There’s been a rash of those lately.
Well, this seems like as good a time as any for me to indulge in a teeny amount of steam-offletting- a rantette, if you will:
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Threads about American politics. Yes, I realise this is an American board, and that no-one is forcing any of us to read a particular thread, but it’s still very annoying when half the threads on the front page in GD or The Pit are threads about how Senator Choksondik from Minnesota is supporting a bill to ban the sale of Panadol over the counter, or to give local police the right to administer wedgies to truants.
I mean, you don’t (generally) see the Aussie or British or South African or Kiwi or Canadian posters starting threads about how the Honourable Member for Catwibble-Upon-Sea made comments in a recent interview indicating that he’d prefer it if all of the “Foreign” people in the country went home, or threads pitting the Shadow Minister for Telegraphic Communication And Registration of Steamships because he was caught having a hot, naked affair with his 21 year old secretary. NO-ONE CARES!.
Similarly, anything relating to the whole Pro/Anti Bush thing is just tiring and pointless. Regardless of your feelings on the man, he only gets to be in charge for another year or two and then he has to step down and let someone else be El Presidente. Shut the fuck up about him and move on with your life. -
I’ll agree with the constant use of random acronyms that make absolutely no sense to anyone
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Also, the feeling that by merely posting in a thread, I’ve given it the Kiss Of Death, like some kind of Messageboard Godfather. The number of threads that I’ve posted in, only to have the thread peter out a reply or two later, is quite disconcerting, IMO. Closely related to this is the annoyance of spending ages composing a thoughtful post to something, only to be greeted by deafening silence and metaphorical tumbleweeds blowing across the landscape. I don’t expect people to say “Wow, Martini Enfield posted to this thread! Quick, summon the scribes so that this moment might be recorded in The SDMB Scriptures for posterity and future worship!” but some acknowledgement that a poster (regardless of who that poster might be) has contributed to a thread- especially if they’ve obviously put some thought into their response- seems, well, appropriate for want of a better word.
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I like Post Parsing. I think it’s a useful recap of the points that were made and the rebuttal or counter-argument thereof.
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The whole “Resolved” thing. “Resolved”- at least in the only usage that I’ve ever encountered outside these boards- means that a decision has already been made and/or a course of action decided upon. So, when I see a thread with a title like: “Resolved: Immigration Laws are in need of Overhaul”, that tells me that it has been decided and agreed upon that this is indeed the case- not that it’s a debate thread. Similarly, “Discuss” at the end of thread titles annoys the hell out of me too. The SDMB isn’t a School Certificate English Exam, and it’s not necessary to frame thread titles or OPs as though it were.
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Twee “Locations” in the Location field. It’s very droll and amusing to have “At the Pub” or “Wherever I Am”, but it’s not especially helpful when you’re discussing anything geographic and the rest of us are left without a point of reference.
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The whole “Us Vs The Mods” mindset some people have. I can’t say I’ve had any trouble with the Mods so far, nor can I say I’ve seen any of them getting out of line in a manner which would cause otherwise reasonable people to arm themselves with pitchforks and burning torches with the goal of storming Castle Moderatorstein, so to speak- yet the Pit is full of people complaining about things the Mods have done. It just baffles me sometimes, not to mention the fact it gets old fast.
People who expect everyone else to dumb down their postings because they have a limited vocabulary.
Extreme forms of p.c. censorship that means you must torture babies if you dont take as read !our form of democracy is the best etc.etc.,the poor are all hard done by saints …
I realize this is my problem, not any of yours, but I hate hate hate the fact that in a song thread some people give the song title before the artist instead of the artist before the title like others do. And not using quotes at all around the title (or bold, italics, underline, whatever) so you have to guess which is the obscure song and which the obscure band? Madness! Why can’t we all magically decide to format everything the same way?
I know. It’s a lame thing to get upset over. But I’m also someone who has to correct every MP3 name in my collection so it’s [artist name] - [title]. Every single one must be like this, and there cannot be a track number or album title in the name, either. Even the space before and after the hypen needs to be “right.” I can’t think many other things that have to be just so, but music does.
Excellent points, Martini. (There - how’s that? 
) I especially like the one about United Statesian politics. I probably could physically care less about them, but it would take a major effort on my part.
Ah no no…
See, our Programmers Team Lead recently had a baby; his second. Someone had written on the card we gave him with his gifts “1+1=11”; I corrected it as “no, no: 1+1=10”
And if a programmer doesn’t catch that, I reserve the right to hit him with my laptop.
A peeve: people who complain that MPSIMS being mundane and pointless (yes, and your point is?) or that people are impolite in the Pit.
Something I’m guilty of: too many parenthesis. Sorry. It took me 29 years to learn how to write descriptions, I think in another 30 or so I’ll figure out sentence structure. That means 20 years to go.
“Band name!”
Oh, wait. That didn’t work, did it?
Wait… someone is agreeing with me? Dear God, this is surely a sign of the Apocalypse!
Please forgive me if this was mentioned previously. I did read many of the posts - some I skipped based on structure or length.
My pet peeve is people who post things like, “If you don’t like XYZ then you just don’t get it.”
My thought - I get it - I just don’t like XYZ.
I dislike the “Dr. Frasier Crane-ish” responses. Okay - we get it: you’re a member of Mensa - we’re discussing boy bands here so you can cool out with the $300 words. Sometimes I’ll read a post and wonder, does anyone really speak this way in friendly conversations?
Well, in this country, that is the standard format for phrasing a debate topic. High school, college…doesn’t matter. The resolution is the issue to be debated, pro or con. I’ve never heard it phrased any differently (or signifigantly differently) and I’ve been coaching high school debate for 20 years.
Otherwise, I give your rantlette a 65. It hade some catchy hooks, but I couldn’t dance to it.
People who use acronyms without bothering to define them, just assuming that every single reader will know what the acronym means. Bugs the crap outa me. What the hell is TWOP?
Must be a cultural/language difference thing. Here, the topic up for debate is known as a “Moot”.
Funnily enough, “Moot” can also mean “pointless or academic”. For example: “We were going to fast-track the development of the Widget X-2000, but then we found out that the CEO was sick of Widgets and wanted to focus on Thingies, so the whole project ended up being moot anyway”.
Similarly “A Moot point” is a point that’s either debateable or irrelevant (depending on context).
A resolution, again in the only context I’ve ever heard it used outside these boards or UN Security Council Meetings, is something which has been decided upon (or else it’s your monitor’s display settings). 
George Bernard Shaw sais it best: “England (and other members of the Commonwealth) and America are two countries separated by a common language.”
I’ve never heard “moot” as anything other that “irrelevant.”
Well their was always the Entmoot a meeting of Ents to debate. I think Tolkien lifted it from Norse, the Norse had both Moots and Things to discuss and debate policy for the kingdom.
Then their is this:
Argh. Then **there ** is this: not their.
It’s also annoying when someone posts something in a long thread that’s already been addressed previously in that thread, making it clear that the poster just didn’t bother to read the whole thread before posting! (Yes, that’s aimed at myself; I posted before reading that the acronym thing, even specifically TWOP, was already done here.)
Nods in agreement .