As you get out of the car on your way into the club, WhyNot, will you have big hole in the crotch of your pants? Please, please do.
DiosaBellissima, I agree with you. Just stay out of the thread if you have nothing to contribute, pro or con.
Well, I kinda was. At least, that was my intent.
I will defend my posts, though, as coming organically from the thread. There are threadcraps and there are highjacks and I don’t think my posts were either. I thinking broadening the topic to include a wider discussion about celebrity culture and the bounds of good taste in making their private lives public. A tangent, admittedly, but one I still feel is acceptable given the OP and other posts before mine.
My other point is that I do find celebrity gossip distasteful and actually harmful (both to the celebs and their families and to society at large), and I really don’t feel like holding my tongue on that point. I don’t make a habit of opening up celeb gossip threads (which are thankfully rare on this board) to complain about it, but I stumbled into this one (I thought it’d be about something political Baldwin had said, or something he did regarding 30 Rock or something) and thought it was a paticularly egregious example.
Basically, I don’t see my posts as being like coming into a thread about show X and saying that it sucks. I see it more like coming into a thread about the merits of candidate X’s universal health care proposal to say that universal health care is never a good idea.
What do you consider thread shitting?
I get that when we are in our weekly House thread if someone pops in and says “House sucks why do you even bother watching it” - yeah - that’s thread shitting. But, I mean if I went into one of those threads and asked why you guys cared so much about the personal lives of these people you don’t know - would that be thread shitting? It’s an honest question. I’ve never understood it (I am tabloid journalism’s worst nightmare - I appreciate the work they do but I could care less about their personal lives). (hhmmm. I smell thread fodder in this question :))
So is it any negative opinion at all or is it in how the naysayer puts it, or what?
I will volunteer that I am one of those detractors in the unattractive actress thread, and admit that I am either a threadshitter or a threadholierthanthou-er.
I am wholly unapologetic. I see the covers of tabloids in the grocery store, and they are covered with photos of seriously underweight stars who admit to succumbing to pressure from the public about their appearance. I hear eating disorders in nearly every public bathroom, I listen to my girlfriends agonize over every stretchmark and crooked tooth, and I notice when young girls who have nothing but perfect skin glop on thick makeup to cover tiny imperfections like freckles or moles in order to appear perfect. Women can be incredibly catty and unkind, and I feel very strongly that these negative comments can lead to hurt feelings and social anxiety. You call it “dish” I call it damage.
But I have to agree that I (and several others) deviated from the topic, and am guilty of daring to disagree with the OP as well as throwing in some unwanted admonishment. I propose a solution.
I say we take just one day per year, and throw verbal stones at one sacrificial lamb and just tear her to pieces. That lamb can endure all the catty comments, all the unsolicited beauty and medical advice, and all the insulting comparisons to farm animals that Dopers can dish out. I volunteer. I have several unconventional features, and I am not afraid to whip them out. Once per year, I will post an unretouched full length photo of myself, and Dopers can tear me to shreds. And I’m really tall and really skinny, so the ball should start rolling pretty quickly.
Any takers?
Well, I am not entirely sure exactly what the OP is complaining about. Was not the reply on topic? It didn’t seem to be a hijack to me. What exactly is “thread shitting”? It seems to me that Menocchio’s response was not that he hates any and all “petty gossip” it was that this particular piece of gossip went beyond the pale. And isn’t that on topic? 
Now, let’s say someone starts a thread that “Starship Troopers is the worst SF film ever made”. Can I come in and say that I “thought it was entertaining at times, even though I agree it didn’t have enough from the book”? Do we have to agree?
I guess I am just confused here. 
:smack:
Now, in a thread about Starship Troopers, one does not come in and get started about Showgirls, that much I agree with. One can mention you consider it as bad as… but it must be on topic.
Hey, Why - didn’t bother me much. Thought a bit inappros, but, slid off my back like EVOO.
Thanks though. I appreciate it. 
It’s hard to know what a thread is going to be about when you have thread titles such as “Rumer Willis” and “Whoa Alec Baldwin…what’s that about?” If you don’t want ThreadShitters in your thread, you might want to give a more detailed OP so HolierThanThous can bypass it altogether.
I opened up the Rumer Willis thread because I wondered what she had done to merit a Cafe Society thread (was she signed to star in a movie?). When I read the OP, it raised my blood pressure. Attacking a kid because she’s not attractive? Are you *kidding * me? That’s not “dishing” about a celebrity, that’s being mean spirited and petty. And that’s bad form, no matter what forum. I make no apologies for commenting that I thought so.
However, I agree that threadshitter does exist and is annoying. If I see a thread titled “American Idol 4/9,” then I know exactly what it’s about. If I don’t LIKE American Idol, then it’d be impolite of me to venture in only to comment how stupid the show is. Here’s a good example of obvious threadshitting. He knew what the thread was about, knew that the show’s fans would be dishing about the show, yet his only purpose was to throw ice water on their party.
To the AI fan’s credit, they tend to ignore such obvious bait and it takes all the wind out of the Threadshitter’s sails. I wish the folks in the “Lost” threads would do the same for their resident Threadshitter.
I think I hate you a little for making me think of Rachel Ray. 
Usually, though, there’s a thread that asks, “How do you like American Idol” around the time when the show first airs where the merits of the show as a whole get discussed. There are also SNL threads where people pop in to say that they hate the show, and give examples why.