If the ad thing doesn’t pan out, this may yet be the business model.
Whitewashing censorship? He’s trying this with the wrong people.
The Sword of Damocles is hanging over the future of this board.
Since this board has an international membership, how will this work with non-American English words, phrases and idioms?
In a previous pre-rule change thread, I posted that I saw the admin moving towards a PG13 board. Ed responded that this wasn’t the case. I think it’s pretty obvious, the dope is headed to PG13 territory.
Not that I really care all that much.
Watch for the next two changes. The name implies something that the dope has nothing to do with. That name should be changed to Happy Ponyland Message Board. And of course, The banner will change to something more age appropriate with pretty colors and kitties and puppies.
Sure, but the question is, are those thoughts, expressed in that way, the kind of thing to which the “self-employed parent figure” wishes to devote server space and resources?
Powers &8^]
I tried that once, back in 1999. Got me in big trouble.
Powers &8^]
Yet some of the same adults have been demanding specifics for “don’t be a jerk”, and now are demanding specifics for what would pass muster in the kinder, gentler Pit.
It was all well and good for ten years. The people who you are suggesting this isn’t the place for … are the exact people who made the place what it is. If it’s not the place for them, then who is it for?
I believe some of that can be attributed to giving an object lesson in why these rules won’t work. They are pointing out the folly of the ‘I know it when I see it’ definition of pornography.
I can’t help wondering why all this is playing out. I read some hints about some mod/admin catching heat in the Pit, and Ed’s bigger interest in the boards since the middle of last summer has to play some part, but as the good man said - If it ain’t broken, why fix it!?
I first became aware of Cecil Adams as an exchange student in Chicago back in '85. My roomie bought me a book and that was it, instant love. When SD went online, I cursed it was on AOL, because I couldn’t get that over here. When it finally migrated to the WWW, I signed up pretty early. I’ve taken some breaks but I’ve stayed here almost ten years. The columns have lost their edginess, but ‘Cecil’ should be pushing 60 or even more and people do tend to mellow with age.
Someone upthread (Veb?) mentioned that 'Cecil didn’t use expletives directed at people writing in questions. True dat. But he’s never been one to shy away from using expletives. I remember one column where he was taking about Eskimo language and snow and how he tried to translate “Look at all this fucking snow” but only managed to parse it as “behold the snow, it fornicates.” And if we’re remembering insults, the one about ignorance, corn flakes and General Mills must surely be more abusive than calling someone a dickwad.
In the initial thread Ed invited creative cursing, as opposed to the now verboten words and combinations thereof. You know, of course that the moment someone calls another poster “you fornicating vagina”, this will lead to the list being updated, because cleaning up the Pit, if that was ever necessary, will not be about which expletives someone uses, but the intent, context and tone. If someone dismissively brushes someone off with a “Oh, F[del]uck[/del] Off!”, then that’s bannable, but being ‘creative’ and writing “Your personality would improve by showing a wire brush up your vagina!” is kosher, then things will soon get absurd around here. Oh, and don’t come waving the Don’t be a Jerk rule. That’s what we had and that’s what worked fine when disposing of posters who constantly and carefully skated around the rules.
So I’ll come back to my initial question, Ed. If it ain’t broken, why fix it!?
Obviously, you think something is broken. Can you please show us what that is? And please, general statements as in “raising the level” is not what I’m asking about, I mean examples of where lines were crossed.
I think this is more clear than the “no abuse” rule. As far as whether it’s necessary, I don’t know. It seems to me that anyone who didn’t want to read profanity could just avoid the Pit. The main problem before was putting criticism of the board administration in the Pit, which forced moderators to listen to a bunch of people calling them c***'s and whatnot if they wanted to address these complaints. But that problem has now been fixed by the other rules change.
One question (maybe I missed it if it was asked above): Is “screw you” acceptable? I ask because it’s synonymous to “f*** you”, but much milder.
I object.
Great, here comes another warning.
I appreciate your answer.
It’s the same in Ireland. In fact, “How are ya, ya cunt ya?” is a not too uncommon greeting amongst friends. Here, at least, the intent behind the term is as important as the term itself. Also, it is largely gender neutral here.
Oh yes, it certainly is.
George Carlin, get lost. Hello, Bush-era FCC.
As a long time poster in good standing, I wish to object to the new Pit rules. I see them as unnecessary, and counter to the Divine Will of Uncle Cecil. They also make me feel that the administration no longer cares what I think
I also dislike the fact that I can’t invite other posters to perform sex acts on me. There are quite a few posters I would like to perform sex acts on me, and according to Miss Manners, a polite invitation is the first step.
