# I'm confused.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [December 23, 2007, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007 "2007-12-23T08:51:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kizzume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizzume)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/1 "2007-12-23T08:51:49Z")
I had never heard of the publication “The Straight Dope”. I saw a message on another forum point to a waterboarding thread on this forum. It peaked my curiosities.
Then I wanted to register–then I start reading about requiring payment to post after 30 days. What’s so special about this place besides not allowing avatars or signatures or images in posts that makes it something that people should pay for? (okay, there was some sarcasm there–I’m basically saying you have LESS to offer than other boards from what I can IMMEDIATELY see) I’m not seeing it.
Is there some sort of publication that I’ll be mailed every month or something, if I pay money, or is it just for the “special privilege” of posting here? Why is it worth the money when there are hundreds of other FREE forums that have good debates on them?
Why should I want to pay money for something that doesn’t even let me have an avatar or a signature, or post images
[http://www.infraxes.com/kizzume/shaven-150.png](http://www.infraxes.com/kizzume/shaven-150.png)
[http://kizzumeforum.com](http://kizzumeforum.com)
Yep, I can’t post images. What’s up? Why in the world would I want to pay for that?
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/2 "2007-12-23T09:04:16Z")
Some of the positives you’ll find here include folks who speak (write) clearly, with proper grammar, intelligence, factual answers, with citation. There’s more, some intangible. Hang around for your 30 days, and see for yourself.
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### Author:  [@Kizzume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizzume)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/3 "2007-12-23T09:17:12Z")
I’ll take a look, I’ll check it out.
Images can have a major impact on a story. Why do you disallow them?
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/4 "2007-12-23T09:39:27Z")
If it’s necessary to your story, you can link to outside photos. If it’s not necessary, then it’s just a distraction.
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### Author:  [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/5 "2007-12-23T12:05:20Z")
[QUOTE=Kizzume]
I’ll take a look, I’ll check it out.
Images can have a major impact on a story. Why do you disallow them?
[/QUOTE]
For every one person who wants to post a relevant, insightful picture that backs up whatever point they are trying to make there would be 10 frat boys from the dregs of the internet that would think it funny to post pics of Goatse or other lovely images.
Images+avatars+flashing sig lines=MySpace. I’ll pass, thanks.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/6 "2007-12-23T12:28:57Z")
[QUOTE=Kizzume]
I’ll take a look, I’ll check it out.
Images can have a major impact on a story. Why do you disallow them?
[/QUOTE]
Besides the other reasons, the board loads more quickly if it doesn’t have to load all of the extra pictures too. They can be linked to just fine.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/7 "2007-12-23T13:06:40Z")
**Kizzume** , welcome.
One of the many reasons images are disallowed is that the board’s hardware is a little… er… fragile. The nominal charge is largely firefighting, trying to keep it up and running.
That said, it’s also in keeping with an ethos that concentrates on the verbal and factual content of posts, rather than distractions via bells and whistles. I even hate word-based sigs, myself, and have them turned off in my control panel.
It’s cool if you don’t want to pay, but you might find that after 30 days’ trial, you enjoy the intelligent debate, wit ,and verbal dexterity on display, and are prepared to overlook - or even find advantageous, as I do - the lack of those things that currently you think of as necessary to a forum.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/8 "2007-12-23T13:50:14Z")
Plus, you’ll find that folks who can write well-reasoned and coherent presentations of ideas – like, say, **jjimm** – can also be responsible for massive worldwide outbreaks of people sticking their wedding rings up their noses.
Find _that_ on some winking avatar message board!
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/9 "2007-12-23T14:08:00Z")
**Kizzume** : I’m posting this twice, in the two different threads you seem to have read (or at least posted in) in hopes that you’ll see it.
This forum, “ABOUT THIS MESSAGE BOARD” is not what we’re about, but it appears to be all you’ve read. My suggestion is that, before you make up your mind, you take a look at some threads in “General Questions” (where people can find answers to whatever bugs them), or in “Cafe Society” (for discussion about arts/entertainment) or in “Great Debates” (for comments on the unanswerable) or “Mundane Pointless Stuff…” also known as MPSIMS (for generally getting to know people here and their concerns.)
