Other listservs/message boards that are ruined by assholes

The BBQ Pit
1

I am discouraged, disappointed and basically just pissed off by humankind tonight.

When I got Internet access at home back in 1996 or so, I thought it was one of the most wonderful things to ever bless the Earth.

I am involved in the rescue and adoption of ex-racing greyhounds, and having Internet access gave me and others with the same interest an avenue to speak to each other easily and cheaply all across the country. We were able to do wonderful things via both regular email and a particular listserv, which shall remain nameless to protect the innocent.

If someone needed help, all you had to do was email the listserv with what you needed, and all types of help came forth. Unfortunately, in recent years this wonderful resource has degenerated into a list divided into political factions - there are people who believe that greyhound racing should continue unabated in the states where it is allowed, and others who think it should die an immediate and painful death. There are all different vehement opinions on how the dogs should be fed, housed and treated both while they are racing and once they leave racing and become pets. There are a number of adoption groups across the country with different political views and policies, and they regularly and routinely shit on each other and refuse to cooperate with each other. And the sniping, name-calling and bashing is disgusting. We are supposed to be there for the sole purpose of helping this special class of dogs find homes after they are done racing so they aren’t killed. And yet this group has somehow managed to become a mass class of special-interest assholes who are more interested in criticizing each other and promoting their own political agendas than they are in helping dogs find homes or help people who have just gotten dogs work out problems so that the match may be a long and happy one.

I have signed off the listserv temporarily because I am so fucking sick to death of people being more concerned about piddly little shit that doesn’t amount to anything in the grand scheme of life than they are about saving animals’ lives or helping people who adopt dogs with problems they may encounter. It’s gotten so bad that out of a listserv of about 2,000 people, there are only a handful who post. Everyone else is afraid to say anything. They just hope for the occasional tidbit of actual useful information that may occasionally cross the list. I can’t imagine being a new subscriber to the list. They must think all the rest of the list people are fucking nuts and I couldn’t blame them if they didn’t want to get involved in helping to get more dogs adopted.

Apparently it’s so much more fucking fun to beat horses that are so dead they are skeletons than it is to leave their egos and political beliefs at the door and make a difference in whatever little ways they can to make this world a better place.

And I say, fuck all you assholes. You aren’t any better than someone who sees suffering and just walks by without doing a goddamn thing.

Thank you. I feel a little better now.

2

One question: why aren’t you telling THEM this?

Maybe it would wake some of them up enough to get your listserv back where it was…

Keep up the good work, BTW! I love dogs!

3

Astro,

Oh believe me, the listowners know all about how disgusted some of us are. I’m far from the only one that’s sick of it. But the owners have chosen to keep a loose rein on the proceedings. Many people who have been on the list longer than I have said they wished they could go back to when there were only a few hundred people on it and it was more pleasant, friendly and focused on helping new people and getting dogs out of tough situations. There’s even been discussion of dividing the list into sections, so the infighting assholes can have their own arena and waste only their own time. But so far no action. There are other lists, but they are indeed much smaller and the bad thing about small lists is there are less people to call on when you need help. I feel the sorriest for the people who never post - they are there in a minute to help if you call for it, but are afraid to offer any public comments for fear of ridicule or criticism. There could be some genuninely good ideas out there to improve the way we do things, but we’ll never know about 'em.

It’s very, very frustrating and I just had to vent. I know there are a lot of other things in life that get ruined in this same way - people come together for the ostensible purpose of doing something good, but can’t manage to get along well enough amoungst themselves to stay focused on the task at hand. What a fucking waste.

4

No kidding! I’ve just recently gotten into newsgroups (yeah, I know! I’m behind the times :wink: ) and I subscribed to one (misc.health.alternative) cause I thought it would be an interesting forum with exchange of ideas.

Sheesh! What a train wreck. It’s like the same three people screaming at each other about dental amalgams. I set up a killfile within about 10 minutes of reading the stupid thing.

Granted, your beef sounds a little more important than mine, seeing that doggie lives are at stake, but wow! People can be idiots, can’t they?

5

Bunny,

Yeah, some of the newsgroups are probably the absolute worst for idiocy, a real waste of what could be a wonderful medium. And alternative medicine and its ilk always seem to attract these evangelist types, who believe their way is the only way and you’ll be damned if you don’t convert! Forget about sharing ideas and god forbid, acting like a mature adult about it if someone doesn’t agree with everything you have to say.

A friend of mine is into alternative stuff not only for herself but for her dogs as well, and ended up starting her own alternative dog-care list just so she could control the nature of what gets posted there.

Whywhywhy do people have to act like crabs in a barrel - just when some get to the top, the ones on the bottom pull 'em down? I guess what I really want explained is why people can be such dumbfucks - why is it that so many people can get themselves so wound up with tiniest petty shit that they completely lose sight of an admirable goal? How could this possibly benefit ANYONE in ANY WAY? Our time here on Earth is short, what in hell are y’all doing wasting your time sniping at each other when you could get off your ass, cooperate with each other FOR A CHANGE and find a few more dogs some homes (or whatever else you are ostensibly supposed to be doing)?

6

It seems to me that the only type of orginization that works for any internet community of more than atwenty people is a benevolent dictatorship. That dictator needs three things: 1)genuine good intentions, 2)an understanding of the community 'vison"–the sort of site they want, and 3)the will to act even when it pisses people off.

People without good intentions–power-tripers–drive off all the good people. People with no understanding of how the community works make stupid decisions, and people afraid of being seen as “bossy” or “mean” or “hitler” tend to let the assholes run amuck, which also drives good people away. Worse, they get bogged down in technicalities defending thier decisions to assholes who are being deliberitly obtuse, and that ruins everything.

