At a lot of work places reading an article such as this would fall outside their rules. Should we not allow that type of stuff to be mentioned? Just who’s work rules are we following? In fact, there are people who are not even allowed to access the internet at all from their jobs. Perhaps we should take down the entire internet to avoid driving those people away from the board that they aren’t allowed to be at.
But I can assume you agree with my first point?
The 100% is hyperbole, obviously. But I do think that gimping the Pit is a sop to the moderators in question.
I am feeling very stupid today and don’t understand this post at all. Are you saying I shouldn’t have brought up the issue of paid posters? (Because I don’t think I did.) Or that I should have?
That about sums up my position. I never liked it and still don’t. And I think the board would be better if it was gone.
I am amazed at how, after so many responses, you can continue to completely and utterly miss the point.
The Pit is like a safety valve. Everywhere else that I interact with people, I do so without screaming and profanity. However, it was nice to have one place where the odd uncensored rant, the odd “fuck you” could pop out and it was OK. That’s what pit rants were for.
Not any more. And the place is sadder and more repressed for it.
I believe I do get the point. People were happy to be able to go to a separate room and scream at someone. And some people will argue “after poster X duked it out with poster Y, they got it out of their system.” Maybe that happened sometimes. But I think that more often, what happened was the following:
Poster X insults Y
Y responds in kind
X will try to top Y with even worse insults
etc.
net result:
X and Y carry a grudge that carries over to other discussions.
“Airing it out” didn’t really make the animosity any less.
How nice for you. Of course you could have just avoided it.
Forgive me if I don’t join in congratulating you or anyone else responsible for this train wreck.
However, you think that’s it’s okay that we all have to act like you. And that makes this place not so great any more.
No, I just didn’t have an opinion about it. But since you asked, I don’t think your latter-day soccer mom or dad would be offended by threads on bodily functions, or worried about their kids seeing them, whereas “So-and-so is a cum-sucking sack of donkey shit” is something where they likely would be.
Perhaps. That’s what Ed says in this thead.
And I did. I didn’t participate in the aspect of the Pit I disliked - namely flamefests. Should we have any rules at all? Because for each rule we have a the board forbidding X, I’m sure we can find a poster that just loves X. The rest of the posters can just avoid the posts that contain X.
Why would you want to congratulate me? I had nothing to do with the rules change. Was that the personal “you” or the generic “you”?
You didn’t bring it up at first, but you did respond to the subject as if, and with the strong contexutual implication, that “Paid” status had some bearing on the situation.
Since you don’t appear to believe that, you either should not have responded as such, or you should have responded by dismissing it as irrelevant.
Fair enough, and honestly said.
That being the case, why are you defending Ed’s changes at all? By your statement, he didn’t go far enough. You don’t really have a dog in this fight… You shouldn’t be here.
Yes, I think that being forbidden to use obscenities to insult people in conversation is okay and not an onerous rule. I also think it’s great that people here can talk about the minute details of their life if they want to, even though that’s something that I would never do. I think it’s great that people can discuss NFL games and have Vampire threads and post pictures of their pets even though that’s something that I don’t do. I’m not trying to make everyone into a carbon copy of Arnold. I’m just surprised that people would be so attached to the privilege of throwing around obscenities. And I think it’s something detrimental to the board, which is why I am in favour of the new rule.
I don’t think I did. I said “longtime members” - such as yourself. You’re not a paid member, are you? I don’t see anywhere what would make you think that I was referring to paid members.
Step in the right direction?
sigh
I quoted you twice.
And I have been a Paid Member, and am now a Guest, but frankly, I happen to agree with you - “paid” is irrelevent. It needs to be left out of the argument.
And, at this point, since you and I appear to be on the same page IRT status, I think it’s time this sub-thread died.
I haven’t noticed a lack of erotica, but maybe we don’t read the same flirting/sex techniques/dating history threads. As for pornography, there have been a fair bit of references to off-board sites, and the two-click rule was always available. Heck, I know of at least two posters who ARE pornographers, and others who have linked to their erotica.
My concern isn’t the words. What bothers me is the suppression of human interaction stronger than what would be allowed at a workplace. Workplaces are notoriously risk-averse and not really places where people feel free to be themselves. The artificiality of interaction imposed by the rules strips much of it of meaning. The English language has a breadth and depth appropriate to the breadth and depth of human interaction. When you limit one, you limit the other. It’s like taking one of the dimensions away and reducing a three dimensional world to a world of pictures. Pictures are very effective at communicating, but they lack the immersive experience of real life interaction.
Moving from a pit where people are free to engage each other, even in abusive terms, to one where such engagements are prohibited, necessarily limits how much people are able to interact. I think the board will be a much less interesting place, and much less true to reality, without that ability. Do I personally flame? Hardly ever. Do I think flaming is productive? Hardly ever. Do I defend the right of people to flame? Almost always.
All that having been said, I wanted to thank you for your behavior in this thread. You’ve been polite and candid, and I know it can’t have been easy. There’s a lot of hostility around here right now. I salute you for your ability to remain calm and level headed and stick to what you think is right without returning some of the insults which have been sent your way. While we may disagree on this, I think it’s a disagreement stemming from differences in our principles and I appreciate your honest responses. You’ve taken on half a dozen or more posters simultaneously, and that’s always daunting. If you don’t have the time or energy to continue this conversation I understand and I think we’re pretty close to the “agree to disagree” point anyway.
Enjoy,
Steven
Don’t go dragging us quiet ones into this. Just because we don’t post there doesn’t mean we don’t read it.
I like the Pit as it was, un-bowdlerised.
Then I’d far prefer that you go ahead and follow that thought to it’s logical conclusion, rather than defending what is, essentialy, too much or too little, depending on your viewpoint.
“Step in the right direction” is a position I can respect, even if I disagree. Defending what isn’t your real goal, not as much so.
I refer those interested to my opinion in the other thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10869442#post10869442