Indeed. Thanks, mods. And kudos for your hard work.
People almost assume that the mods are NOT as affected by this as the rest of the people. I say that the fact that they’ve managed to do their job here, and keep the discussions more-or-less civil is really quite praise-worthy.
Thank you.
Sorry, one more thing. I don’t have a problem with you personally, MrC (or whatever you are choosing to call yourself these days) but I think that your newfound propensity for running around the board acting self-righteous to be a tad bit odd. Do a search on yourself, honey, and then tell me why you have the right to pick on anyone on this board for being hard on anyone else. If you have changed, I commend you. It still doesnt’t give you the right to diss others for doing the same exact thing you have been wont to do in the past. At the very least, just gracefully fade into the background.
I know I am inviting flames here, but please…just do me a favor and do a search on yourself before you trash me. I think you will find that I have a very valid point.
Scotti
Against my better judgement, I decided to check back in to see a) If I had been banned, and b) how badly I had been flamed. I’d like to make a couple of comments, not that any of you give two s***s. And save the “damn right we don’ts”. You’re wasting your typing energy.
I can understand shutting down threads where things are getting out of hand. What I don’t understand is why threads that are discussing important issues such as passive versus agressive responses to this attack are shut down. If this country ends up with a large group of passive advocates, and a large group of aggressive advocates, we are in for a world of hurt domestically, no matter what we do, kids. Second, there is talk about ME being insensitive. One of the first threads I saw when I came here to check out what was being said after the disaster, a moderator said “Why are you dumping on MY board?” I did not find the conversation at that point to be out of hand.
And to all of you who are in a high enough Ivory Tower to think that I do not care, that I do not grieve about this, you can go f*** yourself. I have an uncle who may have been in the Pentagon whom none of my family have heard from. We hope that he is too be busy to contact us, but that may be the case.
Now, being that this is the pit, I expected some of this, nature of this board. But if you are going to be immature enough to flame me hear, stay the hell away from me not caring, from me being insensitive to what just happened, because your reponses are no better, in fact worse, than my original post.
Now is indeed a time for grieving. Unfortunately, life keeps moving on while you grieve. Despite the grief and the concern for those in the WTC and the Pentagon, we still have some important things to discuss on this issue as a nation, because we may find ourselves knee deep in an ugly war very shortly because of this event. Reality is going to fully be on our entire populace real soon when we all know people in the military who are dying.
Thank you for the few of you who had some consideration for a relative newbie. For those of you who can only make statements like “don’t let the door hit ya,” get out of Junior High, then we’ll talk.
And no mention of those of us who disagreed with you, but remained polite about it? sniff
As has been mentioned, when feelings have had a time to settle, rationality on the board will prevail. The Mods are right to close as they see fit. They are taking preempyive action to stop these discussions getting out of hand.
Dont let the door hit your head which is stuck up your ass on the way out.
Ooooh. The “you all sound like schoolkids” defense! I am devestated.
You walked into a party with free food and beer, turned to the hosts and said “I don’t like the way you’re running the party. Other people are having parties and running them differently and, incidentally, better.”
And besides, you admitted in the OP that
So, because of the mod’s hard work, the SDMB is more “civilized” that other boards. And you think that’s a problem?
The only appropriate response is: If you don’t like the way it’s being run, go somewhere else.
Fenris
Jibby7 wrote, amongst other things:
That link is interesting. It has nothing to do with Cecil, nor do I find a Message Board, Moderated or not.
Perchance you were thinking of somewhere else? I always endeavour to attribute things like this to stupidity before malice.
Personally, I’ve always had a particular love for the ones who leave but then come back to read if anything has been said about them.
Yes Jibby! I’m talking about you! Isn’t that just marvelous! It’s always good to be the centre of attention, isn’t it?
What - are there not enough WTC threads for you to get involved in? I quite agree; I’ve looked all OVER the place and just can’t seem to find ANYONE who wants to discuss ANYTHING about it.
Won’t somebody please just start a WTC thread for me? I’ll be there as quick as I can!
pan
The moderators are having an especially difficult time now, coping with both the shock of what took place in NYC and Washington, and the flood of postings on the Straight Dope Message Board.
The motto of the site is “Fighting ignorance since 1973.” Unfortunately, our contributions to this bulletin board don’t always reflect that. During a time like this, though, when our emotions are running high and we don’t always think rationally, we need the moderators now more than ever to “keep order.”
Being a relative newbie myself, I’m not going to say “see ya’ later.” However, you shouldn’t be so quick to judge. Cut the moderators some slack – especially now.
Even worse. UncleBeer’s a nudist. Which wouldn’t be so bad, except that he’s hairy, and likes to sit spread-eagle in my favorite recliner, and he sweats. He has been known to wipe his underarms on the head of my toddling niece as she passes by. Makes her kind of have a Don King hairdo. He’s always yelling at my sister-in-law get her “ass in here with another beer,” which he then puts between his ass cheeks, twitches, and shouts “Ooh…that’s a keeper” as he opens the can.
Oh…and Jibby7? I don’t even know you well enough to tell you to fuck off. You’ve been here two weeks. If you’re unhappy, might I suggest the message boards for N*Sync?
Biggirl you hit the nail on the head. Can I use this for a sig?
::shuffles feet::
Umm, Fenris? Ummm…would you go to the 8th grade prom with me?
::turns bright red and runs away::
Hey, Green Bean…if he won’t, can I?
