I didn’t see much of anything in the “no rules” pit that I haven’t seen in the regular pit. The main difference was the rate at which the stupid/nasty/inane flowed versus the regular flow. The only real differences I saw were the allowing of misquoting people, and the discussion of illegal activities. Neither of these would be good ideas going forward, so there wasn’t really anything done on no-rules weekend which couldn’t be done here normally. Well, nothing with any redeeming value whatsoever(Autocylus, spamming, really?)
OK, this may get me flamed, but I just don’t get this. Maybe instead of surfing the dope at work, you should just work? I can access the SDMB from work too, and occasionally skim the forums when time permits, but these days I just don’t have the time. I think if you surf at work you do so at your own risk. It’s not up to the admins to babysit. I don’t mean this in a nasty way, but if losing one’s job could be a factor if one accidently clicks on a goatsex site or whatever, perhaps they should stick to checking email and weather.com.
Why? The entire charm of it was the fact that everything would be “forgotten,” you could get everything out of your system and have a clean slate come the update’s completion. If you purged the hypothetical new forum you could emulate that, I don’t think it would be as cathartic as Amnesia Weekend if that sense of it being on permanent record (even if it wasn’t allowed to be referenced) was there.
Are you referring to the board as a whole? I always assumed most members were big fans of a searchable database of posts. I know I am - easy to find references long since forgotten. I’ve even searched items in the Pit.
I would pretty much be 100% against such a thing. If you have a trolling impulse, you should have the fortitude to just suck it up and restrain yourself. I hate that kind of juvenile nonsense and I’m not in favour of enabling it.
I totally agree with this. I’m not a Republican either but having more of them around here would be a huge breath of fresh air. I’ve said this before - I’m the most liberal person I know in real life but I’m Barry fucking Goldwater compared to the status quo here. People here are express the worst traits of liberals in huge proportion; whiney, ultra political correctness, “tolerance” that goes so absurdly far it feels more like bigotry, nitpicky, no sense of humor, etc. I hate how people here pick away at the tiniest details off an argument and completely miss the big picture. God forbid you estimate a statistic instead of looking it up on the almighty Google because if you’re 3 percentage points off, the rest of the thread is going to be about that, instead of remotely about what you were trying to say. And don’t you dare make a generalization or post about your own personal experience, even if it’s clearly labelelled as such, because people will come swinging down from the rafters to “prove” you wrong with their own generalization or personal experience.
The problem that I’ve noticed, unfortunately, is that posting anything moderate gets you completely ignored. If you want any attention around here you’ve got to be a complete asshole, looney-Right, or constantly be trying to one-up everyone else for the coveted crown of most looney-Left. And there’s a looooong line for that crown.
Some of this seemed like it subsided a little bit during the free-for-all. Hopefully that, in combination with free posting once again, will be a turning point for the better in the mood of this board.
Then we may as well keep the pit. The worst thing I did over the weekend was… necro a thread, so I don’t really care, but the only things that really couldn’t be done in the Pit were:
Stuff you didn’t want to say “on record” because you knew it was stupid or exaggerated so you wanted to release it without it being later accessible.
A. (yes, A!) Do all those naughty evil little things like deliberately misrepresent other people’s thoughts and be purposefully dense (in an obvious troll-like fashion) that you normally would get a warning, or at least a very harsh pitting for.
It’s the same principle as to why a few people tell racist jokes on poker night or at the bar or whatever, they’re not really all that racist (or sexist, or into dead babies or any other patently offensive thing you can dream up), they just want a chance to say things they don’t mean to vent on unrelated issues. Or to use another example (that I actually know how to word) the same reason gamers who had a bad day run around shooting hookers in Grand Theft Auto or torch villages in Black and White. 99% of people wouldn’t torch a village or slaughter cops given the choice (or at least not as nonchalantly) they just want something they normally can’t do in meatspace or places that “matter” to relieve the stress.
Correction: Only have the pit. As in, don’t create another forum. I was in no way advocating changing the current setup as it pertains to the wonder place of fire and BBQ.
Oh well, judging by the responses other than the usual killjoys I still think it worked for the most part. I laughed out loud more than once. Bring it back once in a while.
I did not like it, over all. Some (a lot) of people went overboard with the immaturity and the meanness. I’m very sensitive, you know. Complete honesty is not always a good thing, either. Not that anybody attacked me, personally (that I know of), but it was sometimes hard to witness.
But I knew before this that I’m a “follow the rules”-type person (for the most part! ahem) and that I like things to be structured and coherent, so no surprise there.
Who do you think you are that you should be able to dictate the terms of how I use the Internet?
Did you suddenly become my boss and change his policy on not caring what harmless diversions we may amuse ourselves with during our long days, so long as they are not patently offensive or obscene?
Let me say this straight: your opinions have no say in the matter I raised. The administration of this board has consistently policed the members here in a reasonable manner, so that disguising obscene material as breaking political news was something that members wouldn’t do because they’d be banned, and in any case the material removed in a very rapid manner.
The administration capriciously turned its back on a fundamental agreement with members on a matter that wasn’t one of taste, but of clear obscenity. And this incident wasn’t on a Saturday, it was a Friday morning.
And aside from any concerns about losing one’s job, some of us plain don’t care to be ambushed by highly offensive material. If I was into that thing, I would frequent message boards where that is acceptable behavior. But I’m not, and due to a serious error by the moderators here, they changed their rules in a flat out moronic way, which they realized soon after the stupidity of their decision became apparent.
Once again, I think the moderators owe a lot of people a better apology than what was given and subsequently deleted.
Quoted because I agree with every single word of it, whole-heartedly. Of course, you posted it in the Pit, where the people who desperately need to read it will never see it.
As for one of the relaxed rules, I’m not sure why we need to play fair with the banned. If you want to be able to answer the charges against you, don’t get yourself banned. Seems simple enough to me.
You think you’re owed an apology because you clicked a link on took you to something NSFW? Not just an apology, but a serious and heartfelt one? Keee-rist, do you want someone to get you a drink of water and read you a story before you go to bed?
Your over-the-top indignation “How DARE you dictate how I use the internet” could get you a Web-y award if someone puts you up for one too.
So workplaces might fire someone for clicking on one offensive picture, but they have no problem with the sexually explicit content frequently found not only in threads but in the lists of posts? There’s some pretty potential offensive stuff on here even when it isn’t free-for-all-weekend, so let’s not trot that out as an excuse.
YOU think it was a mistake for them relaxing the rules for the weekend. YOU. Some people agree with you, and some people don’t. Why is it that your opinion (and those you agree with) mean more than anyone else’s here? The forums (especially the Pit) were labeled with the information about the free-for-all, if you didn’t read the information then that’s something that can’t be helped by the mods.
Let’s not make more of this than it is. Something you didn’t like happened on a messageboard you belong to. Why don’t we save the “I’m so offended and wronged!” horseshit for stuff that is worth it, huh?
Oh, and spare me the “How dare you decide for ME what is worth it and what isn’t” shit because how dare YOU decide for everyone else that the mods were wrong to allow a one time free-for-all in the forum that was clearly labeled as such.
To be fair . . . if we keep talking about them, they’re just going to come back under a different name, which would defeat the purpose of banning them. There’s another board I read that doesn’t enforce bannings at all. They’ll ban you at the drop of a hat but you can come right back under a new name and they really don’t give a shit. Some people even put their previous banned usernames in their signatures. It’s preposterous.
