Ban pitting other posters then, and you won’t need to. Keep the Pit for public figures and current events.
I would like to see this change. If someone has a legitimate problem with a poster, put it in ATMB and have a reasonable discussion about them rather than a non-productive pile-on of taunt filled rants in the Pit. I can understand being frustrated about another poster and wanting to blow off some steam by creating a thread to rant about them, but that strikes me as being toxic to the community.
Not at all. While that post does add value, it could be better in GD.
You can use that in any forum, as long as you do not personally insult any poster.
The thread that it was in response to was not a GD thread, and would not have lasted long enough to get to that post if it had been in GD.
This is done fairly often in the Trolls R Us thread. Yes, it’s a pain, but Discourse requires adjustment in other ways so it’s not even like it’s particularly burdensome.
Is there no way to just disable the thread linking feature?
AFAIK There are two guys that should be able to make that change, assuming it’s even possible, one doesn’t seem to care and the other doesn’t seem to like us making changes to his software.
After reading the above, my preference would be to keep the pit, and let users bark at each other and the world there, but disallow pit threads specifically started to attack another poster.
So if you feel the need to call someone a poopyhead, you’ll have to do it in the context of a discussion in the pit that they are participating in, but you can’t start a thread specifically to call that poster a poopyhead.
That solves the discourse linking problem, prevents omnibus user pile-ons, but allows for conversations in which the participants can be as nasty to each other or the world as they want to be. But attacking someone not participating in that discussion would be off limits. So if you choose to participate in the pit you’d better armor up your feelings, but if you don’t want to participate in the pit, you can’t be pitted.
What happens in the pit stays in the pit, and doesn’t spill over to the rest of the board or affect anyone who stays out.
The whole DEBATE should have been in Great Debates.
Then, we could have had a reasoned debate like adults, rather than insults like a elementary school playground.
That is a solid and informative debate subject and her post should not be buried in a forum many people refuse to be caught up in.
Only if the rules in GD allowed for calling genocide denial what it is, which it currently does not.
You say this almost like you didn’t actually participate, in the very fashion you are currently decrying, in that very thread.
No, there is a better debate to be had where pussy-footing around White fragility is not required.
Even easier:
Go to The Pit (or other forum you wish to mute)
In the upper right-hand corner is a bell icon like the one used for tracking/watching/muting threads
Click on that
Select “Muted”
Thanks. I’m not quite ready to pull the plug on the whole thing, but I think people should have the option to do so. For now I’m just muting individual threads.
I think it is significant to note that one’s presence and participation in the Pit is totally voluntary. There are many other categories here in which to participate. I don’t give up on a good restaurant just because they have a certain meal that I really dislike. I go there and simply avoid ordering the meal that I really dislike.
Please note post #105.
So, if I read you right, you think a debate consists of you making the determination of what is and is not Genocide, and being able to call anyone who disagrees with you names?
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Not to mention you seem to magically know everyones ethnicity.
True. But with the current way discourse is set up, it’s the equivalent of having that meal you hate sitting on the table next to you while you try to enjoy your food.
Just below your post in my feed for ‘related’ topics was this:
I checked, and UltraVires has not participated in that thread. I’d say his presence in the pit is not at all voluntary. He has to stare at that thread title constantly and either respond and defend himself which will generate even more attacks, or let those attacks just continue undefended and have his reputation on the board damaged.
I make no claim regarding whether the pitting is warranted, but clearly if you are disliked on this board you are going to have to deal with your name being dragged through the pit whether or not you want it.
I also think we have some people here who make it their mission to drive away people who in their opinion have ‘problematic’ views, as a form of deplatforming. If they can get one of those posters to leave the Straight Dope, it’s high fives all around.
Correct.
And of course in the Pit, you can simply lie about a posters viewpoints. This could be modded in GD.
Exactly, and that is their plan.
I actually think the SDMB is enhanced by having the Pit. It’s a unique and colorful place and can be fun. And it can be easily muted if someone doesn’t like that kind of raunchy behavior. But the one aspect of it I think detracts from the board is the unrestrained disparaging of other members.
With the restaurant analogy, it would be like going to a restaurant where there’s a rowdy back patio where people are being as salty as they like ranting about random stuff, but you could easily sit in a part of the restaurant where you couldn’t hear them and ignore it. But I think most people would feel uncomfortable if that back patio was ranting and disparaging people in the restaurant. Even if someone sat someplace they couldn’t hear them, everyone else can still hear them talking about that person in the far corner with the weird hat who orders weird stuff and smells weird and they think is stupid. The other people in the restaurant all know who they are talking about and are forming opinions about the person in the corner based on what everyone on the back patio is saying. Even if they aren’t disparaging you personally, you may still feel uncomfortable being in an environment where that is tolerated.
Apt analogy.