Drowning out others is okay in the Pit, but I wish it weren't

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182

The not very active thread in question was literally called “a mild pitting” and not much of an insult there:

Seriously a pretty reasonable thoughtful constructive complaint. And moderately cleverly expressed with the “hot dish trutherism” bit. That’s a thread created to purely to insult her? That’s the savagery of the fearsome Pit?

Okay @Mighty_Mouse did a more Pit style insult:

I give it an 8. Not hateful and cleverly mocks her … thing. And right off Beck was complaining about being offended in the Pit, and @wolfpup was jumping in to call that beyond the pale … “needlessly cruel”?

I’m sorry but c’mon …

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True, but the people who are saying “BAN THIS TACTIC!!!” arent talking about just one thread, now are they?

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Well no one has said that. The OP, who is on record as less sure, only suggested it might be

And pretty much that’s been the tone of the critique. The moderator instead pretty much celebrated and endorsed it, declaring (foolishly I think) that using it was Beck “winning the thread”. That endorsement of the tactic was the bit that got me to post anyway.

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Your language lacks clarity. FTR, what I actually said (emphasis added) was “some of the comments above verge on being needlessly cruel and were certainly unnecessary”. Which comments also included a pointless gratuitous insult against Beck’s father. What was that supposed to accomplish? And Beck didn’t exactly complain that she was offended, she said that the ugly comment was offensive, which it was.

Take a look at the the post made just a few hours ago in that Pit thread (Jul 4 5:06 AM, post #1246 in the scroll bar, by Stratocaster). Stratocaster is taunting Beck to leave the board. So c’mon indeed – this is not mild or constructive criticism, it’s taunting and bullying. I’ve cited examples where we’ve lost valuable posters because of this kind of persistent harassment, and may lose another one who especially values this board as a source of companionship.

I repeat for about the tenth time that Miller carefully explained the reasoning for the moderation. Any other moderation would have been inconsistent with the way the Pit generally works (for example, tolerant of hijacks including very silly ones like posting recipes to disrupt a thread) and would rightly have been considered an unfair slam against Beck.

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They were not “taunting her to leave the board.”
She stated she was going to leave the board, likely hoping people would beg her to stay.

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No, you haven’t.

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Very on form! :grin:

The “pointless gratuitous insult” was to my read neither pointless or gratuitous: it was a joking way to mock her folksy style of bringing “either her gut feeling as gospel truth or her grandad’s epigrams as divine truths” into most discussions that she would participate in in all fora. The complaint that the, yes mild, Pitting was about.

This is ATMB. Relevance to the thread is simply that the moderation judgement of allowing the tactic is something I can understand even if I would hope it was otherwise; the judgement use in the moderation to encourage the behavior, to not just allow it but to declare it as “winning” was bad judgment. And has not done Beck any favors.

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Oh, let me have my little gloat. :wink:

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And possibly ‘okay’ only in Pit threads that specifically Pit the person using the tactic. (Using it as a means of replying in a sort of ju-jitsu* manner.)

I know this hasn’t been decided—but it has been, at least, suggested.
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*“focuses on using an attacker’s own energy and momentum against them rather than trying to overpower them with brute force”

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It does seem like that.

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Since this has been bumped. The abject failure of the tactic has by now been well demonstrated.

The point of the recipe post in response to a troll is to briefly signal not taking the bait.

Doing a post like that in a Pit thread can be a signal of don’t care.

But a series of posts to try to drown out any criticism of you? That isn’t using anyone else’s energy against them; it is lots of work. And the only people who would do that work are people who really care lots: be that hypersensitivity or loving the attention. And while I don’t know which applies here, or if both do, the tactic took a thread that had been briefly revived into full reanimation, with some of us who never had previous strong thoughts about Beck understanding now why so many are so frustrated with her …

It is an allowable Pit tactic but it is clearly not a winning one unless you define winning as getting any sort of attention at all.

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If you can get six or seven supporters to join you, it lessens the workload. And in fact that is what is behind the [temporary] success of this attempt.

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Look.

I made my explanation in a thread they decided was so genius(:zany_face: ) and complete and perfect it should stand alone. They locked it.

That was fine with me. I didn’t feel like fielding more and more and much more dissertations on my subversive self. And my apparent nefarious machinations to decieve you all. (:roll_eyes:)

Miller moderated. I think, brilliantly. In the pit thread. I stopped.

I have had PMs from a couple mods. Engineer explained how and why ATMB works. I understand it better. Maybe

I’m afraid you think I spent hours and days planning this and and setting out to do it(and doing what I’d write somewhere anyway, the stories are already in my head, just tripping off my pen or keystrokes)…because? Well, I don’t know why you’d think I’d do that. Because I didn’t.

I did the thing, for sure

I said I did. But it wasn’t a manifesto. It was stories that really happen to my boring life. I see these things around here. I think about them. Listen to this bunch prattle on about it. It bounces around in my head. If I think it’s cute or funny and it tickles me. I’d like to tell it. Not gonna happen often in my RL.

I do write in journals. Daily. But sometimes I’d like to share it to a broader group.

If you hate them, I’m sorry. Don’t know what to tell you.

I’m not alone in this world, wanting to tell my dumb stories to others. Umm. Go to the auto-biography section of any library.

Oh, and @CairoCarol I want to address you directly; I think your OP was great. I don’t think you were wanting to make this about “Me” as much as the moderation and how it was handled. I think that’s what this forum is for. That’s fair minded of you. Carol you are a bird in this world(that’s a compliment).

Not another opportunity to punch ol’beck, again.

Some posters think it is for that. They are clever enough to get their digs in hidden in paragraphs of gobbledy gook. Perhaps they do drive by hits, that go unnoticed.

Before I slip into a clever anecdote or tales of the crap around here(about 7 things, I think are hilarious have happened just this morning..hey schools out and 6 kids are funny, to me) I’ll shut up.

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Thanks for the kind and thoughtful words, @Beckdawrek . You certainly don’t need to shut up. Well, in this thread, maybe we should ALL shut up (I can’t believe we’re up to nearly 200 posts on what I think is a pretty minor matter - I didn’t expect such a surge of opinions), but you know your stories are appreciated by various posters in various parts of this board. Carry on!

196

Solid post.

Good post.