# Recent SDMB peeves, major and minor **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 21, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671 "2005-12-21T19:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/101 "2005-12-23T09:30:28Z")
Oh damn. Didn’t see that my stalker had taken it upon himself to explain my motivations to you. My bad; ignore my response. Daniel, you want my password, or you just wanna \*play \*sock monkey? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/102 "2005-12-23T09:41:23Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Normally I’d be with him on this: I’m not a big fan of saying that a word’s use is incorrect. However, when: > > 1. A fellow’s using a scientific word, and Right. Like “theory,” or “gravity,” or “momentum,” that only have one narrowly defined scientific usage and have not evolved non-scientific usages in a wider context. > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > 1. It’s not the way scientists use it, and And I’ll remember to correct myself the next time I describe an actor’s performance as “electric” because that’s not how a scientist would use that word. > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > 1. It’s impeding communication, and This is a matter of opinion that would not be unanimously held around here. Do a search of the word for other such usages. > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > 1. He’s using it to insult other people’s intelligence, You’ve lost me on that. I used to describe a dishonest debating technique. If you felt that light was shined upon you, that’s your conscience speaking. (I didn’t specifically have you in mind, though now that you mention it I can think of two instances off the top of my head where it would apply.) > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > then it irritates me. > > Daniel Dude, you crack me up with your bizarre fixation and predisposition to irritation on my account. I hope you can find a way to some peace. Stop thinking about me; might be a place to start. Maybe medi[t/c]ation. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/103 "2005-12-23T09:47:50Z")
How about when you post a thread asking a factual question, and instead of answering the question, all the subsequent posters just joke around. I’m all for lame attempts at humor, but how about you contribute something of worth first before indulging yourself? Thanks a lot for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/104 "2005-12-23T13:26:53Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Because a word is defined by usage, not be fiat, and there are others besides myself who have used that word in the same way that I used it. In fact, the reason I used that word in that way is BECAUSE I have seen it used in that way; my understanding of its meaning was based on its usage. Can I just chime in here and say that I agree. I have, in fact, used the word “meme” with three different senses in the last 36 hours: 1. The strictly Dawkinsian meaning (hell, I even used the word “memeplex!”), 2. **lissener** ’s “viral factoid” sense, and 3. in the livejournal sense of “dumb list passed as chainletter down your friends list” e.g. “12 facts no-one knows about you” or “books currently on your bedside table”. More properly an “internet meme”, I think, but sometimes just “meme” in shorthand. A subset of (3) includes those “design your \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ character graphic” thingies, where the blank could be South Park, KoTOR, whatever. How do I keep these disparate meanings apart _without going mad_, you ask? _ **Context** _, says I. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/105 "2005-12-23T19:08:30Z")
I’d like to add posters who take themselves way too seriously and apparently have no sense of humor whatsoever. **Lissener** , I’m looking in your direction . . . ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/106 "2005-12-23T19:26:23Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > … Finally, in [this thread about King Kong](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=350511), someone complained about a scene seeming unrealistic and implausible, and someone else said “the movie’s about a 25-foot monkey, and you’re complaining about it being implausible?” Which is a STUPID STUPID STUPID thing to say. Many, many movies (along with books and stories of other sorts) present worlds which are not our own, and in which there are different rules about what can and can not exist. Should we be forbidden from pointing out logical inconsistencies, stupid coincidences, violations of common sense, or dumb plotholes in any such work, just because there is a fantastical element to it? I don’t know what went on in that thread, but this is the most asinine argument an individual can make. Every novel, movie, poem or tv show creates a world. It is different from the real world. It still has to be internally consistent. Rules of logic still apply. You can argue that some sequence actually does make sense in the context of the narrative, but you can’t say that it has no need to. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/107 "2005-12-23T20:06:38Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > I’d like to add posters who take themselves way too seriously and apparently have no sense of humor whatsoever. **Lissener** , I’m looking in your direction . . . And the countdown begins…when will **lissener** attack you, **Knorf**? **lissener** , take a deep breath and re-read your responses. You have gone waaaay overboard, IMHO. I get the feeling you are a really passionate person, and it gets you in trouble. Learn when to back off, and you will be amazed at how much happier you will be. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/108 "2005-12-23T21:03:08Z")
