You know, I can’t count how many posts I’ve read that have caused me not to be a lawyer.
Me too!! Does that count? Maybe I should just add a ROTFL.
You know, Smeg, my first instinct was to respond to your post with a “ROTFL”!
Honestly though, every single time I see where someone has typed “BWAHAHAHAHA!” it really does make me laugh. I can’t help it–I just get tickled by it! So, see, Mr. McDavis, not all of us find these things annoying.
And just for Flyp–since this is the pit, BITE ME!
Jodi, sweetcheeks, let’s have a chat. First, the name is Tymp, not TYMP. If you’re incapable of typing it properly, please c & p. Now, dear, you’ve been around for a long time. You know full well that the SDMB has, historically, been totally unwilling to accept criticism from a newbie graciously. Whenever someone comes to the Pit to complain about something they find annoying, it turns into a saddening post count padding party, just like this one. Do we need to agree with anyone by default? No. We do it all the fucking time with the better-established posters, but that’s another issue all together. I think we should have the decency to actually tell someone why he or she is full of shit, rather than just spewing tripe in a weak attempt to amuse each other with totally predictable behavior. Oh, wait! We’re in the Pit. Common decency, rational argument, and posts of content are restricted to GQ & GD only, right?
Now, thank you for the italics. That made your point of idiotic simplicity so much easier to understand. I almost agree with you in a general sense, but not in this thread. No, dear, it’s fucking insecurity that drives people to pad their post counts without actually addressing something directly. For instance, if I were to respond to you with nothing more than a hearty “Fuck you”, “Go get squicked”, or “ROLAMLIJJNWNKJZJ!!!” I would not be making much of a point and you would be fully justified in thinking that your attack of my post is valid and sensible. Quite obviously, it’s not.
Thanks for posting this. I find it odd that you would post it as a response to me in this thread, but, hey, whatever it takes, right? Gratuitous attacks? Nope, not us! We’re just so fucking funny we can’t control ourselves. OOKIKAHYUWKJ!!!
Sure. No problem. You just come see me whenever you need guidance, li’l darlin’.
Well, I’ve been loafing (not lurking, but loafing) around the Pit for a few days now and have enjoyed every minute of it.
Some good shit here.
I was here briefly a couple of months ago, then had to give up the telephone in favor of the electric bill (no phone ain’t all bad. I’d do it again, if I could also stay on-line). Times are a little better now.
Something this iggnernt old red-neck dosen’t understand: What’s with ‘post padding’? Seems to me the content of the post is more important than the number. Sounds a lot like Dan Quayle disease: “Don’t have nothing to say, but sez it anyway.” I miss Danny. He gave us some relief through a pretty grim administration.
As to the strange acronyms, hell, I like 'em. I get some mental exersise trying to figure out whaddafuck they mean, if anything.
OMFWAUPTPOSI!
Post padding, schmost padding.
Post count as it correlates to respect.
Here’s the way I see it. This is one big cocktail party, thrown at Cecil’s house. There is a circle of people who have been here a while having an animated chat about something or other.
Circumstance A: Another person who has also been here a while leans in to the conversation and says, “What the hell are you asshole’s talking about?” Response: “We’re talking about this, care to join in, dick-head?” (Good natured ribbing all around - ha ha ha, rolling on the floor, all that shit).
Circumstance B: A person who nobody knows just walks through the door, sticks his head in the circle and says “What the hell are you asshole’s talking about?” Response: A severe, and cutting tongue lashing, and quite possibly a beating.
And now an argument in favor of post padding.
At any cocktail party, you must cut your teeth. Join in as many conversations as you can. Introduce yourself. Figure out the pecking orders and idiosyncracies of the group. I see nothing wrong with chiming into random threads with not much to say, if only to display an example of your personality. Sooner or later you will be accepted by the group if you watch your P’s and Q’s.
Once you’re established, you can throw around all the P’s and Q’s you want.
I’m not even sure how coherent this post is, as I’ve only been awake for about ten minutes. I haven’t rolled on the floor laughing once today, but I look forward to the first instance in which I can mention Hamburger Helper for no apparant reason, throw out an acronym that means nothing to anyone but me, and chuck up a few random smilies all at the same time.
And when I hit 200 posts, I’ll let someone know. Sue me.
Jack,
Our dear friend DavisMcDavis, announced his arrival at this cocktail party back in April. He may have been lurking and peeking in through the windows for some time before that.
