Disagree. Fighting ignorance is this board’s mission. There are better places on the internet for other goals.
Fighting ignorance gives focus to conversation and moderation.
Often it’s pretty clear when a new poster has no interest in fighting ignorance. I’m not saying they should be subject to gratuitous abuse. But bad behavior shouldn’t be enabled either.
Self-selection, self-sorting, and a willingness or ability to abide by the rules is the decision making process.
One of which is “no socks”.
Honestly, I just can’t see how you can type this with a straight face. Do you not see how unbearably* pompous* that is? “Fighting ignorance since 1973–It’s taking longer than we thought” is just a catchphrase for the books and columns. It was dreamed up by one of the Cecils, probably one who came before Zotti, and probably it took him a moment to think of it. It’s a nice tagline for an “Ask the answer man” type of column, but it was never intended to be a serious mission statement.
The board’s mission is to pass the time by bickering and shooting the shit. The only forum for which “fighting ignorance” remotely applies is GQ. Maybe sometimes CS or Game room when someone has a factual question about a movie or a sports rule.
The twin goals of the SDMB are fighting ignorance and making wisecracks. Specialization in one or the other is permitted.
The core of this message board is actually GQ and Comments on Cecil’s Columns. I think it’s fair to say that the conversation is structured in those 2 venues. As it is in others.
FTR: Zotti invented the slogan when Cecil broke onto the internet.
Well, Larry joined 7 months before you did, Measure, so his opinion counts more.
I’m positive I saw it on the books and columns before there even was an internet. Will double check after I get home.
Wait what happened?
I can’t find it in my Straight Dope books from the 1980s.
Here’s my cite:
I dunno but SDSAB member Una Persson doesn’t post here anymore.
Come on man, really? 11+ trans people don’t know how to scroll past a moron posting moronic things?
Her profile shows activity for today, though true she hasn’t posted since February, but I’ve gone a year without posting before and it had nothing to do with offensive posts.
Una’s signature: “I’m with Eve - the kid-glove handling of anti-transgender trolls on here drove us away.”
Ah ok gotcha, My original post was just wondering where this 11+ figure came from. It seems kind of odd to say you were driven away if you’re still logging in and presumably reading though. I could be driven away if this place got boring but I don’t think offense would do it.
OK, fine. I really do remember seeing it earlier, but I guess this is my alternate ending to Big moment. “Ignorance fought!” is I what I guess I should say.
But it still doesn’t detract from my larger point, which is that it’s absurd to take “Fighting Ignorance” as some kind of grandiose mission statement. It’s still just a tagline, like “Coke: It’s the real thing” or “McDonald’s: I’m loving it.”
I guess they kept in touch somehow? Eve hasn’t posted here in 6 years and she doesn’t seem to announce her reason for leaving in any of her last few posts.
Sorry, just meant Pit, unintentional.
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My guess is it was more of a cumulative thing; the anti-trans trolling combined with the seemingly impenetrable wall of ignorance she (and they) faced on a regular basis when trying to shed some understanding on the reality of their lives. You can only repeat yourself so many times before it becomes an act of masochism.
“Driven away” meaning, to my ears, to disengage from posting. And you don’t see yourself getting offended enough about any subject to stop posting because no subject has the personal intimacy, as well as astronomical misunderstanding and ostracization that transgenderism has for people like Una.
Fair enough. I can see how that would be maddening.
If that isn’t an accurate summation of the majority of this thread, I don’t know what is.