But what about sticking something up the ass? Can we implore other posters to take objects and insert them in their rectal cavities? So let’s say we wanted to pit Ed Zotti in his capacities as a poster but not as a moderator (since under these rules that’s allowed) and for the sake of an example, say we said something along the lines of:
“Ed Zotti, you can take your ideas of what is and is not acceptable and shove them up your ass.”
Would that constitute an acceptable insult or cross the line into abuse? It’s not threatening harm on another poster, so I know it doesn’t break that rule, unless the case could be made that certain objects, when inserted in the rectal cavity, could lead to infections. So I went with an intangible, hypothetical concept.
matt_mcl’s post was perfect. Ed Zotti’s response to everyone was rather remote, which reads to me as “I can hear you, but I’m not listening.” That’s frustrating.
We’ve all put up with changes we don’t like in order to facilitate the continued existence of the board, but it seems like what you’re doing now is stifling discussion, for reasons that you won’t express. We are, most of us, reasonable people. If you can just tell us why this is happening, we may go along with it. “Our mods’ feelings are being hurt” is not really satisfactory. Most of the mod pittings I’ve read have been supportive from the membership as a whole; no one has ganged up on mods and gratuitously insulted them as people. I may be wrong, but as others have suggested this reads like a top-down decision from someone who is not a part of the community, someone who is worried about what potential customers or clients might think if they read a bad word. Please respect us enough to be honest about what’s going on, at the very least by saying “I can’t discuss it — company policy.”
Apologies for re-quoting this, but it really does sum up my confusion. What is the distinction being drawn between these two statements? I’m a lawyer; I can parse bright-line rules better than a lot of people, and I’m utterly mystified at what you’re trying to say in the above comparison, unless it’s simply “don’t use bad words.”
Again, what side of the line do the following statements fall on?
[ol]
[li]You’re an idiot[/li][li]You’re a stupid idiot[/li][li]You’re a dumb idiot[/li][li]You’re a smelly idiot[/li][li]You’re a moron[/li][li]You’re a mouth-breathing cretin[/li][li]You rode the short bus to school[/li][li]You must come from a long and illustrious line of inbreeding to have achieved your present state of mental capacity[/li][li]You were dropped on the head as a small child, weren’t you?[/li][li]You don’t have the intelligence that God gave granite[/li][/ol]
I realize that my 8 years as a member of this board means pretty much fuck all to the PTB, but I didn’t want my silence to be misconstrued as acceptance.
Well, that wraps it up for me. I’ve tried to be as flexible and understanding as possible while the board management goes through what has to be a very painful time. But this… I’m done with the Pit as long as these rules remain in effect.
RIP BBQ Pit, ye were a good and funny forum. I’ll miss it.
Certainly, and as I said, I have guilty of some of that myself. What I am asking is that the PTB pay less attention to that, and more to serious suggestions.
Because, in my perception. some of the irritation that people feel is that this attitude of “Well, we knew there’d be over-reaction” is taken sooner rather than later.
#1, great rule change. Seriously. When complaints had to go to the Pit, half of the complainers took it as a sign that they should be as hostile and abusive as possible in complaining. It’s silly and unnecessary, the staff shouldn’t have to deal with abuse whenever anyone disagrees with having their thread moved to MPSIMS. You can lodge a complaint like a mature adult, and not resort to profanity and insults.
#2, terrible rule change. It’s OK to insult someone as long as you hide it within a long winded “creative” phrase, but it’s not OK to call someone an asshole. Way too vague, open to interpretation, and unnecessary to boot. There’s nothing wrong with a Pit where posters insult each other. It’s how you can blow off steam without intruding on the more genteel forums.
It’s apparently OK, though, to use a profanity laced tirade when complaining about someone who isn’t another poster. Strange.
I’m wondering, since this is all primarily to reduce mod abuse, why it’s even necessary to implement any of the new rules other than the one requiring that mod questions or criticisms be restricted to ATMB. What do the mods care if we call each other fucknuggets or put “Asshole” in a thread title?
They’re beyond retarded. Retarded people are usually at least pleasant. I see nothing positive about these new Pit rules. I always thought this board was left-leaning, but this shit is pretty close to the kind of crap you’d find on a far-right Christian message board. Pretty fucking pathetic, and I’m still waiting to see if it’s a deal-breaker for me.
Yep. This is completely idiotic. I’ve always rolled my eyes at the uptight twits who get upset at the latest drama, but this is stupid stupid stupid. Insults are OK but abuse is not?? WHAT?? Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. And I’ve been here since, what, 2002? I don’t recall. Something like that. Whatever.
And may I suggest, “Hug you, you hugging motherhugger” as an acceptable workaround?
And here is a perfect example of why your rules are nothing short of capricious, arbitrary, and completely stupid. I find being called a liar, something you are perfectly fine with in your new happy-pit, to be far, far more abusive and insulting than “fuck you, you cock-sucking piece of shit” or any profanity-laden string you could come up with.
Exactly my confusion. What is the problem statement? Why is it that all of a sudden posters insulting each other is a bad thing that needs to be stopped?
And President Bush expected the Iraqi people to line the streets throwing flowers to the American troops in joyous celebration. Neither of you have fully thought out the consequences to your actions.
This is condescending, offensive and frankly abusive of the posting population in general. I expect better of an administrator, particularly in light of these new rules that have been instituted in order to raise the tone of the boards.
I’m leaning on the “wait and see” side too. I’d love to see #2 clarified for those that **don’t get that there’s a very clear distinction between insulting and abusive language. **
Because there is, some people here are reasonably saying “spell it out”, others are being pretty moronic about it - they remind me of the people that hide behind semantics:
"well, the rule says specifically that I can’t hit the guy with the lamp, not that I can’t use the lamp as a weapon by dropping it into his bathtub… "
1, 3 and 4 are just housekeeping, 5 is actually a loosening of behavior that wasn’t ok before. Loosen your belts folks, give this a chance.