Now, let me offer circumstance C: Joe Random walks into this party because he’s heard it’s a good time and an excellent opportunity for good conversation. In wandering around, he finds this to be the case and is pleased. However, he encounters a number of people who pipe up at random with silly, inane comments just because they like to hear the sound of their own voices. Joe Random finds this particularly annoying and, because he doesn’t give a damn about any bloody pecking order, says something about it. The rest of the party goers think, “Oh, no! This man does not love the sound of our voices and is more interested in what we might have to say! Perhaps if we shout a bunch of random crap at him, we can train him to love us or make him go away. At least we’ll make ourselves feel warm and fuzzy.”
Circumstance D: Joe Random walks into this party because he’s heard it’s a good time and an excellent opportunity for good conversation. In wandering around, he finds this to be the case and is pleased. However, he encounters a number of people who pipe up at random with silly, inane comments just because they like to hear the sound of their own voices. Joe Random finds this particularly annoying and, because he doesn’t give a damn about any bloody pecking order, says something about it. The rest of the partygoers say, “You’re missing the point, man. We say these things because it’s the best way available to us for showing our appreciation of each other.”
I’m rather fond of option D.
Now, do a little math with my post count and registration date and then try to convince me that there is some merit in post count padding.
I’d like to point out that there is no pecking order here or anywhere else in the world. There are certain individuals who have earned respect and are authorities on specific topics, but not a single one of them has more of a right to speak than I do. If you desperately need the safety and abuse offered by a pecking order, you just run along and have your fun. I will happily ignore any such fiction.
For the record I agree with the OP and Tymp on this. (Personally, my big gripe is people who overquote previous posts, but hey, that’s another thread.)
I do think that VERY clever or funny remarks should be acknowledged. The author deserves it.
The trouble is that too many Dopers will “laugh” at anything, especially when it’s posted by a buddy. All the gratuitous LOLing waters down the the quality of the humor and turns the board into a big logrolling circle jerk.
Another thing… when I see a righteously lame-ass joke followed by a string of LOL’s, I get embarassed for the laughers. I’m thinking “They really think THAT’S funny? Boy, keep them away from the Dixie Riddle Cups or they’ll have a siezure. I guess these people are smart but they certainly don’t have a very sophisticated sense of humor.”
I just want to make a small note here, regarding post count. As anyone can see, I am a relative newbie myself. I have 200something posts, most of which are relatively light and mainly intended to introduce my personality to the others on this board. I would never have even considered prancing into the Pit with 22 posts under my belt and bitching about something that many regular, established posters seem to enjoy.
I think it’s pretty arrogant to assume that you could do that and not expect others to tell you to piss off. I also think it’s extremely arrogant to join a board and immediately think you have the right to tell everybody else how to write their posts because some things annoy you. My feeling is, you should have lurked, seen how things work, and participate if it looks like something you’d like. I don’t think you should lurk, see things that annoy you, join and then tell everybody who’s already here that they need to stop doing what they were doing just so you won’t be annoyed. You shouldn’t have joined in the first place if the things we do here annoy you.
The fact that he has a low post count says to me that he hasn’t participated here very much and that he probably doesn’t have the full support of a lot of other people. I don’t think it’s appropriate to come busting into a coaktail party where you don’t know anybody and tell them that they way they hold their conversation annoys you.
I stand by what I said earlier: If you don’t like it, go somewhere else.
Yes, Circumstance D is a reasonable, mature, extremely couth approach to take. However, it is unlike almost any cocktail party I’ve ever been to (which could more acurately be described as keg-bashes, but I digress).
This is a fun board. Hell, that’s why I’m here. I like to banter my way through a good debate every once and a while. But I also like to be an idiot from time to time. As I’m sure most user’s here will admit to as well.
I lurked and peeked for a while too. When I figured out how, why, when, with what kind of attide people posted, I jumped into the fray. I’ve tried not to piss any people off, but hey, shit happens sometimes.
If I posted a rant about smilies, the first thing I would expect as a response would be a veritable flood of the little bastards. Who know’s, maybe thats what Davis was expecting. He doesn’t seem to be that upset at the responses he’s garnered so far.