Maybe he’s trying to piss off his audience. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/109 "2005-12-23T22:49:36Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > And the countdown begins…when will **lissener** attack you, **Knorf**? > > **lissener** , take a deep breath and re-read your responses. You have gone waaaay overboard, IMHO. I get the feeling you are a really passionate person, and it gets you in trouble. Learn when to back off, and you will be amazed at how much happier you will be. Thanks. I’ll try to remember to dial down my “passion” when someone makes personal attacks larded through with dishonesties, if you’ll re-read my posts with an eye toward content rather than tone. I envy Dorkness’s ability to be dishonest and malicious with a seamless front of ducklike calm, especially since tone is given so much more credibility here than content. I’m not that good at disguising my emotions in order to squeak unfair play under the radar. I’ll practice. How’m I doin’? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/110 "2005-12-23T23:18:06Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > And the countdown begins…when will **lissener** attack you, **Knorf**? And another thing – 🆒 – this is kind of exactly what I was talking about. Please provide cites where I have “attacked” (with the connotation that I was not actually defending from a prior attack) another poster egregiously. This is actually one of the exact \*memes \* I had in mind when I made my initial contribution to this thread. I readily admit that I am easily ruffled and quick on the defensive. But I honestly think that I can count on one hand the times–in over 7,000 posts–that I have “started” a fight, or “attacked” someone who had not offensively attacked me first. Not that “he started it” is a validation of my behavior, but to characterize me as a first-striker is exactly the kind of “viral factoid” that I was referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/111 "2005-12-23T23:28:39Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > And another thing – 🆒 – this is kind of exactly what I was talking about. Please provide cites where I have “attacked” (with the connotation that I was not actually defending from a prior attack) another poster egregiously. This is actually one of the exact \*memes \* I had in mind when I made my initial contribution to this thread. > > I readily admit that I am easily ruffled and quick on the defensive. But I honestly think that I can count on one hand the times–in over 7,000 posts–that I have “started” a fight, or “attacked” someone who had not offensively attacked me first. Not that “he started it” is a validation of my behavior, but to characterize me as a first-striker is exactly the kind of “viral factoid” that I was referring to. Dude, your post is my cite. 🆒 This overly defensive crap is exactly what I was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/112 "2005-12-24T00:04:02Z")
WOULD YOU ASSHOLES SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT "MEME’ ALREADY? Start another thread or get a fucking motel room or something. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/113 "2005-12-24T00:55:18Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > Dude, your post is my cite. 🆒 This overly defensive crap is exactly what I was talking about. So . . . you equate an overly energetic defense against an attack with an offensive attack to the degree that you admonish the defender–to the point that you presume he will in fact be attacking others–rather than admonishing the initial attacker? If you acknowledge that my transgression is entirely defensive, where do you come up with the warning to Knorf that I will shortly be “attacking” him? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/114 "2005-12-24T01:00:29Z")
And your “cite” that I egregiously \*attack \*people (your word) is my followup defense to that accusation? Seriously, please provide a cite that I tend to egregiously attack people or consider offering an apology, or at least a withdrawal. Simply repeating the “viral factoid” that lissener egregiously attacks people without stepping up to the responsibility of supporting this accusation with cites is extremely irresponsible. Before you admonish me not to be so defensive, take a moment to imagine what it feels like to be on my side of such a baseless, but frequently repeated, untruth. Why in the hell do you think I’m defensive? ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/115 "2005-12-24T04:15:35Z")
Ok. What I meant is that you tend to get very defensive and attack anyone who dares to say anything negative about you. You call that defense, I call it attack\*. A more reasonable person would have said something like “Huh. That is not what I think meme means.” You, on the other hand, went batshit, just like you are doing with me. Do you not see that? Do you not think you are going overboard right now? Don’t you think the multiple posts are a bit much? Look, I don’t want to argue. I was just trying to help you see how you are behaving in THIS thread. I don’t know about any damn meme about you (God, I hate that word!). I don’t know who you are. You aren’t on my radar. If you think this is about some reputation you have, it isn’t–at least not from me. All I even think I know about you is that you cook a lot, but no one could come to your Thanksgiving dinner. - For god’s sake, please don’t argue about the meaning of the word “attack”. If I should have said “Watch out, Knorf, he will come be defensive now!” I apologize heartily. