Just being rude and obnoxious...

The BBQ Pit
1

In this thread, http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/007399.html OgreFade asks a question regarding the origin of the Massachusetts accent. He did not (gasp!) capitalized the state name and he (no, not that) abbreviated it as well.

Now, I’m a stickler for these things as much as the next person but a small comment about these things would have been sufficient. Instead, the thread degenerated into a tantrum for apparently no reason. The poster who started the pissing match was upset beyond the level he should have been. He apparently did not understand what was being asked. But rather than a "What is “mass.?” question, he just kept on going and basically insulted the poster. There was no reason for this.

I had no problem understanding what he meant. The first responder obviously was not thrown into a tailspin by the meaning of his topic–she made a joke!

I don’t know (and don’t care) what the catalyst was that set everyone on such an edge around here but this is obnoxious.

In this thread, http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/007052.html he is being called a troll!! I have looked through his posts and he is no troll. Sure, he’s probably not going to be Cecil’s successor anytime soon but he has contributed to this board. He has flaws: he is extremely persistant when he wants a response, he hasmulti-posted a few times (but acknowledged it and apologized), he did ask about feltching (but he honestly wanted to know), and yes, he was responsible for the “Post Your Desktop” thread. However, there is nothing in his posts to show he is a troll. I was under the impression that “troll” was a word we reserved for people like Michael Masterson, not a 19-year old guy who just wants to hang out on a message board and contribute where he wants.

I am very upset over this. I don’t think the poster who attacked OgreFade in his GQ post was right in having such a harsh reaction. Even if he did not understand it, he could have moved on, asked a simple question or even made a joking post about the obscurity in the OP. But instead, a decent poster was insulted and basically gave up trying to get along with the people on this board.

I know I’m not exactly a “regular” and probably shouldn’t bother trying to defend OgreFade but it bothers me to see people being treated this way on a board I spend so much time on.

“You don’t have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die.” --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

A Jesusfied sig: Next time I covet thine opinion, I’ll ask for it!

2

I checked out the profile of the person who posted this comment. He’s from Maryland, maybe an 8-10 hour drive from Massachusettes.
What I’d like to know is how on earth did this guy NOT know what the OP was talking about. Massachusettes is known for its distinctive accents and Mass. is an accepted abbreviated for Massachusettes.

There was overreaction from both sides in that thread. And I think Ogre has trouble distinguishing the jokes from the serious bitching. (HINT : the smilie serves a purpose, no matter what some people may think!)

3

I agree. Now, further down where casdave asks that he clarify for some of our non-American posters, that is understandable and I think OgreFade would have understood that as well.

“You don’t have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die.” --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

A Jesusfied sig: Next time I covet thine opinion, I’ll ask for it!

4

Since this tread was in GQ should a moderator not have tried to calm things down or at least move it to the pit?
While ogre did overreact I do feel some of the people replying to his question broke the “jerk” rule .

BTW , I’m from the other side of the Atlantic and I knew what Ogre was refering to.

5

It’s just a symptom of the death throes of this message board. The administrators and moderators have lost all moral authority, have lost all ability to stand above the fray, and now the hysterical troll-accusers are coming to the fore. Jesus. I wonder if it was like this back in the McCarthy era. I certainly never thought it took so little to bring out genuine ugliness in my fellow human beings.

I may not stick around here much longer. I won’t make a formal announcement or whatever, because despite my long enjoyment of this message board, some Ed Zotti/TubaDiva kiss-ass is sure to come back with a Nellie Olsen-ish squeal: “oh, with your low post count you’re sure to be missed”. Well, here’s a preemtive “fuck you” to those twerps.

Whatever once made this board special is gone, folks. And by that, I mean the people who made it special are gone. (There are other UBB boards, after all.) I do not give a flying fuck about whatever happened with Melin or whoever the hell, and I’ve never commented on this ridiculous episode. I’ll say now, though, that I can see that the event itself and its fallout was a cluster fuck all around and was poisonous enough to drive away many decent posters–the current Exhibit A being OgreFade.

