Ditto. I can’t be fucked to “pit” anyone or anything.
If you ask me, I think instead of thinking “if I was nasty to the guy in one forum can I still be nice in another?”, the question is “if the guy seems like a decent guy in one forum, maybe I shouldn’t blow my stack at him in the Pit just because of one aspect of his posting”.
As I see it, the Pit is about SDMB rules, not about how you should behave. Just because you’re allowed to be obnoxious here doesn’t mean you have to be.
All that said … in my case at least, there is a difference between how I act on MBs and IRL. That being that in the case of MBs, I feel like on the one hand a healthy and vigorous exchange of ideas is what I and others signed up for, and no one has cause for complaint about it, and on the other, if someone is insulted, it doesn’t affect my life in any other way.
By contrast, suppose for example I think my neighbor’s opinions on politics or whatever are completely idiotic I would refrain from serious discussion of these matters with him, because I’m not interested in messing up my friendly relationship with my neighbor over matters of this sort.
Yeah, I usually read the words on the page, rather than listen to the voices in my head.
The ultimate software would allow each user to filter out ideas and concepts they disagree with, so they never get upset over anything.
Hell, everything should be a little bit fun. Why else would you post (or read) a message board? If it’s not fun, what the hell is matter with you? Why are you still reading?
Well, some parts of the forum are about getting answers to questions, so it’s not all fun and games.
That was a good story. I know what you mean.
Sometimes you actually have to remember what somebody said, which is hard.
But that’s the trouble; one person can have two very different aspects of his posting. And, worse, if I’m nice one place and mean another, then I am showing two different aspects of my posting.
My view is that IMHO and GD and GQ and CS are where you can say, “I disagree” to someone you disagree with, and even “You’re wrong” to someone who is wrong, but that the Pit is where you get to say, “Holy shit, that’s fuckin’ STOOPID” to someone who has just said something so staggeringly wrong as to be off the scale of normal error.
If you say, “The Raiders are the greatest football team,” I’ll laugh and say, “Nuh uh.” But if you say, “Football concussions are legally murder, and the NFL Commissioner ought to be tried and executed for them,” wow, that falls through the floorboards and into the Pit.
Sure; perfectly valid. Same with family members and co-workers. You have to be near these people! Can’t escape 'em! You, I can escape pretty easily, just by ignoring your threads. But the nice guy next door who believes in Chem-Trails has too great an ability to harm me (or just alarm me) if he gets the feeling I’m “trying to get him.”
I think both the Pit and GD have a lot of trolls whose sole purpose is to say things like “that’s the most moronic argument I’ve ever heard in my life!” Then the other person comes back and says “oh, go fuck yourself.” Ding! Mod warning! Troll wins.
I’m more likely to skip past the posts of known (to me) pit & GD trolls, but like others I don’t remember too many names for long.
That’s true, but it can be helpful to bear one in mind when confronted with the other.
Well you certainly can do that. That’s rules. Question is whether there’s really anything productive that comes out of it. (Actually FWIW your Pit suggestion is not in violation of the rules of other forums either, to my understanding.)
I don’t want anyone to ever be mean to anyone else again in the whole wide world.
Something tells me that this idea may not get very far.
If I had a bottle, I could leave a message in it. If I had a pen and paper. And if this was the ocean instead of the desert.
Oh, well…it was a good idea.
(Seriously, I would be very happy if nobody was mean to anybody, ever again. There was an old sci-fi story where someone released a “Golden Rule” virus, and, from that point forward, we felt the results of whatever we did to others. Hit somebody in the nose? Your nose hurts too! Cuss somebody out? You feel depressed too! You invent the virus, and I’ll deploy it!)
Yeah, but under conditions of boink, then I feel what my co-conspirator feels, as well as what I feel. Well, OK, so far so good, doesn’t need to be better but sure! Except that now she feels what I feel feeling what she feels, so an orgasmic feedback loop sets in and nobody gets anything done ever again.
Exponential orgasm? What a way to go!
(Larry Niven alludes to it in “The Magic Goes Away,” where a magician warns a non-magician about the dangers of having sex where both partners have telepathy spells operating.)
It would really suck to be a dentist.
Damon Knight’s “Rule Golden.”
IIRC, it only applied to violent acts, or hostile ones. Dentists and surgeons could still function, although they would feel their patients anxiety.
In fourth grade, we used to sing a song that roughly went,
“Happiness is… two kinds of ice cream, having a sister, getting along!”
I don’t remember the rest. Anyway, it would seem to celebrate getting along.
Seriously, though, I just can’t be inflammatory/mean/a name-caller/un-nice/whatever on the net. Ever ever ever. Personally, I find it to be a miserable experience and to add to uncivility in the world. YMMV.
Thank’ee! Been a long time, and I no longer have the anthology it was in. (I’m also very fond of his “Analogues” stories.)
Happiness. From You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.
Love that song: http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/songs/movies/happinessmp3.htm
Sounds like a total dick.
My take is in the Pit everyone is a tard*. Outside they have to prove it and then I just start skipping over their posts.
- It makes the Pit fun. Like that other tard said.
Well, to me there’s two kinds of PITing. One is where you go out of your way to start a nasty hate filled diatribe vs another poster. I think that bridge is burned.
Another is where someone else starts that diatribe, and you chime in with “yeah, I noticed that also.” Or there’s a PIT thread not about a poster but you snark the hell out of some post. In those cases, I think all can be forgiven- assuming you weren’t really nasty.