I think I posted in the pit once when I first joined the boards (and got flamed – surprise), but the reason I usually don’t read it is time constraints. I stick to GQ, Cafe Society, and MPSIMS. Fast, furious, fun with a lot of great thoughts, too.
I went into the pit today… and holy crap, these demented bastards scare me. The most hateful, vitriolic histrionics that have ever been spouted… over the most asinine things.
When I imagine dopers, I imagine some pretty smart people who have their lives together and who know how to enjoy a good laugh. I think about the dopers I’ve met and how great it would be to attend the multiple dopefests being planned all over the world. When I read the pit I suddenly imagine sweaty shut-ins so twisted by an unkind life that they take great delight in finding a person who cannot dedicate a comparable amount of time or energy to anally ram-rod a point home with invectives and other cruelties.
A few of the posts I read did seem acceptable based on real world ettiquette (real life example: “No, you know what? Alt.flame.nigger isn’t a place for you to get jokes from. Don’t you ever say something like that around me again.”), but these people return to post, then return to post again, and soon they seem to lose all perspective to the point where they’re just as rabidly trying to trump at all costs, completely losing sight of the fact that they are simply getting themselves worked up over words with strangers that they never have to meet, do not have to influence to make the world a better place, and have more than enough reason to consider themselves infinitely superior to.
Most of the posts, though… look like really ugly people to me.
For obvious reasons, I’m not posting this to the pit.
Do you mean, any particular posts? Somewhat. Many of them seem interchangable with “scratch your head in wonder” posts that dot the landscape of the MPSIMS. A few of them… wow.
I’ll expand on my last post: You’re talking about people who post using language that they would never dream of using face to face with a person. They seem to think that because they are sitting at a computer keyboard, and because it is the Pit, they are obliged to use any insults / language they see fit. Is this near the mark?
I’ve posted a good bit in the Pit lately. Just retaking back the rights to my name, I guess. I try to stay away from the hateful vitriolic histrionics.
Generally speaking, people who behave that way suffer the consequences–fellow Dopers take them a lot less seriously.
Well, The Pit is one of my stops for when I’m feeling up for some entertainment. Do I post there? Hardly. I just like to point and laugh at the people who get their knickers in a knot over some of the silliest things on earth.
Yeah, there’s some ugly crap over there. But, you know, there’s plenty of ugliness in human nature. I guess I look at the Pit as the place where people can spew that ugliness with little (real) consequence.
But, this is how I look at it:
[Politically Correct Hat OFF]
I once read (not my own words, I swear) that arguing online is like running in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you’re still retarded.
Samarm: that, plus the fact that it boggles the mind they’d rather get a really good anger going than push away from the keyboard and go do something positive.
JavaMaven: that might be the best description I’ve ever heard.
I really like it over there most of the time. I wish you’d spend more time there, Mister citrus deprived anus, because I really enjoy your posts.
It’s an interesting place. You definately get more character development there and, if you frequent this board, that can be a telling feature about a ponderable personality.
The news is good. Stuff that people are too irate about to post elsewhere will show up in short order. I don’t have to surf elsewhere. If it’s newsworthy I’ll soon be privy to it.
I guess though that sometimes you and I are of the same mind in that I see people getting flamed just because someone’s got a rectal burr and proper validation of their target is somewhat suspect. The “It’s the Pit and I can do or say anything without remorse” crap. Therein, I beg to differ, have said so in the past and just might again in the future if the situation warrants.
I encourage outrage when justified. I also encourage focus. Loss of it just gets undefensably ugly.
At least the SDMB Admins had the presence of mind to compartmentalize the vitriolic histrionics. In most message boards you never know what you are going to get in any particular forum.
Now if only humans could learn to compartmentalize to that degree IRL.
Anal Scurvy, you mentioned you specifically hang out in three threads.
Well… bingo. There’s some very interesting people in the Pit that I don’t normally interact with in other forums. Some of them I respect a very great deal and, therefore, want to hear their opinions on a variety of subjects.
A very small few are just so damn clueless that I’ll stick around to make sure someone firmly takes them by the hand. Heck, no doubt at times I’ve found direction there myself.
It’s not a place for the meek but Lordy has it ever done more than a few some good and will, more than likely, continue to do so.
Well, I’ll cheerfully announce that I am a Pitizen. It’s the first forum I go to, every time I read the SDMB. I generally try to avoid the horrible trainwreck threads, but they are a small minority of the Pit as a whole. Most threads are entertaining bitches about crappy things going on in their life.
I pretty much find the pit uninteresting but recently had a thread devoted to tearing me a new one.
I made a joke in a GQ thread (what was the earliest known name for America). My answer was “unga bunga”. Apparently that was enough to set somebody off. I now have an entire squad of condescending people devoted to schooling me in Native american culture.
MPSIMS and IMHO seems mostly comprised of light hearted, smart funny people. Apparently if you say the wrong thing in GQ, some shmoe who paid a fortune for college is going to throw an insult party in your favor.
I could’ve ignored it but it was a little fun having utter geniuses spending so much effort on little me.
