WHO’S WITH ME?
crickets
Yeah, I probably should stay out of there. Factual answers? I got smart-ass, I got silly, I got off-topic - can I interest you in any of those?
I know, I know. I’m a just sucker with a big bag of feed in my pocket. But on the off chance that SW genuinely doesn’t understand:
In GQ, people ask questions to which there are factual answers. The people who respond may not have the *entire *answer, but they have some factual, verifiable, knowledge which may help in determining the answer.
So, for example, in the heart surgery thread, the OP offers some background and then asks, “Anyone know of situations like this where the outcome was good?” There are two answers to this: “Yes, I’ve heard of situtations like this with a good outcome,” and “No, I haven’t heard of a situation like this with a good outcome.” Both are facts - not possibilities, facts.
If you think about it for a moment, you realize that most people can’t really answer this question at all, because they don’t know anything about surgery. Sure, they *could *answer “No”, but that’s not very helpful. That’s like a guy asking whether anyone has ever experienced a particular prostate symptom, and a bunch of women answering, “Nope, I never have.” So you can see it makes sense to respond only if you have some relevant experience or knowledge.
And all the responses before yours, you’ll notice, are from people who have exactly that*. They’ve worked in hospitals, some for decades, and some have specific experience in the cardiac or critical care units. Therefore, they can give responses that either answer the question or offer additional information that might help find an answer, such as:
- Of the many surgeries I’ve seen, none have lasted this long.
- It sounds abnormal in my experience, but I’ve also seen people pull through some terrible things.
- Sometimes, such patients are actually not in the OR that long, but in the critical care unit.
These are *not * opinions, nor are they merely possibilites. Each one of these responses can be stated as “Here are the facts that I know…”
Your response, then, is different. Instead of offering what you *know *about these situations in general, you make a *guess *(with no basis in experience or knowlege, apparently) about what is “most likely” happening in this case, then offer what you consider “the other possibility”. Your only reason for suspecting these things is the length of the operation, even though, as far as I can tell, you have no idea how long this particular surgery usually takes, or even whether any surgery ever takes that long. Your response seems to be merely a knee-jerk reaction: Gee, that sure sounds like a long time to me, so I figure either the doctors screwed up, or they’re taking extra time on purpose.
Note that your comments could have been fine if you had prefaced them with, “I’ve performed a lot of surgeries, and I can tell you…” or, “I’ve known many people who had surgeries, some of which went badly, and in my experience…” or, “I’m a malpractice lawyer and in every case I’ve seen…” or even, “Well, my wife had knee surgery once, and it took a really long time, and we later found out that the doctors had done xyz, so…” In those cases, you wouldn’t just be guessing - you’d be speaking with some relevant knowledge or experience, even if it was just a single (and therefore, not necessarily representative) experience.
That’s why your response was not appropriate for GQ. And yes, the thread was later moved to IMHO *not *because people were offering opinions (they were not) but because there is no *single *factual answer to be reached - each person can only offer the facts and experiences they have.
But none of that has anything to do with why you were pitted. You were pitted because the OP posted an issue of serious personal concern, and you responded in a callous and offensive manner. It was offensive not only to the OP, who was looking for factual information that that could either alleviate worry or help brace for the worst, but also to all the other posters and board members who are involved in the medical profession in any way. You basically said that when something seems out of the ordinary in a medical procedure, the most likely explanation is that the doctors are doing something wrong, either on purpose or by accident.
Imagine that someone posted, “My friend’s little son has been missing for 36 hours and I’m worried for him. Has anyone heard of a kid turning up after that long?”, and you responded, “Kids are evil bastards, so he’s probably just hiding somewhere to upset her on purpose, so that she’ll spoil him when he comes back - either that or he’s been abducted by a child molester who’ll kill him when he’s done.” I hope you can see that *this *would be offensive to just about anyone reading the post, even if they’ve never met the OP or their friend.
But this is more or less what you said. And that is why you were pitted.
(*True, the first response is from someone saying basically, “I’ve heard on TV that can be bad, but that’s all I know.” That’s not necessarily helpful, but at least it’s true, and it may be something the OP didn’t know.)
I think it was still a rude post. Falling more under the “don’t be a jerk” clause than the “Ignorant opinion” sorta area.
So perhaps you should just work on that part instead, it would have been an okay comment in the Pit, or MAYBE the Great Debates, but in terms of being a Jerk, the least jerkish places one tends to see around here is in GQ and MPSIMS usually (except for the rejected pit threads that go there to die).
