# New Forum Maybe? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 2, 2002, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941 "2002-12-02T11:48:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/1 "2002-12-02T11:48:03Z")
This is something I’ve been thinking about, but **Scotti** ’s “We Have Lost A Friend” thread brought it back to the front of my mind. When the Mods and Admins are sitting around the water cooler, does the idea of splitting off a new forum from MPSIMS ever come up? Maybe like “Real Life Just Bit My Ass”. Some of the threads that pop up in MPSIMS are full of real emotion and pain. Putting them between “Funny Stories About Carpet Cleaners” and “Hemarhoids (Maybe TMI)” seems to, in my opinion, detract from their dignity. Just something I was thinking about. -Rue. ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/2 "2002-12-02T21:39:59Z")
That’s a pretty good idea. I know that **Una** has a similar type forum called Tea & Sympathy with certain ground rules about what’s allowed. But it’s a nice place to post stuff like that. Not that it’s imperative, but I think it could work. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/3 "2002-12-02T21:47:42Z")
It was especially jarring today seeing the thread about **poopah chalupa** next to the r.i.p. for **collounsbury.** ---
**Author:** ![Jake2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jake2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake2)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/4 "2002-12-02T22:02:40Z")
Bandwith maybe? With the membership this forum has, I think It sould be expanded. I don’t know about the techincal problems, any one else have any input? ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/5 "2002-12-02T22:22:44Z")
While I appreciate the sentiment behind it, I’m not sure I agree. Who’s to decide what real emotion and pain is? Isn’t it all relative? The passing of a friend isn’t the only source of emotion and pain-- there’s financial difficulties, getting laid off, divorce, major surgery, major illness, quitting smoking. Each is difficult for the people involved to bear. Would there be a disctinction made between these threads and threads like **Scotti** ’s? If so, what would the basis be? How could you enforce the difference between such threads without hurting the OPs’ feelings? My gut feeling is that if we create and restrict a new forum to strictly “serious” matters, the place will be too sad and uncomfortable for most people. Some people find it bad enough that we have a forum set aside for bitching and cursing; it doesn’t seem much better to have one dedicated to tragedies, loss, and heartbreak. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/6 "2002-12-02T22:49:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rue DeDay \* > When the Mods and Admins are sitting around the water cooler, does the idea of splitting off a new forum from MPSIMS ever come up? That’s how IMHO started. The result was not a decrease in MPSIMS posts, rather an increase in polls and not-so-great debates. ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Barber\_s\_Underwear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@Tony\_Barber\_s\_Underwear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Barber_s_Underwear)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/7 "2002-12-03T03:33:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rue DeDay \* > \*\* > When the Mods and Admins are sitting around the water cooler, does the idea of splitting off a new forum from MPSIMS ever come up? Maybe like “Real Life Just Bit My Ass”. > > Some of the threads that pop up in MPSIMS are full of real emotion and pain. Putting them between “Funny Stories About Carpet Cleaners” and “Hemarhoids (Maybe TMI)” seems to, in my opinion, detract from their dignity. > > -Rue. \*\* I would have thought that a “Real Life Just Bit My Arse” would be a perfect place for a thread about haemorrhoids. - Bubba. ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/8 "2002-12-03T12:27:43Z")
**Audry** I figure all you points (financial difficulties, getting laid off, divorce, major surgery, major illness, quitting smoking) would belong too. It’s just **Scotti** ’s thread made me think about it again. Didn’t think about bandwidth **Jake**. This would be a problem, wouldn’t it **Mr. Winkelried**? I wasn’t thinking about cutting down on MPSIMS, that never occurred to me. I was just thinking about all the incongruous threads that bump up against each other. Not that one thread could bleed into another, so really, it’s not a big deal. (As shown by the number of replies to views. Most people don’t care and the system we have works.) Like **Scout** said, “not that it’s imperative”, I was just wondering. Thanks. -Rue. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-maybe/139941/9 "2002-12-03T13:37:20Z")
I don’t know, Rue. There’s times I agree with you and times I see MPSIMS as our ‘snapshot of life’ forum. Having joy and pain side by side strikes me as appropriate somehow. And good god, if we just had a forum for bad things happening to people we’d have to have The Cure as a soundtrack and I can’t imagine anything more depressing than that. Maybe The Smiths.