# Skald the Rhymer is annoying **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 8, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631 "2012-07-08T21:22:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/181 "2018-05-20T01:04:24Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I like hypotheticals when there’s a point to them. My issue with them is that they seem unnecessarily convoluted and contrived, and each time I seem to sniff some sort of hidden agenda lurking behind them. Plus I am a strong believer in Taking the Third Option (c.f. the Kobayasi Maru), but the way that they’re phrased (and polled natch) seems to obviate such creative options. Real life is rarely that restrictive. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/182 "2018-05-20T01:05:36Z")
> [@Skypist](#): > > If voicing my dislike of his threads is “bullying,” then I guess I’m being bullied when others disagree with me, too. :dubious: I’m not talking about you or people saying he is annoying. Why the fuck would you think I was? I am specifically talking about the people who are bringing up falsehoods in order to attack him. I am talking about people who claim that Skald always posts all these lurid fantasies, when most of his threads are not like that at all. I am talking about the people who took a steaming dump by posting something that was posted in 2011 about something that happened even before that, without revealing any intervening attempts to make things right. I’m talking about the assholes who hold a grudge and use confirmation bias to assert the guy is a horrible person, and then attack him, even outside the Pit. I couldn’t respond appropriately in the threads in question, and didn’t want to give any trolls the attention they craved by pitting them, so now I’m doing it here. And even then I went out of my way to once again give the benefit of the doubt. I allowed one more time for the idea that they just aren’t aware that Skald is different now, because they’ve been avoiding his threads. But that’s where I draw the line. After that post (and the similar but less heated one in the original threads), you either clearly care about the facts or you don’t. And, if you don’t, you’re just a bully lying to try and turn everyone against someone you don’t like. And, again, in case you missed in the first time, I am not talking about people who just think he’s annoying. If you find him annoying, fine. But I will not take people LYING about someone to attack them. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/183 "2018-05-20T01:08:38Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’ve read his hypotheticals for years, off and on. This pattern people are seeing of creepiness? I haven’t seen it. Anyone want to show that the pattern actually exists, and isn’t just a bunch of snarking about him for reasons? > > If it exists (now, not a decade ago), then it seems appropriate to call him out for it **when he’s engaging in the pattern** , and not when he’s not. Writing a story about a bunch of lesbians isn’t especially creepy IMO: there’s nothing salacious about the latest hypothetical. Edit: okay, he says they’re all “cute (very),” and mentions a “drunken late-night kiss”. On a creepometer of 1-10, that’s maybe a 1. [This thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20924708&postcount=1) from less than a month ago contains an out of nowhere gratuitous description of gang rape/abuse porn that has nothing to do with the question raised, and there is no context or warning or any indication that his post would contain things of an upsetting nature. [This post](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13352505&postcount=12) contains a breakdown of Skald’s behavior in the then active chat rooms of the some of the Dope splinter boards. Said behavior included asking women to imagine themselves as the victim of gang rape, and what they would do in a horrific scenario. That would’ve been 10ish years ago. His fixation with gang rape does not seem to have gone away, judging from the first thread I linked above. Both these links have been shared a few times now. So, is a month ago recent enough? Although I’m not sure why the behavior from 10 years ago is somehow considered irrelevant. Creepsters rarely change their ways. Skald clearly hasn’t, although some Dopers will fight tooth and nail to preserve the fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/184 "2018-05-20T01:10:03Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Has **Skald** ever claimed his hypotheticals were commentaries or meant to educate? Has he ever done so successfully? So your problem with him is that the ethical quandaries he creates in his free time are not as Weighty and Relevant as those created by a team of professional writers in a triple-A game release? > [@](#): > > His blindness shtick is part of it as well: Regardless of whether he is blind, he doesn’t have to make it known, and certainly doesn’t have to post about it to the extent he has, but the fact it _is_ known garners him defenders and gives him something to retreat into to reduce culpability. And That’s Creepy. Fuck that. People tell about their lives all the time around here. It’s dumb to say that he’s sharing too much, especially when what he’s sharing specifically impacts how he posts. What a ridiculous thing to get weird about. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/185 "2018-05-20T01:15:01Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > My issue with them is that they seem unnecessarily convoluted and contrived, and each time I seem to sniff some sort of hidden agenda lurking behind them. > > Plus I am a strong believer in Taking the Third Option (c.f. the Kobayasi Maru), but the way that they’re phrased (and polled natch) seems to obviate such creative options. Real life is rarely that restrictive. Push polling is a particular problem with hypotheticals, and is predicated on premeditation of political positions and pushing away proposals which the presumptuous pollster finds problematic. Now that I’ve taken the Ps, I’ll say that _good_ hypotheticals are guilty of the same sin because, otherwise, people will duck the question and, therefore, not think through the underlying issue. The trolley is always going to go down one track or the other, never derail, never slow down because you tarred the tracks, and never do anything else _but_ kill one person or five people depending on whether you pull a lever. But amusing hypotheticals are, well, meant to amuse, and third options can frequently be quite amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/186 "2018-05-20T01:16:42Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > So your problem with him is that the ethical quandaries he creates in his free time are not as Weighty and Relevant as those created by a team of professional writers in a triple-A game release? I admit that it’s a low bar, but, from all I’ve read, he fails to clear it. > [@](#): > > Fuck that. People tell about their lives all the time around here. It’s dumb to say that he’s sharing too much, especially when what he’s sharing specifically impacts how he posts. What a ridiculous thing to get weird about. It isn’t about him sharing details of his life, it’s about him or others using those details to exculpate him in an irrelevant fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/187 "2018-05-20T01:18:52Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Nah, the creepiness stems from him gratuitously making all the three women hot and emphasizing this fact in conjunction with their lesbianism. Not that there is anything wrong with having characters be attractive but if there’s no relevance to the plot, then that kind of emphasis indicates an undisciplined imagination might be competing with his storytelling skills. In the latest episode, I see that as integral to the plot. Make the lovers heterosexual, and you bring in male/female issues into it. Same sex relationships simplify in that manner, something that I haven’t seen explored in Western fiction, though I see some of it in manga from Japan. Don’t believe me? Swap out the genders in Skald’s latest. The feel of story changes, whatever your reactions are to allegedly hot lesbians in print. Is it relevant that April and May find each other attractive? Sure, because that increases the stakes within fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/188 "2018-05-20T01:19:00Z")
Font changes by me (or however the rule now works about quote boxes) > [@BigT](#): > > I’m not talking about you or people saying he is annoying. Why the fuck would you think I was? > > I am specifically talking about the people who are bringing up falsehoods in order to attack him. I am talking about people who claim that Skald always posts all these lurid fantasies, when most of his threads are not like that at all. I am talking about the people who took a steaming dump by posting something that was posted in 2011 about something that happened even before that, without revealing any intervening attempts to make things right. > > I’m talking about the assholes who hold a grudge and use confirmation bias to assert the guy is a horrible person, and then attack him, even outside the Pit. I couldn’t respond appropriately in the threads in question, and didn’t want to give any trolls the attention they craved by pitting them, so now I’m doing it here. > > And even then I went out of my way to once again give the benefit of the doubt. I allowed one more time for the idea that they just aren’t aware that Skald is different now, because they’ve been avoiding his threads. > > But that’s where I draw the line. After that post (and the similar but less heated one in the original threads), you either clearly care about the facts or you don’t. And, if you don’t, you’re just a bully lying to try and turn everyone against someone you don’t like. > > And, again, in case you missed in the first time, I am not talking about people who just think he’s annoying. If you find him annoying, fine. But I will not take people LYING about someone to attack them. BigTard: making sure the thread remains all about the only thing BigTard cares about: BigTard. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/189 "2018-05-20T01:37:59Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > In the latest episode, I see that as integral to the plot. Make the lovers heterosexual, and you bring in male/female issues into it. Same sex relationships simplify in that manner, something that I haven’t seen explored in Western fiction, though I see some of it in manga from Japan. > > Don’t believe me? Swap out the genders in Skald’s latest. The feel of story changes, whether your feelings are about allegedly hot lesbians. It’s not the lesbianism that is gratitutious; it’s the hackneyed HOT LESBIAN ACTION trope being appealed to. > [@](#): > > Is it relevant that April and May find each other attractive? Sure, because that increases the stakes within fiction. April and May can find each other attractive without the narrator referencing their looks in a rather male gaze kind of way. Look, I’m not saying it’s the creepiest thing cometh, but there is some reason to find it a tad creepy is all I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/190 "2018-05-20T01:50:28Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > In the latest episode, I see that as integral to the plot. Make the lovers heterosexual, and you bring in male/female issues into it. Same sex relationships simplify in that manner, something that I haven’t seen explored in Western fiction, though I see some of it in manga from Japan. > > Don’t believe me? Swap out the genders in Skald’s latest. The feel of story changes, whatever your reactions are to allegedly hot lesbians in print. > > Is it relevant that April and May find each other attractive? Sure, because that increases the stakes within fiction. Holy crap, are you for real? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/191 "2018-05-20T02:16:21Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Look, I’m not saying it’s the creepiest thing cometh, but there is some reason to find it a tad creepy is all I’m saying. ## Some reason to find it a tad? I can sign off on that. Look Larry, I don’t read a lot of Skald threads. Yes, I do read Japanese manga. Yes, there is wholly non-pornographic Japanese manga that has same-sex tropes that are made for heterosexual audiences. Most of it happens to be written primarily for women, but some of it has more of a mixed gender audience. Not sure what to say here. The genre is called Yuri, and as it happens I don’t read a lot of it. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/192 "2018-05-20T02:47:35Z")
