Why is it Jerkism to post on one subject only? :dubious:
In my normal life I’m considered knowledgable and wise, however here on the dope I’m average at best. That’s why I hang around here. I get smarter by osmosis. However I do a good level of knowldge in certain fields.
In fields where I don’t have expertise I don’t post. Keeping one’s mouth shut is an important life skill.
As such it seems that Dexter’s assersion that people who only discourse on one subject are Jerk’s seems a little off. The muppets that leap into a conversation and act with authority on subjects they know little about are Jerks.
Why are you worried about it? A quick glance at your posting history, essell, reveals that your last 20 posts have been on a wide variety of subjects. You’re far from a one-trick pony.
I think C K Dexter Haven was talking more about people who start thread after thread about (for example) how much they hate religion, or love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or whatever, and show either no interest, or outright contempt, for any other topic.
Or worse–take any possible excuse to post on their favorite topics in threads not on the subject. Turning any thread on politics into a Bush-bashing contest. Especially if the thread started out being on Canada’s government.
Being a one-trick-pony type jerk indicates a poster who obsessively posts new threads on a single topic, interrupts other threads to make remarks (frequently off topic or only tangentially related to the topic of the thread) that promote the poster’s obsession, and otherwise calls attention to himself or herself with monomaniacal enthusiasm.
If one’s only interest is philatelly and one only participates in threads discussing stamps, that poster has two ways to behave:
Not a OTP: Opens a new thread on stamps only when a truly significant event has occurred in the stamp world and joins threads on stamps to provide information or discussion (or even enthusiasm).
OTP: Opens a new thread in some random Forum whenever the USPS, Post Canada, the Royal Mail or any of a hundred other establishments offer any new stamp, interrupts discussions of e-mail to offer opinions about snail mail and stamps, mocks posters from countries that have “boring” or “exotic” stamps, etc.
In addition, the OTP is liable to show up far more frequently than a person who is not a One Trick Pony but who happen to have a limited range of topics one wishes to discuss in this sort of Forum.
Why is this thread still open when it has nothing to do with the fact that Jesus was an asshole and all Christians are murdering scum who are carrying out a twisted, deluded fantasy?
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