There may not be an official pecking order set up here or anywhere else, but you and I both know that a loose hierarchy exists. I’m not saying that a particular user rules the roost, or anything like that, but there would be a world of difference between starting a flame war with DavisMcDavis, than starting one with, say, ChiefScott. He’d have his homey’s backing him up. As well they should.
All I’m saying is that if you’re going to come in here and piss on people’s legs, you gotta be prepared for the backlash.
Well, Jack, if you’re worried about somebody’s homies backing them up, you’d better make sure you’re well grounded and able to defend your position. Really, though, shouldn’t that be the case when you’re posting anything to anyone?
Don’t assume that I believe in a hierarchy. I adore and respect a lot of posters here, but that doesn’t make me think even for a moment that they have more of a right to anything than I. Hierarchies and pecking orders only exist if the people on the shit end of them allow them to exist.
This idea that people are not welcome to post certain ideas without first meeting the required post count really makes me ill. If you’ve got an idea worth sharing, you’re in the right place. Post away. Any asshole that tries to discredit you or convince you that you’re worthless because of your fucking post count can safely be ignored.
This message board is not an isolated universe where people are just born out of nowhere and have to learn the ropes. This is a message board where real people who know what they like and how to conduct themselves in public can come to share ideas. There are no extra rules that apply here that aren’t valid in the outside world. You’ve been on this planet long enough to learn how to use a computer, therefore, you’ve been around long enough to know how to speak your mind. If people post shit that you disagree with, you’ve got every right to say so. You have every right to think, no matter how new you are.
I agree with everything Tymp said.
Tymp, I don’t think your cocktail party analogy is exactly correct.
If said newcomer to the party started talking shit to party-goers whose style he didn’t appreciate, other regular party-goers would almost certainly have a reaction of “who the hell does this guy think he is?”
If, however, that same person had been partying every weekend with this group of people for months or years, and had a critical comment to say to other regulars, that comment would almost certainly carry more weight with them.
Evidence would exist that he knew about the party’s nuances, the personalities of different individuals, etc.
The newcomer might be right as rain with his observations. But he also should expect people to not particularly care about his opinion.
There’s a lot of stuff two or three regular posters here do that absolutely bugs the shit out of me. And they’re almost inescapable, because they post it everywhere. (I’m hoping they might get restraining orders placed on them soon.)
But … I’m sure I rub some people the wrong way as well. The posters who irritate me have been here a while, they seem to have other people who don’t mind their spiel. I guess they have as much right to do their thing as me or anybody else.
Milo: If the newcomer’s observations are, as you say “right as rain” that’s good enough for me, and I will care about his opinion.
Are you saying, Milo, that it’s fine to disregard the content of a post if you are unfamiliar with the poster? I can see ignoring someone for posting something annoying. I can see correcting or attacking an offensive post. I can see helping someone post in a way that will more effectively accomplish what they intend. I only have trouble with the idea of belittling someone for choosing not to follow the made up rules of a made up game.
TYMP says:
Oh, if I can put up with you patronizingly referring to me as “dear” and (ugh) “sweetcheeks”, I think you can tolerate the sight of your name typed (or Tymped) in all caps. Adjust and adapt.
You must be totally unfamiliar with the “state your objection, get poked with it repeatedly” nature of the Pit. In any event, not every post responding was of the “newbie-baiting” tone you refer to, but you took it upon yourself to call everyone “assholes” – your word initially, “sweetcheeks,” not mine.
Oh, wah. Several people, including me, posted substantive responses to to OP, which was nothing more than a whine in the first place and so arguably didn’t really deserve substantive responses at all.
Yes, it is another issue, because I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. How senior a poster does one have to be to get this perk? Because I’ve been here fifteen months, and if anyone’s ever agreed with me by default, I’ll be damned if I remember it.
I don’t necessarily disagree with this, but perhaps you would do better to distinguish the “tripe-spewers” from those attempting a substantive response before referring to all of us as assholes.
I would probably be the last person to agree with that, but my definition of “common decency” ad “rational argument” does not include referring indiscriminately to everyone who posts before me as assholes.
You’re welcome.
Since you liked the italics, I’ll use them again: Not everyone who posted here posted drivel, or posted only to pad their post count. Therefore, not everyone here deserves to be lumped in to some indescriminate group of “assholes.” And a person who would do so is acting like, well, I think you know.
You point out to me where another poster dropped by just to tell the rest of us (all of us) that we’re a bunch of assholes.
Yeah, I’ll do that. You wait here.
