I don’t know why consistently approaching - but not crossing - the line here is lauded by some. I can see why it’s technically within the rules, but I can’t fathom why it is often accepted, yet some poor sap with a clean record who crosses the line once is run out of town on a rail.
It’s jerkery, plain and simple. QED, you can be funny and quick with a sharp answer, but you do make it hard for us to like you sometimes.
Also, the fact that something has been asked and answered many times simply isn’t likely to be known by a new guest - neither can they discover it by searching.
A) Despite repeated requests, no one has substantiated that Q.E.D. behaves in a bad manner “often.” As Richard Parker suggested, perhaps confirmation bias is at play.
B) Cite for some poor sap with a clean record being run out of town on a rail for crossing the line once, please.
That’s a pretty movable goalpost, isn’t it? Your often might be another man’s seldom, and vice versa. How many times in a week would qualify for often, in your view? And while you’re at it, clear up what a bad manner is as well. That’s another thing that can shift all over the place. If you can’t pin it down in a manner acceptable to all, then why can’t you just settle for the fact that some people perceive him as often being ill-mannered without having to satisfy a nonexistent standard?
Since I’m kind of busy these days and have no intention whatsoever of looking up past posts, I’ll just tell you my experience with Q.E.D. - I didn’t notice him at all until he was unnecessarily snarky to me once or twice, then I started noticing that if there was unwarranted snark around here, he was likely to be the source of it. I hang around in the Pit, MPSIMS, IMHO, and Cafe Society - these are the places that I’ve seen his over-the-top snark. I don’t think it was all in the Pit, but it could have been. After seeing this a few times, I have come to the conclusion that he’s nastier than he needs to be, just like I’ve come to conclusion on other posters that they’re generally funny or give good, level-headed answers. When he’s snarked at me in the past, I thought it was jerky (but not a huge deal, because this is the internet were people can be bad-mannered and get away with it).
Have you read any of Cecil’s columns? Snark is the man’s stock-in-trade; it should hardly come as a surprise to anyone that a website which exists solely because of him tends to attract snarky people.
Who would that be? Link please.
A fact I always take into account. I’ve never been rude to a newbie who asked a legitimate question in ATMB.
I don’t understand how you can call yourself a snarky person, but then admit that you can turn it on and off at will.
Fair enough then.
Well. I don’t understand how you can claim to be an educated and intelligent person while failing to grasp such a simple concept. But, there you have it.
You don’t find yourself being snarkier or curter or politer in different situations?
I think that is what Q.E.D. meant. Where he or any of us might be polite to a new poster asking a serious but easily answered questions, he might have a short fuse with a longer-term poster that he already has history.
In fact **BBS2K ** already indicated as much in one of his posts, that there appears to be some prior bad blood between them.
I can think of a few posters where I see a post and just blow past it, as the poster isn’t worth the effort. I had no clue of the bad blood between **BBS2K ** and Q.E.D. and I was surprised and annoyed to see such a dismissive post to a fair question. In this case, I like both posters, so I budded in, as I am wont to.
They are his words, not mine Lib. He can provide the cites, and we can discuss the definitions later. (Instead of “bad manner” he said “approaching but not crossing the line.” I am content with that. The onus is still on him to provide instances.)
[paraphrase]At one point, you guys said you might take away the fee for use of the SDMB. Do you have, or has there already been posted, any further information about that?[/paraphrase].
I can’t understand why this is not a legitimate question. You seem to be saying that, obviously, once they make the change, it will be announced to great fanfare. That’s certainly true. But you seem to be arguing that makes it pointless to ask the question. But that does not follow. For it might be that the staff decide not to make the change. It is not so clear that this would be announced with any fanfare, and this in turn makes it reasonable for a person to wonder whether either:
–some info has been posted and he missed it, or
–info is known to the admins, but they are not being proactive about producing the information (but might produce it if prompted)
Reasonable possibilities both, rendering the question a “legitimate” one to use your term.
Slightly less reasonable, but nonetheless not completely stupid, is the fact that I myself have on more than one occasion discovered that I have missed something that was quite clearly and largely announced and missed by no one else. It would place a bit of an undue burden on others to ask whether I’ve missed something like this about a particular issue, but the favor asked in such a case would hardly be a huge one. Perhaps bb2k thought such a thing might have happened to him as well. That would not be completely unreasonable.
-FrL-
I don’t have any opinion here, but this is like saying you should expect people on a Family Guy message board to be smarmy because Seth McFarlane is.
Yes, but I don’t claim to be generally one or the other. Once again, I find myself asking someone else a question only to find you explaining to me what you think they meant and how I should look at things. In fact, you didn’t post until after he answered. Did someone hire you to look after me? Because if they did, I might entertain paying you twice as much to leave me alone.
Actually, I was post #14 and I was the poster that lightly challenged Q.E.D. in the other thread. I am surprised by the apparent strong dislike that many have for Q.E.D..
I also think you just illustrated my point that people do react to different posters differently. I answered you very politely and honestly. You got defensive immediately. I am mostly a polite poster, there are a few I react to in a snarky or hostile manner based on my feelings about them.
By the way, just to answer snark with snark, I can’t be bought for your rates.
There’s a very good and logical reason for that, which is that there isn’t any.
What are you talking about? I asked QED a question in post #89 of this thread. He answered me in post #91 of this thread. You then answered, in this thread, in #92, the post I addressed to him. And you do this with some frequency, and not just with me. It’s as if you’re sitting there going, “Ah, I must step in now lest everyone become confused.” I realize you’ve had a boner for me ever since the PRR thing, but that’s settled now. In fact, he has his money and I’ve released him from any further obligation. He may post at will. I understand that you mean well, but your butt isn’t needed in every little skirmish or interaction between two other posters. Your politeness about it doesn’t help. It’s like Thoreau said, “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.” Why can’t you just wait until I address YOU and then respond?
Sorry, I misunderstood **BBS2K ** earlier post then. So that was just you being snarky for the sake of it then? 