How do you mentally picture this board?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

How do you “picture” the forums on this board in your mind’s eye?

Facing my computer screen:

I “view” them each as side by side desending columns. ( which is kinda what they are.)

ATMB is on my extreme left then continuing on from left to the right IMHO MPSIMS GQ with finally the BBQ PIT ending up on my far right.

Great Debates is hovering somewhere above and around but I rarely use it having very little debatable to say. The two comments forums don’t exist in my mental pattern until I actually see them.

OK, now tell me how you “picture” the straightdope. (Unless of course you are too busy to respond to such an inane post as this one.)

2

Usually with its clothes off. :smiley:

3

I picture the SDMB as a very large conference with people wandering around and joining in conversations ad hoc; and two drunk German boys getting on a plane to Moscow every now and then.

4

Let me see what happens when I close my eyes and imagine… damn I cant tups lkike rthat.

This might flow better with my eyes open so I’ll go for a virtual stroll…

I’ll start by walking over to GQ where there are a bunch of booths where people ask questions of people in the booths. Every once in a while I will ask a question of one of the self proclaimed experts and on the odd occasion I get to be the person in the booth.

Over at GD there are a bunch of people in a library discussing everything under the sun, quite often someone will get up and run off to get a book to find some information to back up a point. Every once in a while the librarian will walk over to a table and tell the people there to settle down or they will have to leave. I have seen quite a few of these people here debating the same thing over and over again, they seem tireless.

IMHO and MPSIMS are located in a big coffee shop, there is a great deal of laughter as people tell each other what they think the best (insert subject) is and there are little groups here and there sharing small talk and again… more laughter. I like it here so I stop and have a cup of French roast with double cream and a dash of vanilla with a few friends.

From there I stroll over to a seedier area and find myself standing in front of an old warehouse. There are a couple of scary bouncers at the door but they let me pass as they know me pretty well. There is an entry to the basement and after descending into the sub-basement I find that I am in The Pit. Drinks are flowing freely and the discussions here are more heated. There’s a cage in the middle of the floor where a couple of people are going at it tooth and nail. The specatators really seem to be enjoying the show and there are a great many people just sitting at the back of the room watching and saying very little for they fear some of the regulars that frequent this place. I go to my usual spot and order myself a double, light a smoke and watch whats going on. I can hear a few people at the next table over ranting about the bad drivers they encountered today and how much their job sucks…

5

Like Feynn, I picture each forum as physical rooms. Here is my break-down:

ATMB - Bleak hall with folding metal chairs, a few tables, flourescent overhead lighting and alot of bulletin boards. Kind of like the foyer of a college student union or somthing.

Both Comments forums are one big room seperated by a divider. This room resembles Lou Grant’s bull pen. Desks, File cabinets and a bunch of people all in a flurry of activity, but pretty much discussing similar things.

General Questions - That’s my coffe shop. It’s quiet in there, but you can definitely hear the murmer of million conversations. No rauckus arguments going on. If one happens to flair up, the bouncers (moderators) kick out the participants.

Great Debates - Convention hall with a million lecturns. Everybody can conventiently hear whichever dissertation they choose, and everybody has a pile of books in their hands and a pencil behind their ear.

IMHO - Cocktail Bar, people milling around, laughing, sharing conversations, some screaming, a few drunks. Couches for lounging, pinball machines, neon lights.

MPSIMS - Rumpus room. Yellow and purple polka dot wallpaper. Circus music constantly playing. Pink and green neon lights abound. And it’s loud in here. Sometimes it’s hard to get a word in edgewise.

The Pit - (always to be spoken aloud in your best James Earl Jones voice). Seedy Biker bar where you better know how to defend yourself, or your toast.

6

ATMB - A frantic mother. She’s trying to cook dinner, talk on the telephone, clean the house, and still answer the questions of her child every time he pulls on her leg and whines “mom, mom, mom, why can’t I go swimming today?”

comments - A classroom full of kids. Half of them are arguing just to be contradictory. The other half are hoping desperately that the teacher will finally notice them and choose them as the “pupil of the day.”

General questions - Eisenhower, Lee, Alexander the Great, and Schwartzkopf with confused looks on their faces (Think about it).

Great debates - A cross between Socrates and a kid who ate too many pixie sticks.

MPSIMS - The bratty, airheaded, valley girl who doesn’t seem to realize that you don’t care what shoes she’s wearing, what Christian Slater movie she went to last night, or how often she shaves her legs. But you have to stand there and nod until she goes away. Heaven help us all if you run, for she will tackle you, drag you back to her room and inform you she’s on the rag right now as she beats you over the head with her Gucci purse.

