one of those I wander off. I also hate when a thread turns into a stupid debate between two posters, who constantly quote each other, discussing how a comma here , etc means THIS.
Now, once in a while they are comedy masterpieces. Then I do like to read them
I’ll grab a bit of popcorn and wade through some of those threads, but I avoid most of them and rarely speak up. Too often they quickly turn into frustrating messes where everyone is talking past each other, harping on one tiny thing a person said even after “I misspoke and meant ___” has been explained multiple times, or multiple people are twisting someone else’s posts like an insecure woman with PMS. It’s maddening to read, much less participate in.
You can view how many posts a guest has by going to his or her public profile, though.
Not particularly prolific poster and also not a big fan of drama, at least not in participating in it. I enjoy reading a good trainwreck thread occasionally (especially when the object of the trainwreck is thoroughly deluded, as in the case of a certain country-music fan), but I like it here and I try to maintain a fairly mellow presence. The whole schoolyard sniping thing just seems rather pointless to me, especially given how easily it can get out of hand.
I paid when the site went Pay2Post. Now it’s pretty much simply Pay2PayUs (imho), so I don’t pay. YMMV
I like to read train wrecks, but don’t generally participate in them because:
-
My participation is unlikely to affect the outcome of the thread.
-
People don’t generally listen to me anyway probably because of #3.
-
I’m generally not the type of person who starts screaming or frothing at the mouth about stuff I read here. I used to be, but I’m mellowed out in the 10 years I’ve been a member.