Surely, if the posts you’re attempting to curb are as rare as has been said, then that basic level of civility already exists, for the most part. It’s not so much an establishment of civility as it is more severe punishment for the few who elect to ignore it, i’d say.
Would it be possible perhaps to see an or some examples of the kind of posts you’re trying to curb? It makes sense to me that if we’re being asked for constructive input on how reasonable languages restrictions are, it’d help out a lot if we could see some examples of the goal.
You guys are killing me with this. Stop pretending that this is about people wanting to say ‘fuck you’ to eachother. You all know very well that many if not most of the people who are against the rule changes have never called another poster a cunt. I know I have never called anyone a foul name on this board, so let’s put that one to bed. This discussion is not about wanting to say ‘fuck you’ because we already know that what Ed wants on these boards, Ed gets, period.
This is about ideas at this point. The idea that certain words are boogie words. The hypocrisy of pretending it is okay to convey an idea with ‘these’ words, but not with *these *words. Please stop kidding yourselves. You are no more mature or insightful or intelligent because you can post in the pit, which is there for the crude and rude, and convey crude and rude ideas with pretty words.
I’m sure it’s not great imposition for you to ask that we not use it. But several hundred posts have let you know how we feel about having having our speech curtailed. That is a great imposition on me. And I don’t accept it even though it’s your playroom.
What’s more, your viewpoint is emotionally and academically unintelligent. At this point you are saying that you are going to ban a phrase that is not sexual in its meaning (“fuck off”) because it is too much trouble to divide the f-bomb phrases into “okay” and “not okay.” And then you tell me that its okay to do that because it’s no imposition of you to ask us to do that! No kidding!
All I can say is that I guess you’ll take the high road and I’ll take the low road…
I think Ed has just lost touch with what makes this board what it is. It isn’t that wearisome charade of Cecil, it isn’t the columns, it isn’t the Staff Reports, it isn’t Slug Signorino: you could lose all that stuff overnight, and I doubt most people would care, or even notice. What makes it what it is is the people who post here.
It’s like a favourite pub with a great crowd of regulars, a good jukebox, a pool table and a pinball machine, where you can come to hang out, relax, talk, sometimes heatedly, about everything and nothing, or just sit and listen. The chairs are worn and patched, the staff are occasionally a little flustered, sometimes the conversations get a bit too heated, but that’s part of the charm. That’s what makes it worth coming back to. It’s real, and it’s unique.
And the pub can change ownership, and the regulars will continue to come - to meet each other in a place they’re comfortable. The manager can change, and the regulars will still come- to meet each other in a place they’re comfortable. But then one day the new manager decides he doesn’t like the tone of some of the conversations or that some of the arguments are getting a little too out of hand, some of the staff have been insulted, and instead of having a word with some of the rowdier patrons, he decides to impose some new standards, a set of rules about proper pub decorum that can get a ten year regular warned, barred and tossed for starting a conversation he could have had with impunity a couple of weeks ago.
Well, some of those regulars - and a lot of them have been coming to the pub since it opened - are going to wonder what became of the old place. They’re going to start looking about for a new place to hang out, somewhere they can kick back like they once did. And once those regulars start leaving, the conversations get a little less interesting each evening, there are fewer people clustered round the pool table or arguing over the jukebox, and slowly the pub starts to lose its battered, irreverent charm. Hanging out there just isn’t any fun when you have to look nervously over your shoulder to make sure you haven’t broken any of the new rules that you aren’t too sure of anyway, and you start wondring why you bother to come any more. The place used to be the best, but it just lost its spark.
The pub is its customers, Ed and they are leaving, they are leaving in droves because your new rules are driving them away. You can tell yourself that it’s just a few hothead malcontents who were never satisfied anyway, but you know it isn’t so. You are losing your best customers, the people who have made this pub what it is for the last ten years: they’re leaving, and they’re taking others with them. Hell, a couple of the new joints they’ve started going to have had more interest in a week than some of your improvements have had in six months. Does that not give you pause to wonder just what you’re doing to this place, what has happened under your new management?
And if that doesn’t give you pause for thought, consider this: what are you going to tell the new owners, when they ask you how you managed in two months to run off your best customers and destroy a place that ran, through good times and bad, for ten years. What are you going to say to them?