If you’re judging us based on (a) server limitations, (b) lack of avatars, and © tiny surcharge, then may I suggest that you’re using fairly superficial criteria. Take a look at some real content and what this set of Message Boards is all about (“Fighting ignorance” is our rallying cry), and then decide. Frankly, while the main reason we require payment is to fund the boards, there’s a secondary reason: it keeps out trolls and trouble-makers who don’t want to shell out just to annoy people. That’s just one of the things that makes us different from the zillions of other Message Boards.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/10 "2007-12-23T17:37:12Z")
[QUOTE=twickster]
Plus, you’ll find that folks who can write well-reasoned and coherent presentations of ideas – like, say, **jjimm** – can also be responsible for massive worldwide outbreaks of people sticking their wedding rings up their noses.
Find _that_ on some winking avatar message board!
[/QUOTE]
Goddamn it, you have _one_ minor indiscretion… 😉
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/11 "2007-12-23T17:52:14Z")
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Anyone can post a picture in an attempt to convey an opinion, a thought, a response. More importantly, a picture is often open to a thousand interpretations that have nothing to do with the poster’s intent. It take a bit more effort to post the same opinion, a thought, a response in a thousand words, or less. Picture words can convey much more directly, more accurately, than a thousand pictures.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/12 "2007-12-23T18:31:03Z")
The board is also full of grammar-Nazis who will hasten to point out that your curiosity was “piqued”, not “peaked”.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/13 "2007-12-23T18:44:29Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
The board is also full of grammar-Nazis who will hasten to point out that your curiosity was “piqued”, not “peaked”.
[/QUOTE]
Luckily none in this thread, though! 😃
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### Author:  [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/14 "2007-12-23T19:15:24Z")
Can his curiosity not have been both ‘piqued’ and ‘peaked’? Although if his curiosity peaked already, he may not want to hang out here for very long.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/15 "2007-12-23T19:49:57Z")
[QUOTE=USCDiver]
Can his curiosity not have been both ‘piqued’ and ‘peaked’? Although if his curiosity peaked already, he may not want to hang out here for very long.
[/QUOTE]
Perhaps it ‘peeked’ at the possibilities, was then piqued, but sadly peaked in the end.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/16 "2007-12-23T22:06:53Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
Perhaps it ‘peeked’ at the possibilities, was then piqued, but sadly peaked in the end.
[/QUOTE]
He seems to have left in a fit of pique, anyway.
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2007, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/17 "2007-12-25T04:00:35Z")
Coming Soon on HBO
From acclaimed director David Lynch
Twin Piques
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2007, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/18 "2007-12-25T04:52:01Z")
Hmm… HBO… that sounds pretty good… Ooh! That Lynch fella! That sounds interesting. It’s going on my Netflix list.
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/19 "2007-12-27T01:50:18Z")
Wonder if I could get TubaDiva to change my Member name to **P.T. Barnum**.
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### Author:  [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-confused/431007/20 "2007-12-27T03:51:32Z")
[QUOTE=Tristan]
For every one person who wants to post a relevant, insightful picture that backs up whatever point they are trying to make there would be 10 frat boys from the dregs of the internet that would think it funny to post pics of Goatse or other lovely images.
[/QUOTE]
You really think so? Here? You do have a very low opinion of your fellow Dopers, doncha?
[QUOTE=Duckster]
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Anyone can post a picture in an attempt to convey an opinion, a thought, a response. More importantly, a picture is often open to a thousand interpretations that have nothing to do with the poster’s intent. It take a bit more effort to post the same opinion, a thought, a response in a thousand words, or less. Picture words can convey much more directly, more accurately, than a thousand pictures.
[/QUOTE]
Sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes the picture can convey what you’re trying to say much more clearly.
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