Is it because I don’t post about my balls as much as I used to? If so, I’m sorry.
Gee, thanks. :rolleyes:
If we enforce the rules that everyone has agreed with upon signing up, we’re fucked.
If we let someone slide, even inadvertently, we’re fucked.
When come back, bring lube.
Oh man, if this isn’t a cry for a new zero tolerance policy than I don’t know what is 
For fuck’s sake. People were bitching over how the SDMB had “gone downhill” since 2-freaking-thousand. And it was just as tedious then. To hear people talk back then, AOL Dopers were Gods who Walked This Earth, GQ was filled with Nobel laureates, and the “Great Debates” of the past were frequented by Daniel Webster, Kant, and Jesus.
The numbers are objective. It would be nice if the Reader or whoever told us the hits and the traffic, but they don’t.
I don’t see that as a big deal as far as the user experience goes. That crap goes into the Pit and the mods just deal with it. Now, it might tire out the mods and hurt how well they can do their jobs, but it won’t affect how much people like the board. What I’m talking about is a LACK of content, not an excess of bad content.
I don’t think of it as a Golden age goes to shit matter, because I never felt I was in a golden age here. But now there are just fewer posts and less interesting content. Many seem to agree.
Do you believe faith can be rational?
Whether faith can be rational or (in your opinion) cannot be, is the amount of abuse directed at the faithful here justified?
Well, me too. But not irrationally.
Interesting question. In general, yes, in the sense of faith as “expectation.” In that sense, I have faith certain things will happen, but that faith is grounded in evidence. I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow, based on history and the scientific explanations of how these things work. I have faith that my wife and children will be at home tonight, again based on history. I think these things are “rational”, but I guess we need to have some common definitions of “faith” and “rational.”
I don’t know what the amount of abuse is that is directed at them, nor in what contexts, so I cannot answer that. There are some instances I can recall that abuse has been warranted. People can certainly be aggressively ignorant on the matter, and I think “abuse” is warranted there, but again, it isn’t clear to me what you mean by abuse. For example, Do you think that the judge in the Dover PA case was “abusive” in using the phrase “breathtaking inanity”? I don’t.
Can faith be rational? Possibly? Is it rational as used in an argument by theists on these boards? Not usually.
Anyway, the amount of “abuse” directed at the faithful here is justified for the most part, IMO, when it’s mainly an attack on the other’s reasoning in a debate. When your main point is “I just know” or other non-falsifiable claims, you should expect to be called on it on a board dedicated to fighting ignorance.
You know, I think you’re onto something.
Back in the day, when I started lurking, a fair proportion of threads concerned bodily functions or various raunchy topics. To me, at least, these were the main type of filler I read between more serious and intellectual threads.
I mean, you can read about the ethics of abortion, etc… but sometimes, you just need a good Lieu poop story to lighten things up.
Sometime a few years back, it seems to me that there was a crackdown of sorts on that kind of thing- in some ways, it took a lot of the fun out of the board, and made it more serious, and by extension, more acrimonious. I think this is mostly because people would get to like one another in the less serious threads, and then in the more intense debate type ones, would be more likely to respect each other.
Without the silly/raunchy/nasty threads, it makes for a much more adversarial climate.
You know, I keep reading about Lieu and his poop stories. I’ve been a member here since June 2003, and I have never seen him mention anything even vaguely fartish. Not that I actively want to read poop stories, it’s just that the guy has this reputation and I’ve never seen any evidence of what it’s based on. Is this something he made a conscious decision to stop doing 4 1/2 years ago?
No, I’m sure lieu still poops.
Everybody poops.
Nice catch.
Wankers, the lot of them.
Remember the meltdown He had when we proved Jesus didn’t exist? Ghod, those were the days!
Well, you are in charge of hospitality.
Only at Orycon. 
I’ve honestly never understood the hand-wringing over “the other board.” Jesus, I think most people here couldn’t even tell you the URL or what even goes on at “the other board.” I know I can’t.
Just like Bush constantly talks about how everything is different after 9/11 and Slashdot fanboys whine about how video games are being ruined because the console makers don’t let us play pirated games, the SDMB has a few weirdos who are convinced what happens at some other board matters to everyone that posts here.
It just boggles my mind…
Satanists don’t believe in God or Satan, so not really. You’re thinking of devil worshippers which aren’t the same thing.