The SDMB moderators display all these qualities, and I think that is why it is the only message board I frequent.

7

Oh, we have it sooo good here in comparison to a lot of other boards. If you want a great example of what the OP is talking about, then look no farther than this gem:
http://www.metalmaniacs.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/049542.html .
Delightful, no?
The MMBB is moderated only when the mods remember it exists, it seems. And although it’s primarily dedicated to music (and sadly, the sort of music that attracts too many folk like S.O.B), OT threads such as the one cited here are posted many times each day.
There’s a lot of ignorance to fight there, all right. For what it’s worth, I’m slowkill in that thread. And I don’t usually argue with the fuckwits, but couldn’t resist having a go at this one.
sigh If only I had the towering intellectual capacity and ready wit of, say, many the regulars in GD. Oh, ok, of 99% of the regs on this entire board. To quote Johnny Rotten, “Oh God, I wish I were smarter!” sigh

8

Now that is an evocative description! There’s tripe, then there’s power tripe! I’ve got to remember to use that.

Thanks for brightening my day, Manda JO!

9

Yes, I have to agree that one of the things I’ve liked best so far about the SDMB is that 1) it’s divided into sections so you can pretty much know what to expect from each section, and 2) the mods don’t take a lot of shit from people. There is a pretty well-defined code of behavior here. I know some folks call the mods Nazis; well, fine, then they can start their own boards and see how easy it is. I moderate a teeny little local listserv with a bunch of people who KNOW EACH OTHER IRL, for God’s sake, and we still have a couple fuckwits we need to have a “discussion” with from time to time.

It’s amazing how well SDMB works with the amount of members it has. My albeit short association here has been so far a quite pleasant one.

While the owners of my most cherished greyhound list will take action, it is only in the most extreme circumstances. For instance - let’s say one member threatens another with bodily harm, or someone says they are going to sue one of the owners. That will get you kicked off. But there’s not much else short of that due to the owners’ reluctance to “squelch freewheeling discussion of topics related to greyhound racing and adoption.” Really, the only topic that is strictly forbidden 100% of the time, no exceptions, is discussion of betting on races, and there are plenty of other avenues for that anyway.

I do admire the owners for all that they do and all that they put up with, and I understand their philosophy. But damn it, it dilutes what should be our sole purpose and goal (after all, that was the original intention of the list, if anyone cares to remember that far back) and does nothing to foster the understanding and cooperation amoung people of different beliefs that is DESPERATELY needed to be as effective as possible.

I swear I feel like I’m in the virtual equivalent of Beirut some days when it comes to this. It’s just as intractable in its own little way as the situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the Middle East. The sad part is, it’s in no way imaginable as serious as that situation and yet there are some folks who act as if it is, and get in the way of making some very good things happen, just because they can.

Stupid fuckers. (I also love I can swear with impunity in this forum - yeah, say what you really think!!)

Rock, I’ll be looking up your link tomorrow, it’s after midnight here and I need to get some fresh perspective tomorrow. Should be interesting!

10

Rock,

What an amazing link you posted - not only was the topic completely unrelated to music, but the guy you went to battle with had the most appropriate name imaginable …

Did you feel somehow that you were engaged in a battle of wits with an unarmed man? I admire your persistence in attempting to educate him, but the task was obviously Herculean. I’m especially tickled you used the term cluster fuck in one of your posts. That’s one of my all-time faves, and I just don’t get to use it often enough (though I tend to think of it several times a day ;))!

I see you know exactly what I am talking about in my OP - my cherished little listserv is not often allowed to go off-topic, thankfully, but posts from idiots seem to be cheerfully accepted (sigh).

Ah, well … I feel better now that I have vented here and signed off the other list for awhile … I love the SDMB.

11

Hails, romansperson!
Thanks for the supportive compliments!
Yes, at one time I felt like using that old quote: “Arguing with an idiot is like teaching a pig to sing. You waste your time and annoy the pig.” :-\ Alas, all my effort was probably for nothing, although he did quit with the sex-based insults once I called him on that, so yay. Too bad I had to bring myself down to his level, but those who try to hold themselves to the high intellectual ground in that forum usually last about a nanosecond before being buried under the written equivalent of a festering heap of entrails along the lines of, “YOUR GAY! @LOL!!@”
Some of you might ask, “Well, why the hell do you stay there if it’s such a seething, unchecked mass of juvenile ignorance?” To be honest, I’ve left before and may just do again over an entirely unrelated incident that’s currently brewing (a lot of the especially ignorant fucktards are ganging up on one genuinely good person and I’m powerless to stop it). However, I do have quite a few friends there that I see on a face-to-face basis, and believe it or not, one can have music-related discussions once the signal-to-noise barrier is overcome.

Mind you, that was just another day on the Metal Maniacs board (with the exception of my argument with the fuckwit). I still think that anyone who doesn’t appreciate the mods here or feels that these boards aren’t policed with everyone’s best interests in mind should spend a little time over there. It should take about, oh, thirty whole minutes before they tear ass back here and kiss the ever-lovin’ ground before buying all the mods a round of very strong drinks! :smiley:

“Cluster fuck” - heh. Yes, you’re right - it’s a wonderfully descriptive term. Are those “several times of day” when it comes to your mind happening at your work? Or is that to do with the listserv you mentioned? Either way, my condolences. :slight_smile:

12

Rock,

Ah yes, the dear old term cluster fuck. I used to work for the federal government and now I work for the state. 'Nuff said :D.