Doghouse Reilly

6

Just to keep things in perspective, OgreFade posted to the “Sky” thread in GQ. He made an assertion that would have been spotted as false by any Grade 9 student.

The error was corrected by another poster in the politest way possible. This was OgreFade’s response:

Now, I never had any interaction with OgreFade, nor did I ever call him a troll. In fact, I don’t think he is a troll. I do think, however, that he is overly sensitive and reactionary. I also have trouble believing that he’s 18 years old. My guess is 13 or 14. I don’t mean that in an insulting way. And I suppose I could be wrong.

And I completely disagree with Doghouse. The sky is not falling. We’ve had these situations from Day 1. Posters have come and gone, trolls infest the board by the dozen, followed by paranoia and McCarthyism, and the board is still here.

Why is it that so many new members have stated that they love this place, that they feel welcome and have been treated with respect?

If we’re going to hurl invectives, this question has to be answered first.

7

Wally, I agree that he is very sensitive and quick to be defensive. However, if he was bad before how was he supposed to improve after being attacked? He has demonstrated that he doesn’t have the world’s highest self-esteem either. Is that our problem? No, not really. Should we take that into consideration when posting to him? No, I don’t think he deserves any special treatment. Should we treat him with the same respect that any human should get from people? Yes, and because of that I think that Wendell’s post was way over the top on the jerk scale. Should we take his self-esteem into consideration when analyzing why he got so upset over being attacked? Yes, but what is Wendell’s excuse?

I don’t think the world, I mean, the SDMB is coming to an end because of all this kind of silliness but I do think some people are getting a little too big for their virtual britches.

“You don’t have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die.” --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

A Jesusfied sig: Next time I covet thine opinion, I’ll ask for it!

8

Well, Beth, as usual, you’re the voice of reason.

One thing about this board that never seems to change: If a poster is treated harshly for no good reason, someone will come to that person’s defence. As you just demonstrated. And I think that’s a good thing.

Love your sig. Is that an original?

9

You know it!

“As usual…the voice of reason”–since when!!! No one ever tells me anything! Wally, you are truly the voice of reason. (Does this mean you forgive me for “borrowing” your “putz” line in the clerks, fast food, etc. thread?)

“You don’t have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die.” --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

A Jesusfied sig: Next time I covet thine opinion, I’ll ask for it!

10

The putz patent expired in February.

It’s in the public domain. :slight_smile:

11

I was amazed at how fast that thread headed into BBQ Pit territory. I suspect that since the fireworks started late on a Sunday afternoon, Nickrz and Manhattan just happened to be doing family stuff at an inopportune time.

There was one early post against Ogrefade that I though was a bit much (and is not typical of that poster, so maybe that poster was having a bad day :::shrug::: ).

On the other hand, Ogrefade brought on a lot of the problems himself. In response to the joke he posted “i was just wondering… sorry…” and then, despite the fact that there was already one post supporting his question, he responded with a long rant (3 times longer than the “attack”) complaining of his rough treatment. Another poster chimed in with a gentle nudge not to get bent out of shape and he responded with another rant.

About then, all hell broke loose. Given that he has responded to several posts in several threads by taking the most innocuous comments personally, and given that he started a thread in MPSIMS wondering if it was unusual for 18-year-olds to cry themselves to sleep, I suspect that there are a lot more issues, here, than simply mean old regs picking on a newbie.

I do think that the whole thread got a lot rougher than it needed to, but that sort of thing happens, occasionally. I tend to see it as a pothole in the SDMB highway more than a washed out bridge.

(Of course, what really has me frosted is that my old linguistics text with the origins-of-accents discussion is missing and I couldn’t find any specific material on the web, yesterday.)

Tom~

12

People we cannot look into our computers and see what kind of person we are talking to at first. The only way we can get a feel for the people who are on this board is by reading multitudes of posts and replies by them. In the process of getting multitudes of posts and posting replies we make a few mistakes along the way. Unfortunately sometimes that means a bit of hazing when you first get on here.

