Mod discussion has been brief but pretty well consistent. We don’t need a new rule for this sort of thing, it’s already covered under “Don’t be a jerk.” We have asked people to be considerate of other posters – specifically, avoiding NSFW links, but NSFW is not just porn. It includes jack-in-the-box, loud unexpected sounds, something that takes three to four years to download if you’re on a slow computer/connection, etc.
We ask people to be considerate of others. This specifically is not worth a rule in the sense of something to warn people about. On t’other hand, if you find a link that goes to something that’s annoying (or could be annoying if you were at work, say), then let a mod know and we’ll edit in an alert.
And, folks, cool it down. No name-calling in ATMB. The goal is to have reasonable and polite discussion about such matters. It is possible to hold different opinions without one side being stupid or wrong or whatever. This is about taste and individual perceptions and situations, not about science or mathematics or other true/false scenarios.
Again, your post is nothing but questions you imagine asking me inside your brain, and then you imagine the answer you think I’d give, and take that as a fact.
Not too complicated, no; obviously–and entertainingly–pointless, yes. Please let me how the conversation comes out, so I can know what I’m thinking and what my motivations and reasons are.
How’s about you actually answer them, then? You go around claiming people don’t know what they’re talking about, that they’re wrong and yet you rarely post the reasons why you say that, nor post any sort of supporting statements. One could easily get the impression–false, no doubt–that you’re just all talk.
I always try to respond to any post that seems worth my time to respond. To. In fact I have something of a reputation for being unable to let an argument go; I will usually keep responding as long as I think the person I’m discussing it with is arguing in good faith. Two kinds of posts I don’t respond to, and I don’t think I’m required to respond to: posts where it seems likely to me that the other person is only arguing to hear himself type, and has nothing substantive to contribute; and posts where someone starts out by telling me what I’m thinking so they can tell me how wrong I am before I even respond. But enough about me.
But how is someone to know if they feel it is not in their best interest to click a link if the person who posted it doesn’t give them enough information on which to base a decision? “Hey, check this out!” is about as uninformative as you can get. What is so difficult about including at least a brief description of what the link is about so the reader can make an informed decision?
After talking to the other mods, I made a small change to the ‘Guidelines and Etiquette’ thread, as well as the rules thread in Cafe Society.
The theads now include the following. It’s not a rule, just a suggestion and advisement for everybody. Most people already follow it and we wouldn’t do more than make a small note in the post if people forget.
Dang, I was hoping my demands would be met with a little more quivering obsequiousness, because I was planning to escalate them if this one worked. So much for changing the names of all the forums to “lissener’s [forum name].”
(In all seriousness, this was more than I hoped for, and more than adequate to address the situation. Yay, the terrorists have won another one!)
A mouseover will tell you if you’re linked to youtube video, or ESPN, or Comedy Central, or a PDF file. I do this at work all the time, out of necessity, because my own workstation is thoroughly and sadly unsuitable for accessing a great majority of the web. Accessing a PDF via the internet can cause it to seize up for a full minute.
However, that is all no one’s problem but my own. And it takes me less time to do a mouseover than it would take someone else to type up a 10 word explanation.
If you’re specifically complaining about the ‘content’ of the link, like say the name of the band in the youtube video being linked, or a summary of the article, etc…that’s not what is being debated in this thread.
I’ll tell you why I didn’t follow up. Because of the arguing and the complaining that god forbid, we request something. Because every time we ask for anything people come out of the woodwork to argue with us. It was a request. But you have spent all of your time in this thread arguing and frankly I don’t have the time or inclination.
Then, people say, “If you don’t want to argue, well, don’t post.” Well, that’s what happens, and that’s what’s happening…slowly people are being driven away because a little request for civility is treated like a request for a kidney.
This whole thread is all “Show me WHY you have any right to ask for a rule.” Why don’t we have a right just to ask? In my mind we did show it, and if the mods come to the conclusion no rule is required, fair enough. I like what they did, with the little note in the sticky. I appreciate it. That’s enough for me.
I won’t be coming back here to argue with you over this minor thing, either. I have other things to do.
The type of jerkish behavior exemplified in this thread is, I think, doing more to drive people away from the SDMB than anything else. Why bother trying to suggest changes when your fellow posters are going to jump all over you demanding that you justify your request.
Unless of course, it’s something that they want changed. Then TPTB had better snap to attention and make those changes immediately without any attempt at discussion.
That’s funny, a lot of people say that excessive nannying and extraneous rules are what is driving people away.
Do you honestly think I ‘jumped all over’ lissener because I didn’t convince him with my first post? Or perhaps it was simply because he replied back implying I was too stupid to understand him?
lissener requested if something could be made a rule, and several people (not just you) insisted that he had to justify why he wanted the rule, implying that the only reason he wanted it was to “cover his ass at work” even after he made it clear that his request had nothing to do with his particular work situation.
THIS. Is priceless. Not only do you tell me what I’m thinking, you make up totally imaginary posts in order to have something to bitch about.
I’m just gonna sit back and watch, for fun, until you’re able to give some evidence that A) you’re reading *this *thread, and not some imaginary thing in your head, and B) that your input or questions are specifically relevant to this thread, and not the imaginary thread in your head. Not expecting much, I’m pulling up wit the popcorn and the beer.
