LHOD, thanks for the remimder that the internet is Serious Business.
Now I’m off to laugh at lolcats and watch puppies on a webcam.
The Internet is no more serious business than the telephone or the postal system or, for that matter, the vibrating air. It’s bizarre to me that some folks think the Internet has some magical quality that makes communication on it count less (or, hypothetically, more) than some other form of communication.
Shodan and Mtgman etc. make some good points. Being an asshole in one place doesn’t mean you’re an asshole in every place. I used to go to Rocky Horror Picture Show and shout the most repellent crap you could possibly imagine. That was an environment kinda like the Pit. Being a jerk there was just playtime, for the most part, and it didn’t mean I was really a jerk, since everyone knew it was just joking around. But even there it was possible to cross the line, and I know I did so on occasion; and when I did, it was actually being a jerk.
The Pit is a particular subset of the Internet, just like the Rialto Theatre is a particular subset of face-to-face meeting places. Somewhat different rules apply. But suggesting that how you behave on the Internet isn’t how you really behave is dumb: how you behave on the Internet is part of how you really behave, just like how you behave on the telephone is part of how you really behave.
Wow.
The disconnect is mind boggling.
Yeah, only the times you add a signature. 
I think the I Hate Kids thread and the UHC thread, both in the Pit, both made it to 39-40 pages. I do think you can take the lion’s share of the credit for that. It is truly an awesome accomplishment. You should be proud.
Ha ha ha ha ha! There is a fucking list! that is hilarious!
He forces Rand Rover to remove his dress shoes and coat in favor of sneakers and a sweater?
How would that work, exactly? You put up flyers around town advertising an alcohol-fueled social trainwreck, buy-a-ticket-and-I’ll-tell-you-where-it-is-p.s.-participate-at-your-own-risk?
For crying out loud. Given how many “popular”, “funny”, and “cool” members here turned out to be closet haters, sexually harassing creeps, bitchy snarkapotamii, or drunken whores at Dopefests, who knows? Maybe Rand Rover will turn out to be someone with the combined personality of Sir Alec Guinness, J. Krishnamurti, and Nathan Lane. You all could sit there for hours, sipping his Dom Pérignon, listening to his anecdotes gathered from working for National Geographic on 7 continents, and hearing him do Sinatra rat pack karaoke so fine he ends up with a recording contract by the end of the night.
That’s one of the funnier things I’ve read recently. Thanks for that!
Absolutely unfuckingpossible.
I don’t drink champagne.
[Waps kayla’sdad in the head with a wet trout]
But I will admit that I find Dopefests a bit uncomfortable. It’s not that the majority of people aren’t nice or intelligent, it’s just that some of them may know or remember certain details of your life that you don’t want to discuss in a group, others may not know you at all and others just really aren’t your thing. I’ve met some really nice people, but I always go away thinking–that was odd.
Of course, YMMV (and who is to blame for the discomfort but the person sharing the info?–a salient lesson for me, anyway). 
Back in college, my band achieved moderate local fame using exactly that method.
I hadn’t noticed that the UHC thread got that far, had to go look. I notice that my contribution to that one is really not all that high, so I just can’t see how I can take credit for it! 
OK, I just don’t want Rand Rover taking credit for it. FWIW, I think that your posts generated the most responses in that thread, so its success is largely due to the fact that everyone finds your views fascinating, though your modesty is rather gracious.
But, seriously, in the ChiDope thread, Equipoise posted this explanation of why gaffa reacted so badly to the idea of having a DopeFest with Rand Rover. RR has expressed attitudes here that made gaffa think that RR might not pay his share of the bill, or might not tip, etc. Now, maybe he’s way off base, or taking RR’s persona too seriously, but I can sort of see where he’s coming from. Having been burned by people at dinners wherein they refuse to pay their share, and where I have had to cover the difference so as not to stiff the waitstaff, and having read RR’s feelings on pooling money for a common expense, it’s not ridiculous to understand someone’s reticence to find out what his fiscal policy is in real world situations.
Of course, maybe such concerns are ridiculous, and nothing he says here about his attitude towards his and other people’s money would be relevant WRT a shared bill situation. However, what you post and the persona you form here could legitimately influence people’s desire to meet with you and share dinner with you, esp. if they’ve been burned in such situations before.
While I agree with your sentiments for the most part, I must strenuously object to the inclusion of drunken whores amongst the undesirables.
JFTR, I’m pretty sure his original thread suggesting the Chi-Dopefest didn’t say anything at all about him picking up the tab.
Which makes it a little ironic that he felt entitled to tell gaffa that he wasn’t invited.
Yeesh. The idea that my views on the proper role of the US federal government have any bearing on my ability to split a restaurant tab is completely ludicrous.
Also, people think I hate poor people just because I don’t want the US federal government to do certain things that would benefit poor people, which is also ridiculous. The liberal douches that think poor people can’t ever be anything but poor without the government’s help are the ones that hate poor people.
Honestly, though, all kidding aside, it’s more than that. The above is fare for GD. You express your views mostly in the Pit, and mostly in a much more inflammatory and often personal way than that. You present yourself as someone who really doesn’t care much for the well-being of other people, esp. those less fortunate than you are. It’s that Randian “I got mine because I’m the best; if you don’t have what I have, you must be a fucking loser” attitude, I think. That, combined with your utter inability to admit you’re wrong, and your tendency to degenerate into ad hominem at the slightest provocation, combined with the fact that you claim this is all a bullshit put on joke for you and you love that we hate you… well, is it any surprise that no one is jumping at the idea of having dinner with you?
Even the people I’ve disagreed with quite strenuously in the Pit, like Miller, I have a sense of who he is outside of that. I would not be worried about what I was going to get if I met him IRL, because I’m pretty sure he’s all right. With you? There’s a chance that you’re like the persona you present here (“here” being almost exclusively the Pit), and it seems that most people aren’t all that interested in meeting that guy.
Not saying you should care, or anything. Just saying, if you want to meet people from here for a beer, you could try being a little bit more, I don’t know, well-rounded in how you present yourself? Or just keep on with your bad self, since you find it so hilarious, but then don’t wonder why no one will have a beer with you.
It’s that we (quite rationally I believe) feel that anyone who appears to be as big an asshole as you appear to be will lack other social graces. From my own personal experience, every Objectivist/Ayn Rand follower I’ve met has been an obnoxious, self-centered jerk, and your on-line persona perfectly matches their real-life ones.
You’ve earned every bit of the loathing you get. Enjoy.