So if you have such rude opinions, it would have been best to save them, because in GQ it’s not really kosher to go around being a jerk and you’ll get burned MUCH quicker there than anywhere else on the boards usually.
You are a useless fucking troll and you should have been banned long, long ago.
Quit fucking crying.
I’d like to end this with just one more question, so I don’t have to do this again. Is my opinion OK to post in all other forums except GQ then? I did not ask if you wanted it, got that? I am talking about an opinion related to the OP first post in a thread too. Any more forums I do not understand?
For all these comments I am so disruptive and trollish, yet I have never started a PIT or ATMB thread, don’t call people names, even here where I could, and seem to fight only the bad moderation and have pretty normal discussion with everyone else, mostly. That does not mean agreement, just a civil discussion with everyone but mods.
Wow. He has got to be getting off so hard on all this attention.
Tell me, Silverstreak Wonder, do you actually have your hand wrapped *so tightly *around your dick that you’ve literally squeezed it off yet?
You are a troll because you troll people.
None of this is a requirement to be a troll.
This is my new goal in life: to be the person who tolls people on the SDMB.
Newsflash: If you would like to continue to participate in this thread, please remit $0.05 USD to me per post. PM for my PayPal email.
When you enter the Game Forums make sure you’re talking about some sort of gaming activity in your opinions. If you use it as a front to post your opinions about other topics or ideas other than the OP’s topic of games/choice that’ll get frowned upon.
Oh, and it’s always nice in the staff reports columns it’s always helpful if you include a link to your topic of choice- to the thread or the column. That’s ALWAYS appreciated.
Also, just watch out for the Mumpers… They’ll eat you alive like carnivorous sheep. :shudders:
Given that (as far as I can tell) you have yet to post on any topic without demonstrating a deep and fundamental misunderstanding of it, I’ll go out on a limb and guess, “Yes, there are other forums you do not understand.”
Well, if you’d just LISTEN to him…
You’re doing it wrong. 
*If you would like to PM Shot From Guns, please remit $1.00 to me per line. Paypal e-mail’s in my profile. *
You can post opinions in ATMB, Comments on Cecil’s Columns, Great Debates, Cafe Society, The Game Room, MPSIMS, and the Pit. You absolutely can not post opinions in Comments on Staff Reports, General Questions and, ironically, IMHO. All posts in those forums must be 100% factual. To be safe, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to post in those forums only in the presence of a notary, just in case you get audited.
Hope that helps!
Toe and smoke, thanks for your well thought out posts, certainly refreshing here. No, I am not a game player but yes I would stay on subject if ever in there.
I just object to this new “shut up and go away” rule group here, just because my opinions are not theirs. So they say in GQ one can’t suggest medical malpractice because it is somehow rude, and to people no one even knows in the thread. I don’t agree but will stay away. Everyone happy now?
As far as Cecil columns, many of them sound like stuff I would say. I haven’t commented because mostly I am in agreement with his long intelligent arguments and opinions. But I have not read all yet, only been reading since Oct and didn’t register till Dec. I know they will stay there so I have not been in a rush to read all of them, that is all. But glad he is able to say what his opinions are, without moderation, good for him.
Giraffe, IMHO? But this very thread being discussed was moved there, saying it was opinions by the mod. so goes there. Did you just make a typo? If not, explain why an opinion is not proper in IMHO, it says OPINION right in it? If this is true please have a mod explain it.
Want to post without being moderated? Get your own board or a blog.
Want to post on boards other people own? Follow the rules they set.
I’m not a mod, but I think I can explain it: Giraffe is pretty much just fucking with your head. This could be for any of the following reasons (or any combination thereof): 1) It’s fun. 2) It’s funny. 3) You deserve it for being such a clueless twit.
The mods don’t listen to me any more since they realized I didn’t really have a gun, it was just a picture of a gun I held up to the webcam. 
But I can explain it. IMHO was originally moderated by a single, awful moderator named TVeblen. The purpose of the forum was for people to restate her previously stated positions on various issues. Since she stepped down from moderating, it has become something of an homage, dedicated to reenacting the various conversations she’s had at different points in her life. Only after careful study and exhaustive research should one venture to add to the living tapestry of that forum. It’s true that the name is somewhat confusing, but if you’d clicked on the Ascending option of the forum Sort Order pull down and read all the posts in the forum, it would be pretty obvious that the purpose of the forum is not for the posting of your opinions. Why would anyone care about your opinions?
How dare you. Impugn my honesty and integrity one more time, and you’re going to be eating a lead sandwich. :mad:
::holds up gun to webcam::