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/116 "2005-12-24T05:00:40Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > Ok. What I meant is that you tend to get very defensive and attack anyone who dares to say anything negative about you. You call that defense, I call it attack\*. A more reasonable person would have said something like “Huh. That is not what I think meme means.” You, on the other hand, went batshit, just like you are doing with me. Do you not see that? This is batshit? > [@lissener](#): > > Right. Because logic always works against malice and rumor. > > And I’m not a huge fan of the word myself, but none of your suggested alternatives are more accurate. The word “meme” contains a hint of “urban legend”–a non fact repeated frequently enough to be taken as fact. Is there a better word that includes that connotation? Is it possible that “batshit” is an overstatement, just like “attack” when you mean “defend” is an overstatement? (Do you also think that saying “I call it attack” gets you a pass on using a loaded accusational word like “attack” when you really, you say now, meant “get defensive”? > [@Brynda](#): > > Do you not think you are going overboard right now? Don’t you think the multiple posts are a bit much? Multiple posts are not a sign of batshit; they are a sign of a fragmented attention while trying to two things at once. THey’re also more focusing on context as an excuse to ignore content. As far as me “going overboard,” I have already acknowledged being defensive on this issue because I’m just tired of sitting quietly by and allowing this dishonest \*meme \*to be irresponsibly repeated as factual by people like you and Dorkness. I make no promises to stop defending myself against dishonesty. All I’m doing is asking you to back up your accusations with a cite. All you’re doing is not providing one. Is it that inconceivable to you that someone would respond to multiple and pervasive attacks on his character, when those attacks are demonstrably untrue, by being defensive? > [@Brynda](#): > > Look, I don’t want to argue. I was just trying to help you see how you are behaving in THIS thread. Ahh. My fault. I failed to interpret this– > [@Brynda](#): > > And the countdown begins…when will lissener attack you, Knorf? –as “helping me see.” > [@Brynda](#): > > I don’t know about any damn meme about you (God, I hate that word!). I don’t know who you are. You aren’t on my radar. If you think this is about some reputation you have, it isn’t–at least not from me. All I even think I know about you is that you cook a lot, but no one could come to your Thanksgiving dinner. So . . . you dropped in here just to warn another poster that I’m going to “attack” him (though you actually meant “get defensive”) based on my Thanksgiving plans. Is that really all the responsibility you’re willing to take for your words? > [@Brynda](#): > > - For god’s sake, please don’t argue about the meaning of the word “attack”. If I should have said “Watch out, Knorf, he will come be defensive now!” I apologize heartily. If you had said that, I would have rolled my eyes and moved on. It’s still inflammatory, and childish, and accusing someone of doing something they have not yet done, and serves no purpose beyond trying to start something while trying (unsuccessfully) to maintain deniability. I don’t care if this is the Pit: if you’re going to accuse another Doper of a specific transgression, you’re going to need to support that accusation. Backing out by going “that’s not really what I meant; I really meant the opposite, and besides I don’t know you from Adam” doesn’t cut it. Here’s the thing. I’m through politely swallowing dishonest smears on my character. I ignored them for a long time, but they continued to grow, until now they’ve reached the status of presumed factuality. (To be \*wildly \*melodramatic, I have in effect been swiftboated here. Don’t worry, I’m not delusional; the parallel I draw is in the technique, not the scale of the importance of the issues.) So I’m going to try not to let it get out of hand. But I’m going to point it out when it happens from now on; I’m going to insist on cites for any such blanket attacks on my character. So Brynda, don’t use the word “attack” unless you mean “attack.” K? ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/117 "2005-12-24T07:41:16Z")
Since when is Dawkins arbiter of the English lexicon? His term got coopted, turned into something useful instead just an element of his own bullshit philosophy. Boo-fuckin’-hoo. ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/118 "2005-12-24T07:55:04Z")
gotcha ya! ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/119 "2005-12-24T09:42:50Z")
> [@Squee](#): > > I did in fact read this whole thread, but I failed to see this mentioned: > > Anyone who says “Google is your friend”. > > No, a friend is someone I play golf with, or go see a movie with. Google is a fucking search engine. > > Ok, lame post, but it still irks me like no other. > Oh, actually one more… Firefox over IE advocates. People who spout this as the best thing since sliced bread. Little do they know since it’s been gaining popularity, it also has been gaining security vulnerabilities. So much for security by obscurity. People, if you are going to advocate something, please at least be informed about the topic you advocating. Parrotting something you heard somewhere should not be used as evidence to make your arguement. You are, of course, going to provide cites for your assertion that Firefox ‘has been gaining security vulnerabilities’.? Each time Secunia issues an advisory concerning a Firefox vulnerability (and, of course, there have been a few) Mozilla instantly fixes it FF is still, by far, the most secure browser out there. Oh, and one of my pet peeves? People who say ‘little do they know’. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671/120 "2005-12-24T14:51:32Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > …snip… > Each time Secunia issues an advisory concerning a Firefox vulnerability (and, of course, there have been a few) Mozilla instantly fixes it FF is still, by far, the most secure browser out there…snip… I mentioned earlier that I do okay with IE and use it almost exclusively. (Job related need to do so) However, as an IT professional I recognize that FireFox when kept up to date is still more secure than IE when kept up to date. IE also becomes porous the minute the stupid Yahoo! toolbar or Weather Bug is loaded. I waste quite a bit of time killing these “Malware” enablers. No browser is secure if not kept up to date. So use IE if you keep it clean & up to date and want maximum capability. Use FireFox and keep it up to date if you want Maximum security and functionality. Jim [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-sdmb-peeves-major-and-minor/336671.md?page=7)