… the forest for the trees …
I was the first to respond to the Jibster, so I want to clarify my flippant remarks.
When I was on this board for less than a month, I made a decision to stay. If I had made a decision to leave, and never post again, I would have … {wait for it} … left and never posted again.
I think it’s awfully fucking arrogant for someone who admits to not being fully up to speed on The Straight Dope as a whole or this message board to publicly say, “you guys suck, I’m leaving” and then coming back to say, “you’ve proven my point - you flamed me, so you all still suck.”
I stand by my original sentiment - you don’t like this board? No skin off my balls. There are only about a bazillion other places where you can spend your “internet time.” I invite you to get on with it, and keep your pious holier-than-thou bullshit off the board I love.
Thank you, and eat me.
You’re welcome, and sure! Unless you’re one of those nasty ist type persons.
Jibby7 said:
Could you perhaps cite examples of worthwhile threads being closed? You know, put in a link? 'Cause I don’t know what you’re talking about. You mention that it was pretty fun up until the last day or so. I submit that what is bothering you is the weird state the board is in trying to react, and the moderators doing their best in these rough times to keep things in check. And all the while they are just as messed up as the rest of us.
As for enforcing the forum descriptions, you will note that this board is structured by format. That is the nature of the board. Note, though, that the topics are not content limited. You can post about any topic you want, from word origin to whether or not ghosts exist to why shit is brown. However, you must post in the proper place. If you want to have a discussion on the WTC that isn’t a flame or a GD, that’s fine, but you have to convince all the other members here to follow suit and not turn your mild observation into a flamefest. If someone else doesn’t heed your call to have a hugfest in a MPSIMS thread and starts a tirade against all Muslims, that thread is headed to the Pit whether you wanted it there or not.
Hmm, on the one hand things are much better here because they’re more civilized, but on the other hand the moderators are too controlling. You don’t think there might be a link between those two facts, do you?
Could you please provide a link to the thread in question, because I don’t know which one you mean and have no way to evaluate whether you have a valid point or are talking out your ass. Maybe there was something in the thread warranting closure. Maybe it was the wrong type of discussion in the wrong forum, even if it stayed civil. Hey, those forum descriptions are there for a reason.
Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about, so I can’t follow what you’re saying.
[quote]
I have an uncle who may have been in the Pentagon whom none of my family have heard from. We hope that he is too be busy to contact us, but that may be the case.
[quote]
I’m sorry to hear you have a personal connection to the disaster. I hope things turn out okay.
This post is not meant to be mean, but rather to explain that I don’t follow your complaint without reading what you’re referring to. I can understand those with the flippant responses. They’re basically saying you’re new here and have decided you don’t like the way things are run. However there are hundreds of active members here who have been here for some time and do like how it is run. So if you don’t like it, the choice to stay or go is yours. I hope you’ll give it a chance to settle down.
Oh, and some people have itchy trigger fingers when it comes to complaints against the mods. The mods here put up with so much shit, and it seems like every time they ban someone or close a newbie’s thread, there’s a long pit tirade against the “fascist moderators” trampling freedom of speech.
Manservant Hecubus said:
Oh please. Tolerance does not mean we cannot respond. As for the attitude, Jibby has come in and said “Hey, nice free party, great free food and booze, but what’s this about keeping your feet off the furniture and no pissing in the corner?” Some of us like the room not smelling like piss.
It’s getting better, actually.
The one thing to remember is that despite the sabre-rattling and swaggering, the mods aren’t the board itself, nor the posters you came to talk to. Those people are around. Talk to them and ignore the others, even when asked a direct, rude question. Not easy, but it saves time in the long run. You just have to learn which people to skip over and not bother reading. Don’t let the goats get your goat.
Once again, like a worm wriggling from under a rock following a storm, Mu-Shu returns with it’s “critiques” and <ahem> insightful comments on moderator actions.
Lo, how we’ve waited these long hours during one of America’s greatest crisises for Mu-Shu to enlighten us with it’s words of wisdom!
My heart weeps at the beauty of it’s words and my soul sings with with the beauty and texture of Mu-Shu’s measured rhythms.
Oh Mu-Shu. You are a true zen-master of astringent wisdom with your pithy mod comments. Each one of your 117 posts has been a true gem. A pearl of great wisdom. If only you were bottled, we could use you to clean our toilets! America’s bathrooms would never be cleaner!
You are a true hero!
Fenris, in awe
Ahem.
I used to have a friend, who had a friend who had a dog, who was named Farfle. Good name for a dog. Good dog, too. Would fetch, play dead, go for walkies, all the usual dog stuff. Used to bark on command, too. It was a cute party trick. The word they used to make him bark was a variation on his name. They used to say, “Narfle!”, and the dog would let out a happy little bark.
Well, as it happened, the people who owned this cute little pup were cheesemakers, and good ones, too. They made some amazing cheese. There was always some cheese around the house. Big wheels of cheese. Because, of course, they were cheesemakers. Fromologists. I think.
Well, it so happened, that one day, these folks were in the kitchen one day, having just made a big wheel of cheese. One of them was preparing to cut the cheese, and the other was playing with the dog. Just as they’d given the doggy his little command to bark, the cheese accidentally got dropped on the dog’s tail.
So, Jester. What would you call that?
All right things are slowing down now, so it looks safe to pile on without getting buried under all the rest.
Never did understand why some want to be the first ones to get in on the pile.