And there’s nothing wrong with appreciating the beautiful flowers.
No, there isn’t. And I wouldn’t condemn anyone for wanting to do so. I’d just rather give the flowers a miss rather than get as close to the sewage ditch as that, personally. I don’t really feel that I’m missing much by sticking to the non-anonymous SDMB community on LJ. Yeah, I don’t get to see some of the pretty flowers. But I don’t get shit on my shoes, either.
It’s only mostly mean. How can any of us be deluding ourselves about that, when browsing through the last few weeks of subjects tells us exactly that? Once in a while a discussion comes up that has some elements of constructiveness (i.e. recent political developments on the board), but those are outnumbered by the nastiness and gossip.
A LJ board could exist soley for discussing “too hot to handle” political issues, but this one embraces topics like, “Doper A is a skank,” “Doper B is an attention whore” and “Who’s the ugliest Doper?”
The comparisons to the sewage ditch are quite apt.
Yeah! Would you believe that someone over there called me, ME, an attention whore? :eek:
I’m an Attention Ho, dammit! 
Yeah, if someone said it was mostly mean, I’d have agreed. Yes, it is. There is some nice stuff on there occasionally, and some brilliant examples of not-so-bright people trying to start trouble and getting shot down for their poor efforts. But it’s mostly unpleasant.
That wasn’t what was said, or what I was responding to. Some posters described in the most exaggerated way, which seems bad form on the SDMB. “It exists ONLY to do this awful thing,” and it’s a “WRETCHED HIVE.” “ANYONE who criticizes there will be attacked,” etc. etc.
Come on.
I mean, this isn’t a GQ about the place, but when people start with the indefensible hyperbole, I think it’s inaccurate. I expect something different here at the SDMB. The gorgeous sewage flowers may be too few and far between, but the fact that they exist contradicts the hysteria. Less of the hysteria, is what I’m asking.
It’s mostly sewage, and I don’t think any hysteria is needed to point that out. It’s quite obviously mostly mean and mostly sewage.
Sure, once in a while something with some molecule of constructiveness comes along, or even a pocket of it—but you could say that about many nasty, vile things. “There’s this small good thing about it!” Well, sure. But it still stinks, it’s still nasty, and the fact is, the people who regularly contribute to it apparently want it that way.
Like I said before, it would be easy enough to set up a board that only allowed for “constructive” discussions, but this one doesn’t do that. There’s no way of getting around that fact. It wants to mostly wallow in the sewer, so that’s where it is.
[QUOTE=CrankyAsAnOldMan]
That wasn’t what was said, or what I was responding to. Some posters described in the most exaggerated way, which seems bad form on the SDMB. “It exists ONLY to do this awful thing,” and it’s a “WRETCHED HIVE.” “ANYONE who criticizes there will be attacked,” etc. etc.
Come on.
QUOTE]
To be fair, the “wretched hive” comment was a tongue-in-cheek Star Wars reference, not to be taken seriously.
An irritating thug got dismembered in the SW wretched hive of scum and villainy, so evidently good things happen.
Isn’t hysteria a kind of flower? No, I guess that’s wisteria.
Yeah, most of the SDMB related LJ stuff is nice because people are not anonymous. Yeah, the anonymous stuff mostly sucks. And yeah, it would be nice if there were an anonymous-type board that was well-moderated and not snark-specific, where we could discuss board politics.
All I can say, Roger, is give it a look and decide for yourself.
Personally, I find the anon communities as amusing as all hell, but I’m one of those idiots like Hamma who post there as myself.
I’ll post in the anonymous boards occasionally with my own name, usually to toss off a flip remark in response to something nasty said about me. I confess to reading it-I find it incredibly amusing, even if it is really nasty. Cranky, let’s not kid ourselves, I’ve seen people accused of being child abusers, people’s mental illnesses and personal troubles used as fodder to snark on them, making up lies about people and laughing because someone is a “fatty” or “uggo.” Granted, that’s not ALL of it, but when it gets nasty over there, it gets REALLY nasty.
It’s fun though to go there and play along when they insult you. I usually just agree with them.
