I don’t know if anyone else experiences this. I’ve gotten through 900 posts with nary a flame. In recent weeks, though, it seems as if I’m being flamed on a regular basis, or that my followups are all “threadkillers” – the last post in a thread, as if I incited Goodwin’s Law without using the “H” word. I also feel that my posts, as of late, are less than brilliant. Fighting ignorance? Feh. I’m ignoramus incarnate, or so I feel.
So, has anyone else ever felt this? Seriously … you’re a decent SDMB citizen one minute, and then … what happened? Can you cycle back? Does taking a break help? How do the popular posters, the ones mentioned in every flirt thread, get that way?
I do the same - I’ll go months on end without pissing anyone off, then all of a sudden I’m checking out a thread I responded to the previous day and everyone’s pissed at me. Then I read my post, and say “Oh, looks like I was being an asshole…”
It happens. Sometimes I forget that people can’t tell I’m being sarchastic by the way I type. Sometimes I forget to be sarchastic and head straight for “asshole”. Most of the time I’m mostly harmless.
It happens. Sometimes I’m on a roll, sometimes I just feel confrontational about everything, and other times I wonder if I’m on everyone’s Ignore list.
Pretty much my experience as well. I think everyone feels like this from time to time. It’s natural - Your interest in the board and interaction with it will wax and wane depending on ( perceived ) feedback and mood. Or sometimes just a bad chance encounter.
Unless you really have a meltdown and burn some bridges, I think most eventually snap out of it. Either that or wander off to a new interest for awhile.
While GQ has always been the attraction for me, and I know quite a few Dopers IRL by now, sometimes there’s just no questions that stir my interest, MPSIMS has gotten just too silly and IMHO is full of polls about who has socks with holes in 'em. And I have to just ease up on it.
I’ve become absorbed in writing an answer or (very rarely) posted 20 times in a day and I’ve posted once or twice in a week. I think more than one factor works on you.
For one thing, the nature of the board traffic is such that there will sometimes be a raft of input of interest to various folks (eg., when we get one WWII question, we often get several - some related, some not), and other times there’ll be a dearth of stuff that piques your interest.
And we go through periods where suddenly there are many new members and sometimes that’s good, as the new input revitalizes the place; and sometimes it kinda confuses this place and things are a little scatterbrained for a bit.
As well there is what is going on in your own life. Sometimes work just demands all the cerebral wattage I can put out and I just have to trust that y’all will be here when I get back (someday that won’t be the case, I’ll bet).
I don’t attract a lot of flame, but I’ve dragged in some, and the first was very early. 'Twas a learning experience. And I’ve embarassed myself a few times to a point that I felt I needed to lay low. But I didn’t. For the most part, if you do contribute the occasional misspeak can be gotten over. And, while it may cause you to think, “Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?,” unless you come off as some kind of serious stalker type, most of the women here are not really bothered if you let the occasional flutter find a voice.
I’m consistenly paranoid that one day I’ll click in the pit and find a “ResIpsa, go to hell!!!” thread somewhere. I’ve had brisk snappy arguments with people, but nothing obnoxious yet. Still, I’m pro-life and Catholic, so I can’t help but wonder how long before somebody takes complete issue with me.
Also, I do occassionally feel like a threadkiller…but then I realize, I’m too lazy to respond to half the threads I read…
Oh, well. I would like to add that all the ladies of the SDMB make life worth living, and I apologize if us male Dopers don’t say it enough. (Maybe that’ll get me in a “flirt thread”… )
I think I lurk more than anything else.
I have never been flamed on SDMB at all.
I post answers to what questions I know, and respond to a few IMHO polls, but generally act like a good citizen.
Online I’m actually pretty pedestrian, but IRL I figure I cut a wider swath, and get noticed a bit more.
I attribute these online qualities to my vast wit and wisdom.
Oh…and modesty too!
I thought of one more thing while previewing. I don’t bother to post who annoys me or who I think is a jackass. Like others (likely everybody) I do have those thoughts about some annoying dopers, but I practice rather than preach ignoring people I dislike.
That helps.
It seems likely that lots of people do this as well when one considers how many members there are.
I don’t think I’ve ever been flamed. But I did get burnt out on reading posts that I didn’t feel like I could answer. So I’ve been away awhile and now I’ve been stopping by a little been again. Yeah, it feels better.
I don’t believe I’ve ever officially been dragged to the pit. If I have been, I’ve missed it, and the one thread that seemed like it was leaning towards an *erl-flaming was threadkilled… by me! So, whatever.
Lately there have been some very interesting threads on topics that, three months ago, I would have been posting all over. Yet now I drop a line or two in, ask people to clarify what they mean, and more or less lurk.
Strange.
But I think Ringo has more or less hit it on the nose.
As I recall, I’ve only been flamed once, and that was when I was reading someone elses Pit Thread and came to the defense of another poster. Hmm…seems just like IRL, I rarely piss people off.
)
So, whatever.