My call? OK, how about option 3. Don’t take his sentences out of context so you can post rolleyes and make unbelievably trite comments such as “the force is strong in this one”. You don’t have to respond to every sentence. Instead, read his entire post and select a short section to illustrate the opposing view. Get your thoughts together and write an entire paragraph - a group of sentences organized around an underlying theme. Otherwise the post reads disjointed and addle brained.
You may have seen it used before, but the excessive parsing of a quote has never been an effective tool. It is neither straightforward nor clear. The style is only used by those who are unable to muster the thoughts for an entire paragraph and instead rely on snappy comments to sentences ripped from context. december is famous for this type of post. Is december the poster who taught you this style and the one you consider to be more intelligent than you?
Holy crap!! This is the first argue-with-the-homophobe Pit thread that not only has a dose of gay flirting but has also been hijacked into a grammar nitpick. The thread is mutating like a creature out of a 1950’s horror comic.
(Hmmm – if I note that Ariel Sharon met with the leaders of Jerusalem’s gay and lesbian community recently, will that bring december in with yet another hijack?)
Seriously, Fenris, you’ll be hard pressed to find a style book that accepts “it’s” as a possessive; the possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe (except in the rare instance of a possessive partitive, a grammatical ultra-hijack we need not invoke).
Esprix, you’re choosing to watch this demented, droll soap opera of a thread gone bad over the hot man-on-man action going on between me and Hastur? What kind of fag are you?
I conceed and agree: every site (and cite) I’ve found on the web agrees with what’s been said here, I just threw in the bit about The Word Detective because A) it was interesting and B) it was a lame attempt to save a bit of face.
I’ve been using “it’s” as a possessive all my life. The shame I’ve caused my parents and friends as a result knows no bounds. But no longer! From this day forward, I shall be PROPER-USE-OF “IT’S”-MAN! (“With great grammar comes great responsiblity!”)
You’re not alone buddy. The very first comment I received in my LiveJournal was from somebody busting me for using “it’s” as a posessive. I feel your shame.
Actually, you guys, I think Phlip has a point here about the use of the word gay. For instance, if I met someone really, offensively stupid, instead of calling them a smegma-encrusted, putrefying boil on the gangrenous genitals of a syphilitic whore, and wondering aloud how they could continue breathing since they clearly don’t have enough gray matter even to support an involuntary nervous system, I could just say, “Oh, you are such a Phlip.”
And, see, I wouldn’t mean any offense to Phlip at all. You’d have to be nuts–or quite possibly gay–to think that by using his name this way, I was actually equating him with a smegma-encrusted, putrefying boil on the gangrenous genitals of a syphilitic whore. Or even just calling him offensively stupid. Because it’s just a figure of speech, and everyone knows what I mean. So, you know, cut him a break.
Besides which, we’re losing track of the real issue here. Is it pronounced Espree or Espricks?
I’m not saying I think Phlip was right or wrong, and I’m not saying people have not made good points about some of the issues raised. Two things though:
First: Instead of assumiing he’s misspelling “Philip,” some of you might clue in that his name is actually a bastardized “Flip.”
Second: This is a nasty pile-on, no matter how cute everyone gets about it, and I think his remark about cliquish behavior was entirely justified.
A. Only one poster busted him for a (possible) misspelling; others figured out the Phlip/Flip thing.
B. Cliquish behavior, my Aunt Agatha! Phlip is getting his head handed to him because he wrote some assholish posts that he is being held accountable for.
And in terms of the “cliquish behavior,” I don’t see it as such. I see it as us gay posters sticking together. Strength in numbers goes a long way in fighting ignorance.
And not only is he accountable for his assholish comments, but, by all appearances, he actively encouraged a pile-on by crying “Clique!” and whining about “every gay poster on the SDMB” gang-raping him or whatever. It’s called trolling, Hama.
[slight hijack, not that it matters to indicate that anymore in this thread]I don’t consider myself Québecois. A Montrealer, yes, a Canadian, definitely, but Québecois… nuh-uh.[/slight hijack, not that it matters to indicate that anymore in this thread]
Well, we’ve tried addressing the main points of his argument already, but, in the interest of maintaining a dialogue:
Yes, we agree, Esprix has a tendency to champion gay-related issues and generally chime in wherever homosexuality is mentioned in the course of a discussion. Whether this is a bad thing or not has been debated at some length already in past threads, and in more constructive ways than you (or, indeed, I) have presented here.
Using “gay” to mean “stupid” is indeed a figure of speech, but one which is offensive to many people, not all of whom are homosexuals themselves. I’ve not heard any complaints from the disabled lobby over the use of “lame” to mean the same thing, but it’s probably just a matter of time. And in any case, neither should be used by anyone older than about 14. It’s just so “junior high”.
A “gay clan”? Certainly there are a number of openly gay men and women on the SD message boards, most of whom are aware of one another. There is a certain amount of mildly graphic flirting that goes on as well, but that holds true for the heterosexual community as well. And while the homosexual members of the board are often united in perceived cases of gay-bashing, in other areas they are not always in agreement. [Insert “Life of Brian” quote here]
Not everyone who disagrees with you is necessarily homosexual, although some (or even many) in this thread are. For the record, I’m not. Not that it should matter.
Proper punctuation does matter, however.
It is the prerogative of minority groups to co-opt unpleasant slang terms for their own use in certain contexts. Hence the use of “nigger” amongst some members of the African-American community in informal contexts, a term which is extremely offensive if used by others, or even by the same people in different contexts.
I would prefer that people not do that “quote one sentence at a time” thing too, but I try not to let it bother me.
“Vanity searches” are useful if you are the sort of person, as Esprix is, that people talk about even when you’re not around. If you’re not that sort of person, they’re just really depressing. I speak from experience here.
That should cover it. Have I missed anything? Oh yeah:
scott evil and Hastur: Get a chat room, for god’s sake…