If anyone cares to, they can do a search and see one of my first posts in the pit. I thought the pit was a place that you just submitted a pet peeve and got things off your chest. Well I was wrong. There are a couple of replies in that post that told me to ( and these may not be the exact words) go fuck myself. I was told that because one of the posters who replied to that post just simply disagreed with me.

I didn’t run from the board because of that. I figured that since this board was free to anyone that cared to register, I had as much right here as the next person. Maybe OrgeFade has the maturity and age after all to understand this…if not goodluck and Godspeed, may the road rise up to meet ya, may the wind be at your back…etc etc

I Don’t Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling.
famous C&W song

Yours truly,
aha

13

FWIW, my thoughts

  1. I understood the question perfectly.
  2. Nobody can expect serious considered responses to their posts if they can’t even be bothered to attempt to communicate in proper english.
  3. If you have a tendancy to misspell regularly, why not type a reply in word, or otherwise spell check first?
  4. People, myself included, have overreacted at times and maybe should go a little more gently at times.
  5. If you don’t think spelling, capitalisation and grammar are important, perhaps you haven’t/didn’t lurk for long enough to get a feel for these things. I know I didn’t, and got my ass flamed a bit at first.
14

The Pit has fallen on bad times. I remember it in it’s glory.

15

Occam, fuck you and your glory of the Pit. Just because you like to feltch lemurs doesn’t give you the fucking right to tell us what life was like in the fucking glory days. And your mother couldn’t even meet Bangkok’s standards of prostitute cleanliness.

That more like it?

16

I just read the Mass. ( flame away :)) thread. I think the problem stemed from the fact that one of the first posts was from Wendell. Don’t get me wrong, I like Wendell. I met him at the Baltimore-DC dopefest and he’s a great guy. However, he dosen’t seem to know much about accents. He and I got into a discussion on these boards where he said he didn’t believe the classic Bawlmer accent existed. Hey, I grew up here! It’s like telling Admiral Nelson he wouldn’t recognize a ship! It’s not his fault, though. He comes from Warshington, Duh Capitol, a city that, except for The Mall, has all the charm and originality of a used tampon. :smiley: :smiley: OgreFade certainly overreacted, though I thought some of his posts showed a bit of originality, especially when he defined what Massachusetts was! Ogre, if you’re reading this, c’mon back, I’ll buy you a beer, and in the future, don’t sweat the small stuff. :slight_smile:

Cecil said it. I believe it. That settles it.

17

Hey, dave, don’t knock D.C. Remember what Kennedy said about us- Northern charm combined with Southern efficiency and all that.

And Occam? Go felch yourself.

JMCJ

Give to Radiskull!

18

Just call me Emily Litella…at least as far as OgreFade/The Urge goes.
::slinking out of thread::

Those who are dancing look insane to those who cannot hear the music.

One-of-a-kind, custom-designed Wally sig available on request.

19

And having also re-read that thread myself, it’s not that OgerUrge is stupid. Quite the contrary - he’s proven he can be rather clever at times. It’s that he either makes a small error (grammar, spelling, asking a question easily answered, whatever) and is called on it (sometimes quite politely, sometimes not-so-much), or someone actually (God forbid) teases him (and not in a mean-spirited way), and his reaction is swift, martyred, long-winded, whining and never-ending.

For example:

Basically - chill the fuck out.

Esprix

Ask the Gay Guy! (or, if you prefer the Jesusfied version, Asketh the damn Priest Guy!)

“Never assume a malicious intent when stupidity will explain just as well.”

{This space reserved for a Genuine WallyM7 Sig™}

20

Do I still count as a newbie? When I first got here I thought some people were harsh beyond what was necessary. Should I name names? Naw, I kinda like those three guys now.
My point is? People need to toughen their hides. Come on, this is a message board! Both flamer and flamee need not take things so damn personally.

And that was my 2 cents. Give me my change.