You know what? Davis doesn’t have to follow any rule he doesn’t agree with. If he never uses another “LOL” in his posting life, I doubt anyone would even notice, much less object. But to post that he finds it annoying – and in the Pit, no less, where he’s just handed people a sharp stick to poke him with – and considers the behavior of others here to be “lame shit,” might, in this forum, earn him a hearty “fuck you!” or, somewhat less hostilely (though you don’t seem to see that) a few "LOL"s.
I think there is a fine line. In a perfect world, only the content and pure reason of the post would matter. But even Aristotle acknowledges that in certain kinds of discourses, the character of the speaker is a crucial aspect of his overall argument.
A newcomer can establish his good character by numerous, reasoned posts. His early posts can be read and appreciated, and the full weight of his words can be considered when his character is revealed. My post count is low, so only a relatively few people have had the opportunity to read what I have had to say. So I understand if in the beginning they are a little more skeptical of my views than those of an experienced poster. I don’t think this is unfair, nor is it some kind of hierarchy. It’s just the way it works.
But I can always count on Tymp to say the nicest things about me. 
MR
Jodi,
You brought this on yourself when you decided to address my post that you know didn’t apply to you. In that first post, I was quite obviously addressing a very specific behavior that I found distasteful. Was I referring to your post when I mentioned a very specific behavior and called people assholes? You have since quite rightly asserted that you were taking no action that would lump you in that group. Yet, you chose to call me out anyway. Fine. If you beg for abuse, I’ll give it to ya. See? I’m a nice guy!
Oh, Jodi. . . Do you try to misunderstand people so that you can “attack” the things that you pretend they have said? Of course no one is going to agree with you without basis other than your reputation. I would never lump you into a group that is respected by default as a result of past contributions. No worries there.
What the fuck? Why are you incapable of following this thread, Jodi? The “rules” in question were those relating to when it is appropriate for a poster to speak his or her mind.
Ya know, Jodi, line by line quoting of someone’s post in order to attack it can be very effective and entertaining. It only works if it’s done well, though. I suggest that you think a little harder and try to hone your skills before attempting it again.
Hey, Maeglin, you know I’m always willing to thoroughly read your posts before calling you a jackass and telling you why.
I assume you are adult. Let’s just say you and some of your buddies are sittin’ around havin’ a round, and some eight year old comes out of nowhere and tells you that your voice annoys him and he tells your entire group to shut the hell up. Would that not receive the same response from you as been ours to DavisMcDavis? We aren’t backing or attacking because of post count. We are attacking because he came out and said what we are doing is annoying and he wants us to stop. That to me is just someone being a fun Nazi, and of course I’m going to shout him down. That’s my take on it. I’m not forcing it on you, and I’m not backing anyone because they have more posts than someone else.
TYMP says:
Can you not read? I pretty clearly did not know it did not apply to me; certainly nothing you said in it would so indicate.
I don’t know – were you? Because it sure seemed that way when you indiscriminately called everyone an asshole. If you except people out of that fine appellation, perhaps you might want to be a little clearer about that. This is aside, of course, from the fact that a few posters (apparently, other than me) gave to OP a little grief, which he pretty much asked for anyway, and you responded by calling them assholes. Nice.
And yet, saw no indication that you excepted anyone from that group. If you want to indescriminately insult people, that’s your perogative, but don’t act surprised when people believe an all-inclusive insult includes them.
Uh, right. Heaps of abuse is in the top five of the “Things Nice Guys Do” List.
Why yes, yes I do. It seems to me a stupid question deserves a stupid answer, so there you go. Oh, and since I quoted you directly, you can hardly complain that I am responding to something I am merely “pretending” you said.
I didn’t ask if I was in the group; I asked what one had to do to be in the group. Since you missed it, that was a way of highlighting that no such group exists. And, since you missed it, I’ll be more explicit: No such group exists. Nobody gets a pass around here. Not me. And not you.
The obvious extension of this, since youp are apparently incapable of following a logical chain of thought without someone spelling it out for you, is that (a) it is not appropriate for someone to speak their mind (in which case you have no grounds for speaking yours); or (b) it is appropriate for someone to speak their mind (in which case you have damn little grounds for taking others to task for speaking theirs). Get it?
Gee, I better write that down . . . oh, wait! I don’t care what you think of my posting style! No need to take notes, then, huh?