Damn. I guess in Lord Skald’s er, _condition_, I’ll have to be the one to unleash the cybernetic zombie dogs of war upon these foul pitters. With the nanotech bedbug suicide drones on reserve. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/193 "2018-05-20T02:53:04Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > BigTard: making sure the thread remains all about the only thing BigTard cares about: BigTard. “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.” ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/194 "2018-05-20T02:53:10Z")
You folks are awfully harsh on BigT. I don’t always agree with him or his style but you can’t deny that he usually sticks to his principles. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/195 "2018-05-20T03:03:02Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > You folks are awfully harsh on BigT. I don’t always agree with him or his style but you can’t deny that he usually sticks to his principles. He has no principles. He has personal whims, which he thinks are God and Nature’s Laws, written in stone and woe betide any normal human being who disagrees with the Grand Writ of BigTard. He doesn’t look to philosophy, the Bible, the Constitution, normal human behavior for his starting point, he looks at how it makes him feel, deep down. For instance: coerced sex/rape is WRONG. Y’know why? It makes BigTard feel like **he** wants to vomit. The basement-dwelling troll is more self-centered than a gyroscope. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/196 "2018-05-20T04:12:32Z")
I don’t see how I missed out on this ongoing online creepy-bordering-on-sexual-sexual harassment all these years. I mainly find Skald’s hypotheticals too confusing to follow. I have to draw algorithms and make diagrams, but still can’t figure them out. It’s like trying to keep up with a teenage girl’s stream-of-consciousness gossip done in vocal fry and mistaking her emotional state. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/197 "2018-05-20T04:42:16Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > You folks are awfully harsh on BigT. I don’t always agree with him or his style but you can’t deny that he usually sticks to his principles. Sticking to your principles isn’t necessarily a good trait. What if your principles are shitty ones? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/198 "2018-05-20T05:03:31Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > ## Some reason to find it a tad? I can sign off on that. > > Look Larry, I don’t read a lot of Skald threads. Yes, I do read Japanese manga. Yes, there is wholly non-pornographic Japanese manga that has same-sex tropes that are made for heterosexual audiences. Most of it happens to be written primarily for women, but some of it has more of a mixed gender audience. > > Not sure what to say here. The genre is called Yuri, and as it happens I don’t read a lot of it. Okay. First of all, no one cares about obscure genres of _Hentai_. If that’s what gets you off, cool, but for the love of any God, please don’t share that on the board. Secondly Hypotheticals are actually pretty cool ways at poking at questions of law and ethics. It’s all cool. If people don’t like them, they can leave. But that isn’t what people are complaining about, is it? They are complaining about Skald writing sado-porn in the guise of hypotheticals. So don’t argue about the merits of hypo’s, argue about your defense of sadistic pornography. There is an old British military maxim. “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.” If Skald had one hypothetical featuring a woman being sexually abused and humiliated, OK. Weird, but all things must be considered. Two hypos, perhaps it’s a coincidence. Three, he has a fetish. SEVEN!? Oh. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/199 "2018-05-20T05:15:08Z")
Thanks for coming back Larry, because I couldn’t tell what the hell you were talking about last time. Let’s review. Yuri isn’t obscure in Japan and it’s not a genre of hentai, ok? Are we clear? Also, I don’t see a lot of sado-porn in Skald’s latest work. Neither does LHOD. Neither does iiandyiiii. Skald’s critics have consistently evaded speaking about his latest, instead linking to a 10 year old post made by someone which admittedly described some pretty appalling off board behavior by Skald. Yes, once is an incident, twice is a coincidence and three times is an enemy action. But you know what we have among Skald’s critics of his latest thread? _Projection_. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631/200 "2018-05-20T05:16:51Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Damn. I guess in Lord Skald’s er, _condition_, I’ll have to be the one to unleash the cybernetic zombie dogs of war upon these foul pitters. > > With the nanotech bedbug suicide drones on reserve. Jesus Cougar Mellencamp! He’s only legally blind not quadraplegic. He can still push buttons. Even if at random and accidentally unleashes all the beasts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skald-the-rhymer-is-annoying/627631.md?page=11)