I’m having a hard time with this one. I’ve recently participated in two highly contentious political threads in which people expressed a wide range of opinions and I don’t think anybody was shouted down. One was about virtue - signaling, exactly the sort of subject that would draw controversy.
Now I think Pitters can be unfair at times, twisting people’s words to make them seem worse than they really are. But I really don’t see this as a board - wide problem.
What is a board - wide problem is people playing out their personal grudge matches all over the board. The Pit stuff spills over, mucks up other threads, and then it goes back to the Pit, and round and round we go. I wish people would just keep it in the Pit.
I was thinking things actually have improved a little recently. No idea why.
It’s inevitably going to affect interactions outside the Pit. We’re not robots that can just forget whatever abuse we’ve suffered when interacting in other forums.
And yet, despite all your complaints and accusations, you yourself continue to use the Pit, starting threads and Pitting other users. Why would that be? Hmmm?
the problem is as I see it is 90 percent of everyone in this or any thread saying we dont need the pit are the ones that have long pit threads about them often going back years and years and they get called out on the same old thing over and over by the same people over and over …
if no ones changing or their actions or opinions its just the serpent eating its tail …
But we do need a place where you can yell f*** taxes and the irs after they lose your tax return for the 4th time or about those sorry SOBS driving like grandma going to church that infest the 405 during rush hour .making you late …
You’re armoring the parts of the plane that have bullet holes. The people still posting here at all are dwarfed in number by the ones who just don’t feel like dealing with the board at all after one experience with the absolutely absurd chain of events that happens whenever someone dares to express an opinion in the debate forum.
No one is arguing that the Put should be completely eliminated. We’re saying it is destructive to give users a place where they can attack one another. The idea was that it woud be an escape valve to allow people to blow off steam so they wouldn’t snipe at each other in other forums. I don’t think that works, and I think the pit is simply a festering wound on the board that encourages people’s worst tendencies and drives away potential users who look there and just see a whole lot of nastiness and want no part of it.
I also think the put is used by the majority faction on this board to make the minority’s life here as hard as possible, possibly because their real goal is to silence people with opinions they don’t like and not give them a ‘platform’.
By all means keep the Pit as a vehicle for venting at the outside world. Just make personal attacks on other members off limits.
Another data point is that Bricker’s last thread is asking what happened to Shodan before he stopped posting in a long while. I’m sure you’ll say it’s a coincidence.
Some other data points are people getting frustrated in this thread. Other data points are the reason this thread started – multiple people who want the Pit to be shut down from the thread that spawned this one.
To be crystal clear, the reason I stopped participating here was the ultra one-sided unpleasant experience of being attacked, especially in the Pit, by tactics that I was not permitted to use in equal measure in reverse… not that such reversal would be particularly palatable.
It’s darkly amusing to now read that there’s no proof that this might have contributed to my SDMB demise. Perhaps I just took up crochet and got too tired of typing— who can know these things, after all?
So, not that I expect this clear and unambiguous statement to sway many partisans… but I left because of precisely the factors suggested by Heffalump.
Hi Bricker! I’m happy to see you post. I enjoy spirited debate, although i suppose i now have the same problem Bone complained of. I will be happy if you choose to post again, though, even though i tend towards more liberal perspectives than you.
I hope that with Trump* gone, maybe you’ll be willing to post again. I always thought you took far more crap that you deserved. As in I thought you were a good poster that contributed to the boards.
I know you weren’t a Trumper, but Trump increased the attack anyone to the right of center or a Republican on this board a lot.
Really? This is your takeaway from all of this? That it is Trump’s fault?
It is not that the board allows personal attacks and even dedicates a forum to it. It is not that posters are intolerant and attack those with other beliefs. It is not that mods will moderate based upon left leaning political beliefs. It is not that Bricker is even a Trump supporter, but it is Trump’s fault for making posters act so daggone mean.
This attitude is the issue. Bricker told you exactly why he left and instead of responding in substance it becomes about Trump.