IMHO - Crotchety old man, sitting on his rocking chair, screaming at the youngins. “In my day, we ate rocks and breathed charcoal, and we liked it dag nabbit!” he shouts. Occasionally tries to seduce the valley girl to no avail.

The Pit - a forty two foot ogre with fetid breath, one good eye, drool coming down both sides of its mouth and a roar heard round the world. Most of the time, it’s content to stay in its cage, shaking the bars and scaring the visitors and natives alike. Occasionally it will escape. Moderators, brandishing whips and cowboy hats, round it up from all areas of the board, but not before it brings back the limb of one of the other forums as its chew toy.

7

You’ve managed to make MPSIMS, with the pink, green, yellow and purple decor, sound scarier than the Pit! Apart from the bit about needing to defend one’s toast from the bikers, of course.:slight_smile:

8

Since my mental state is good, I picture the boards quite rationally. Thank you very much.

9

I visualize a bunch of pathetic losers in their underwear eating left-over take-out food in a room lit only by the glow of the monitor…

No, wait - that one looks too much like me. That can’t be right. I’m perfectly coiffed and manicured, sporting tailor-made togs and butter-soft imported footwear, sipping tea and chuckling softly over a wry observation or pithy remark made by one of those pathetic losers in his underwear…

Of course, I could be wrong.

10

When ever I go into Great Debates I always think of an extended version of that scene in ‘Life of Brian’ where they are walking down the street and all of the various profits are screaming at each other and the crowd for attention, so they get louder and wierder, just to try to get someones attention.

The pit is like a crowded inner city bus where little groups of people scowl and mutter things to the person next to them, and stare suspiciously at all the other little groups.

GQ is just a library.

MPSIMS is a high school courtyard.
IMHO is a grade school courtyard.

The comments forums are depressing little rooms in a government building, that has a desk that never seems to be occupied, and a bunch of bulletin boards with messages that haven’t been cleaned in 10 years. ATMB is much the same, but with racks of pamphlets rather that boards.

11

Of course I meant to say “… or you’re toast”, but now that I think about it, I like the other way better.

12

This is something I attempt to avoid at all costs.

13

This is exactly the way I picture GD. I was just never able to put it in to words. Beautiful!

MPSIMS is like a really big hot tub. REALLY big. Everyone’s naked, and everyone’s okay with it.

The Pit is red. That’s all I can see, just red.

I don’t really spend enough time in the other forums to get a good visual. Perhaps I should.

14

i pictured it as a rather strange algonquin round table. a large room of tables. people come and go, circulate around the tables. sometimes things break off into smaller groups, sometimes things get heated. no one can stay away for long however and are always welcomed back from vacation.

15

I picture it as an overloaded room (much like a casino) with a Rancor in the pit, just some people that run up and yell into a microphone in the MPSIMS, GD as a LARGE college classroom, IMHO is a bunch of scholors, and GQ has Nostradamus confused

16

ATMB– boiler room; like in the Clavin & Hobbes strips showing the little crew in Calvin’s head.

Comments (both of them)-- a not-too-large lecture hall, with the speakers taking questions from the audience

General Questions– a convention-type atmosphere; everybody has “HI, I’M _______”-type nametags

Great Debates– a big room with people standing at desks yelling at each other; looks a lot like the senate chamber in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

IMHO– just a bunch of people milling about.

MPSIMS– a big gameromm (pool and pinball tables abound) with a hot tub in one corner, a fireplace at the opposite end, green Astroturf on the floor, wood paneling on the walls, and windows that look like ship’s portholes.

Pit– Hell, as shown in old Looney Tunes (the ones where Sylvester/Elmer Fudd died and got a second…and third…and fourth…chance).

17

I picture it the message board as a large room full of lunatics, happily running the asylum.

18

A large, private club.Fine art on the walls. Red leather overstuffed armchairs. Big fireplaces, providing most of the light in the room. People sipping brandy or champagne (except Uncle Beer–lager). The guys are all handsome, or at least distinguished-looking; the girls gorgeous, in evening dresses with elbow-length gloves. Some are smoking (guys, Meerschaum pipes or cigars; ladies, cigarettes in holders) , others not. A nearby, well-stocked library. Servants move adroitly among the crowd, carrying silver platters.

The conversation is erudite , witty, brilliant & charming.

Classical music plays in the background.

Vey posh/upper class. Terrifically good taste.

The Trolls are wearing Clown suits & Nixon masks. They are gnawing the heads off bats & are flogged by one & all, to universal delight & acclaim.

19

Everyone has put it so well, that there is no way I’m competing with their stylish imaginations!!

I think we are all in Cecil’s head, ala ‘Being John Malcovich’ except instead of falling out onto a freeway when we want to log off, we all fall back onto our chairs in front of our computers.