I’ll probably end up resubscribing somewhere down the line, but for now I’m going to let it expire.
A lot of different reasons, a big one being that I’m just spending way too much time here.
The Tubadiva incident was disappointing, but the real last straw was looking at yet another political debate and realizing that I’ve read the exact same endless cycle of crap a hundred times before in a hundred other threads and that it was never, ever going to change. There are simply too few hours in the day to spend them wading through shit, so I’m hanging it up for now.
As I said, I’ll probably be back at some point, but 'til then, see you around.
…including non-political threads. If the endless “Bush sux/no he doesn’t” circle-jerk were confined to one forum (or better-one thread) it wouldn’t be so bad. But it’s not.
Well, if the issue is severe enough, I disagree. I work in customer service. I have an excellent track record; I meet objectives; I get commendations, etc. However, if I were to suddenly go off one day and tell a customer “Fuck you!”, I would likely be fired, and IMO, I would deserve it.
Also, this hasn’t been the only time that Tubadiva has acted emotionally rather than rationally when it comes to this board. I remember one incident in particular, when she was trying to ban all “TMI” discussions because she had apparently mentioned the SDMB on her resume. Now, granted, that was not anywhere near as bad as this incident, but, in my mind, at least, it does set a sort of precident. She acts before she thinks. The Stage Manager incident shows just how dangerous that trait can be when it comes to the adminstration of the SDMB. That is why I would have asked Tubadiva to resign.
fessie, I’ve found that just about every large group that I’ve been involved with has had some sort of “dark side” of gossip, rumormongering, complaining, etc. behind the scenes…and it always shocks me when I find it, too. I’m not sure why it does, since it’s almost always there. However, I hope that it continues to remain as easy to stay out of that stuff here as it has been in the past.
Now that I’m home from work and had a chance to unwind at the gym and collect my thoughts, maybe I should elaborate on my earlier post. The real last straw came Monday morning. Monday morning, 106 commuters, just like me, were on their way to work in a train pretty much like the one I ride in. In the space of a few seconds, they were all dead.
Just because the 23-year-old train driver was afraid of losing his job if he got behind schedule and made a stupid decision.
I read the news, I saw the pictures of the wrecked cars, and I thought about what those people must have experienced. I wanted to get the feelings I was having off my chest, so I looked to see if anyone had posted about it. I didn’t see any other threads, so I started to compose one in MPSIMS. As I was writing, I started thinking about the threads I was reading earlier that morning, and how frustrated I was feeling over the endless crap flinging here that was starting to leave me feeling more and more emotionally drained each day, and I found that I simply didn’t want share my thoughts with these people anymore. I tried a few more times that day and the next to start the thread, but every time I just ended up saying “screw it” and deleting everything.
Rather than having a incoherent screaming meltdown in the Pit that ends with me getting mocked and banned, I decided to just let my subscription run out and take some time off away from the boards. I may be back in a while, or I may get hooked on something else that fills my time.
It’s been a lovely run (almost five years), and I’ll still be reading the board every day, but not posting. So no 15,000th post, no 20K, nothing beyond noon Chicago-time today. Probably more than a few people wish I hadn’t gotten as high as I have:)
I’ll see y’all around:)
[sub]Anyone wondering why - no need to get into it here in any great detail - is welcome to email me. sadpunk at gmail dot com.[/sub]
In my case it’s an error of some sort having to do with my multiple title changes over time (member, moderator, SDSAB, charter member after I paid the first time, SDSAB again when they did all the titles, charter member again when the board upgraded, SDSAB after the error was corrected, etc.). Two more titles and Prince Charles has to buy me a beer.
And well, shit. Looks like me posting made it go back.
Note to everyone: koeeoaddi is not nuts! It really did say “guest” there for a while. Well, OK, koeeoaddi may very well be nuts, but not for that reason.
Well, i renewed about a week ago, but i’ve actually found myself wondering whether my $7.49 is going to be more in the nature of a parting gift, rather than a subscription renewal.
It seems to me that i keep ending up in pretty much the same old debates with the same old people, time after time. This leads to a certain amount of boredom and frustration, and makes it more likely that i’ll end up being unpleasant. This is rather off-putting because (unbelievable as some people might find this) it takes a lot for me to lose my temper in a face-to-face conversation, even with someone who i believe is a complete jackass.
I know that the impersonal nature of the computer screen makes abuse easier, but for me it’s actually more about the monotony of rehashing the same things over and over, with the usual suspects all taking predictable positions and the debate following an almost foregone trajectory.
I’m not just blaming other people for this. I’m part of the problem as well. But i’m not really sure that the problem is anyone’s fault, in any real sense. Nor am i sure that there is any real solution. In fact, the number of interesting people who have decided to leave makes it even more likely that the problem will persist. And in saying this, i don’t just mean people that i agree with. I’m just as sorry to see conservatives as liberals leave the boards.
Anyway, my membership is paid up, so no doubt i’ll still hang around. But i’m going to do my best to stay away from issues where i believe it’s all been hashed out a thousand times before. I might not be very successful, but i’m going to give it a go, and if i’m successful it will just mean that my post count climbs more slowly than before.
And it might also mean that i get more work done, which would make my PhD adviser pretty happy.