But it’s not Live Journal, that’s the problem-there are plenty of LJ communities that are just for fun. The SDMB one is a good one.
Now that’s a flower.
I think that’s what a lot of us are asking for.
Far be it from me to tell anyone else how to spend his time, but I’ll just say that I’m not aware of any SDMB rules that prohibit the planting of beautiful flowers, nor does the administration discourage posters from spreading rays of golden sunshine.
I personally can’t imagine why anyone would feel the need to go anonymous and put up with a much more clunky interface, if all they had in mind were spreading joy and love.
But maybe that’s just me. And that’ll be the last I ever have to say on the topic. I hope to God.
Aw, man, so that’s why you won’t gay up my journal any more?
Nah, it’s 'cause the last time I tried to, I got a response that “Honey, my journal was already plenty gay by the time you even came out of the closet,” and my homosity wasn’t required. It was like I could even hear the fingers snapping while you said it. I had to brush a single tear off my cheek while I deleted the bookmark, then came sobbing back to the SDMB.
Why all you LJ types gotta be so mean, when you could be planting beautiful flowers?
Who’s kidding themselves? I’m not saying it doesn’t get nasty. Real nasty. I’ve seen it. I read those places.
Maybe I’m not clear–wouldn’t be the first time. I’m not defending them. I’m being **nitpicky. ** Cranky and nitpicky. Also annoying, I’m sure.
I’m just saying it’s crap to say they are NOTHING but horrible places. Why say something that isn’t true? Absolutes like that can be contradicted with a single link or screen shot. Why indulge in that sort of clothes-rending hand-wringing overstatement, when it’s the flippin’ SDMB, where we fight ignorance?
It’s a small point, one that stupidly gets bigger because some of you who probably agree with me (that once in a blue moon, something nice gets said) want to keep correcting me as if I’ve nominated its denizens for a Humanitarian Award.
I don’t let my kindergartner make B.S. superlative statements like "Mommy, you NEVER let me go to the park. " So I’m disinclined to let it go here. We’re above that. It’s my little pet peeve, perhaps mine alone, but when someone overexaggerates to make their point, it smacks of hysteria, and it galls my cranky ass to see it on a board I generally respect.
Maybe it’s just me, but if someone were spending their day slogging through the sewer ditch (to take the analogy above), I would find it hard to believe if the same person told me “I’m here for that beautiful flower that you can find once a week”. You can find beautiful flowers in other places without having to put up with the piles of excrement.
And how does one get to these live journals? Or do I really not want to know?
My guess is that LJ is where people go when they want to say worse things about folks than they can say in the Pit, and that is saying something.
2 questions: do people really have that much rage at others who don’t share their worldview? and who has time for LJ as well as SDMB?
(I can’t even read all the current threads on this board!)
Heh…the SDMB and my LJ Friends’ List are my two most-frequented websites. Everything else tends to be checked only once per day or every few days (my webcomics folder, Snopes boards, Fathom, etc.)
And you can find LiveJournal at http://www.livejournal.com
I’m not going to link directly to any of the communities because it seems a bit close to linking to other boards, so just go to a Search button and look for SDMB.
What’s with all these birds and bees and flowers metaphors? It’s starting to sound like a 4th grade sex ed class or a tampon commerical in here.
I read the anon board for entertainment and post there under my own name. I was actually quite pleased to get slammed there, in a dark attention whore sort of way.
And I just wanted to clarify that LJ, per se, has nothing to do with it. LiveJournal is a free/fee website that pretty much anyone can start a personal journal in. Pretty much anyone can also start a community journal. So there’s no way to say “This is what LiveJournal is like” and have it apply to anything more than a portion of it. There are incredibly well-written political LJs, juvenile crap-I-did-today LJs, insightful spiritual LJs, nasty anonymous community LJs, somewhat-snarky community LJs, special-interest LJs (monchichi, pokemon, Bratz, peruvian-American transsexual midgets), mundane my-job-sucks LJs, moving personal-journey LJs, etc., etc., etc.
Don’t let the descriptions of a single anonymous community make you nervous or dismissive of a great blogsite.