Slight Disappointment

In My Humble Opinion
1

Just checked to be sure - I have been following the SDMB very closely for the last 2 months. I do admit this is not a long enough time to come up with generalizations, but i feel that with every passing day, it resembles real life more than the day before.

I am addicted to all the wisdom and wit in this place, but the things that happened in the last few weeks that resulted in the banning of quite a few posters - some more famous than others on the boards but that is not an important point - have just made this place seem to me to be a replica of real life.

I mean there was no wit and not much wisdom in some of the debates that turned so ugly that some of the participants ended up getting banned. There was no wit or wisdom in troling for people’s sympathy in the most shameful/shameless [sub]I can’t decide which fits best.[/sub] way conceivable. And again no wisdom or wit ,n being a complete asshole or completely incoherent in posting.

People I am sure know who these guys are, and I am also sure that there are many people here that share my opinion.
Who needs to spend time on a message board that represents real life on a one to one scale? Despite I made some claims that some posters do not seem to have a life, I actually do know that everybody here does have a life, and we spend a lot of time here because this place offers us something that real life does not.

The maiin attraction the SDMB has for me is the high concentration of wit and wisdom, and the high level of intellect & intelligence.

Guys, I think we all need to make a harder effort to keep this place special. Maybe we should think twice - or even three times - before posting something, and when we decide our comments are ready to be posted, we should try to find a way to rephrase it yet again.

It’s no big deal to be a jerk, or meet an army of jerks anywhere in the world.

I say let’s keep up the good work, in fact work even harder at not being jerks, and let our wit and wisdom show in our posts. There is no point in hiding them for the sake of modesty and then still posting anyway :slight_smile:

[sub]Was this worth $0.02??[/sub]

2

Hell man, it was worth a whole nickle. Well said.

:wink:

3

Yeah, it was easily worth the two cents, but don’t get your hopes up about it accomplishing anything. Unfortunately, there is a type of individual who thinks that using the same obscenity four times in three lines is wit and wisdom is a me-too thread discribing bodily functions.

These are people who see SDMB as their only soap box. No one will listen to their rantings in “real life” so they subject others to them here, and they think that their lack of popularity is proof of their intelligence.

Our predecessors at SDMB have created a society here, to be sure, but it is subject to the same egos, flaws and foibles that all societies are. We will never be a utopia. Like other societies, we are only as good as the people who make us up, and unfortunately those people are human.

Still I, like you, can hope.

TV

4

That is right, but I was not referring to the wit and wisdom as virtues in themselves.
Of course all the dopers are human, of course we all have egos, flaws and foibles…But, I do believe that witty expression and some wisdom can do wonders in expressing ourselves - in whatever we want to say. And brightness does not always have to show in the content of the message. Only the style can make a huge difference, and that is also very important.

5

Yeah, utopia is impossible. That’s not an excuse for letting the jerks run wild and free with absolutely no restrictions whatsoever. (I wish other message board moderators would realize this.)

It never ceases to irk me to hear “free speech” bandied about ad nauseum to rationalize complete wastes of bandwith. Look, clue-frees, you’re in someone else’s house, and while you’re there you gotta follow their rules. The moderators of the SDMB want an environment conducive to intelligent discussion without the constant threat of flaming. Fine by me; that’s exactly what I want as well.

And remember, no one gets banned without a good reason. Try to control yourself on the next board, all right?

6

Utopia may be impossible to reach but that’s no reason to cease striving for it.

Conanti corona

We have a wonderful community here. I occasionally find it disappointing that some people indulge in character assasination or vent in a way that only truly displays insensitivity to other’s feelings.

There are times when this wonderful board displays an intolerance that is directly opposed to what I thought it stood for. And no, I’m not speaking out against the mods (god bless 'em I say) or the recent soap opera (damn you for creating an air of doubt in genuine hearts - ever hear the Cry Wold story? Someone else may suffer for your stupid jollies).

If I could ask one thing of posters is that they consider other people’s feelings as well as their own.

Peace all.

7

Well said, Watermelon Man.

The biggest reason, I think, that you see such ugly behavior on message boards (as well as in chat rooms and in newsgroups) is that people post with their hearts, not their minds. A well-reasoned debate is born of the mind but achieves adolescence in the heart. There’s nothing wrong with being passionate about a subject, but when the focus of your argument stops being your particular issue and begins to be a person espousing an opposing point of view, your faculty for logic suffers a mortal blow.

And my own $.02 - Many people engage in debate, I think, not to convince others of their position (which is the whole point of a debate) but to simply bray about their position. You don’t often see “I can see your point” statements in these debates. Many times, it simply becomes a virtual pissing contest; when that happens, that’s when you see more of those ugly personal attacks.