Sorry if this gets me booted, BUT…
As a new (and paid in full) poster, I bristle at the MOD suggestions about endless searches before posting. I thoroughly enjoy this interesting online community of souls, and have read through many, many archives at this site. Anyone who would actually PAY CA$H money for the relatively simple privilege of posting can’t be ALL bad. I did this because I felt this group of people shared something special, and went a bit beyond the everyday rantings of most online discussions. I always research topics before posting, and forgive me if I miss SOMETHING in the bottomless depths that the internet has become. The MOD’s own suggestive list is 76 links long! If I tirelessly and relentlessly drilled the 'net, I wouldn’t NEED the SDMB, I wouldn’t care about the opinions of these netizens, and the MOD’s would be out of their highly( :dubious: ) paid jobs. The reason I want to post is to hear the responses of my fellow SDMB-ers, enjoy their experiences, and engage in debate. I PAY FOR THIS NOW, MODs!! That said, I hope not to post questions that have been answered before, but even if they have, some topics need to be re-addressed under current circumstances (i.e. the current draft resolutions in the house and senate). As for bogging down the board, “Spare Me”; when you start CHARGING for a service, the service part is YOUR responsibility. Please keep that in mind.
You’re still new enough to know that nobody really bothers to do this.
The only time that it will get you in trouble is if you readdress an issue that was initially addressed within the past couple of weeks. And that happens quite freqeuently.
This has come up farily often in the Pit: “why do you fuckers keep posting threads wherein the answers are simple and two minutes of google would have found it?”
I’ll leave you to find those threads on your own, but wouldn’t worry about it.
As for complaining about “service…” It won’t do you any good. The answers are either, 1) “the Reader couldn’t care less” or 2) “Nobody around here could care less.”
Shit, you know how hard it is to get a hamster to smoke crack? They’re not stupid, you know. And when the server breaks down, they got to wait for another sale at Radio Shack…
For a first rant… Not bad. Some well-turned phrasing and flashes of erudition. Needs some spicing up with gratuitous scurrilities. Would be stronger if one or more particular mods were singled out for withering invective, rather than diffusing the rancor into a mod-wide swipe. The overall “I paid for this microphone, Mr. Green” theme has been done to death, but since sangfroid wasn’t around for the Great Subscription Transmogrification Brouhaha And Sobfest, the point deduction is halved.
But it ain’t nearways enough to get you booted, me bucko!
Sheesh; fourth post and I get tossed in the Pit. Surprised it took me that long! I appreciate the comments as I settle in, but no way am I searching the conversion to paid subscriptions threads. I can feel the heat waves from here, like a distant shimmer in the force. And dammit’ E/T/F, you stole one of my favorite phrases ‘withering invective’! Double-damn. Wasn’t sure how touchy the Mods are here; you know how THEY can get- what with the power to blast us all into cyber-oblivion and such. The temptation must be overwhelming! Then I would be bereft of all this witty repartee. Anyway G/Bean; I live 30 min. from Canada, claim no party designation with regards to politics (our state only requires a claim in primaries) cause they ALL seem kinda like a-holes these days (with a VERY few noted exceptions); I vote religiously, even tho’ it DOES seem pointless sometimes; and if I hear the phrase “lo-carb” ONE more fu**ing time, I am going to go batshit insane! (thanks to a prior poster here in the pit a few weeks back; delightful little couplet)
Here’s another nitpick: I paid my subscription with a Visa debit card. The funds came right out of my checking account. And there really are people in this world that pay off their credit card balances monthly.
A couplet is two rhyming lines of poetry; “batshit insane” is just a phrase. Anyway, don’t worry so much about searching the archives for prior questions. People will bitch if you ask something that someone’s asked about recently, but it happens all the time, and searching puts a heavy load on the server. It’s best if people don’t search religiously before they post anything, or the hamsters will go on strike.
Just like to point out, you can often get the Doper’s point of view on a subject, or an answer to your question via a quick search on the subject. Lots of times, I’m not looking to engage in a debate so much as I want to see what other people think, don’t need to start a whole new thread to do that.
If your topic isn’t there, isn’t answered to your satisfaction, or begs for a refresh in opinion, post away. If you post without searching, someone will often throw in a link to the old discussion, with or without a comment on your lack of search. At a minimum, at least look through the first page of the forum to see if the topic is there already, nothing more annoying than 2 or 3 threads on exactly the same topic clogging up the site.
You can phrase your OP to deflect most criticism that the theme’s been done before, simply by stating something along the lines of: “I’ve searched for THUS AND SO and not found a thread on point, so I’ll posit this: BLAH BLAH. If this has already been done, my apologies, and would someone please offer a link?”
Yeah, but cash is cash, dammit. It folds or it clinks, but it doesn’t transfer itself electronically. You paid money to join the SDMB, but you didn’t pay cash.
Well, “couplet” can refer to any two things that go together well; though I agree here it’s needlessly confusing.
And use your common sense search-wise. If it’s an obviously searchable question, say what you’ve done. If you say “I tried google, but it didn’t work because…” and “I tried the SDMB archives but…” or “This thread talked about … but I want to ask …” people will be nice.
Please keep that in mind.