Lately I’ve been seeing Miller say that joke threads go in MSPSIMS, or at least not in the pit. I thought several types of joke threads were not only allowed in the Pit, but, due to making fun of the other person had to be in the Pit.
This is merely a post for clarification. I know that, at one point, Lynn said that all joke threads went into the Pit, but I know that changed way before I got here. Is there now a reverse rule that you can’t make a joke Pit threads?
Or is it just the type of joke qualifies as “unsuitable rant” per Pit rule 1?
No, no, no. I said that joke threads, that were primarily jokes, DID NOT BELONG in the Pit. That is, if a joke was so offensive that it could only be placed in the Pit, it didn’t belong on the SDMB at all. Now, this didn’t mean that I was opposed to humor in the Pit. It just meant that the Pit wasn’t supposed to be used as a refuge for telling nasty tasteless jokes.
Parodies were supposed to go in the Pit, however, the guy who was most likely to make parody threads has not been seen in a while, so there’s no problem.
The Pit is, and always has been, primarily a place for rants. Sometimes the rants are humorous, but if it’s not a rant, it shouldn’t be in the Pit, IMO.
This isn’t the end of the world, but every time this comes up, someone decides to try to revise the facts about what actually happened, claiming that the only rule was that the board “…was opposed to humor in the Pit. It just meant that the Pit wasn’t supposed to be used as a refuge for telling nasty tasteless jokes.” The facts do not support this revisionist view. This is annoying enough that I don’t mind wasting 20 minutes on Google to put this falsehood to rest once and for all.
There was, in fact, a “If it’s too gross for anywhere else on the board, it shouldn’t be in the Pit either” rule. But it came months (and many, MANY complaints and suspensions) after the really idiotic period where one mod, out of the blue made up a rule (without, y’know, posting it anywhere or anything) and started having screaming hysterics about funny threads…not gross, not tasteless…just funny (or attempted funny).
See the following series of threads for examples (and note the crazed mod notes about “HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY NO JOKE THREADS IN THE PIT!!!11!!!1!!!:mad:?! You’re on double-sekrit suspension unless you beg me to let you back in!!!”) of how the actual version of the “No joke thread” rule was defined/enforced.
Note that even in the third, which is about tasteless (but not outrageously so) jokes, the crazed mod note isn’t about “tasteless” or “offensive” jokes, it’s about jokes. Period.
Here’s a thread from the time complaining about the stupidity and vagueness of this policy
and again, the focus is on jokes=humor/MPSIMS stuff, not jokes=offensive.
About a month after the thread above (and IIRC, there were a few more suspensions/bannings and a few more complaint threads during this period), it looks like the rules were changed to the “Gross/offensive” version of the rules.
Obviously all the stupid rules from this period* were swept away and the matter is long closed…or should be. Except for attempts to rewrite what actually happened.
*The “lawnchair” one comes to mind, because, yeah. What the Pit really needs is that level of picayune micromanagement :rolleyes:. Heh–and some equally silly rules (albeit better defined)–came around after that set were gone. Remember Zotti’s “Non-Pit Thread pit threads” rule? Snerk. That lasted, what? 12 minutes? And it was still better defined than the “NO! JOKES!!!11!!11!!–what? Jokes are what I mean when I point to something and say “That’s a joke” rule.”
The primary purpose of the Pit is to pick fights with other posters. A secondary purpose is to bitch about people, things, or events in real life. A “joke thread,” to my way of thinking, isn’t either - it’s something designed to look like a pitting, but who’s actual intent is either ultimately complimentary, or simply silly fun. Neither of those properly belong in the Pit, and will generally be moved to MPSIMS, or whatever other forum is the best fit for it.
Parody threads are generally attempts at mocking another poster’s thoughts or posting style. They’re essentially a way of saying, “Look at how stupid/crazy/incoherent this guy is,” which makes them Pit material. Some parodies are more affectionate, and are more in the mold of, “I like you, but this post was ridiculous, so I’m going to give you a good natured ribbing over it.” While not overtly hostile, that sort of thing should generally go in the Pit, not in the least because the target of the “good natured ribbing” might not take it as all that good natured.
Some parody threads are simply goofy or absurdist fun - I believe the “My wok is metal and pitted,” thread from the explosion of heavy metal pit threads the other day, is an example of this. That sort of thread is more MPSIMS material - while technically a parody, it’s not really making any particular comment on the source material.
Threads that are literally joke threads, as in, “Tell me your favorite dirty joke!” go straight to MPSIMS. The Pit is the forum where you’re allowed to swear at other posters, not just the forum where you’re allowed to swear, so there’s nothing wrong with having that sort of thing in MPSIMS. “Tell my your favorite racist joke!” is just going to be closed. Sorry. I know how difficult it is to find collections of racist jokes on the internet, but I’m sure people will manage somehow.
All that said, I should clarify that these aren’t official SDMB rules or definitions, just my interpretation of what is and is not Pit appropriate, based off of the existing forum definitions. I don’t generally consider posting a thread in the wrong forum to be a rules infraction - my position requires me to put a lot more thought into forum definitions than I’d expect from a regular poster, so it’s understandable if there’s confusion over what goes where. I’d only start handing out warning over something like that if a poster is deliberately posting stuff in the wrong forum for some reason.
Unfortunately the humour pretty much depends on the reader being aware of the original thread. This is helped drastically by being about three lines away from the original thread. If it has to be in another forum a lot of people there won’t understand it, as many people don’t frequent the Pit. Or even the other way round, those that have read the Pit thread and would enjoy the parody might not go to MPSIMS. I know I don’t go there often, I find it mindlessly dull. It is where I go when I am really, really bored at work.
Cool. Just wanted a clarification on what you meant, and figured other people might want to know, too. I figured it was something like this, but I wanted to be sure.
And apparently I should get my sources straight before saying I “know” something about the board before I got here. Didn’t mean to stir up anything.
But you have to admit, doing that does kind of detract from the, you know, comedy bit. It’d be like Weird Al announcing which song he is going to parody at the beginning of a song.
