So what's keeping you here?

The BBQ Pit
1

MelinGate II. Like a bad sequel, it’s just a tired rehashing of the same boring plot that the original was.

Lines have been drawn. Weapons have been brandished. People have chosen sides. Respected posters threaten to leave. Nonrespected posters troll it double-time. Mods are villified. Regs are martyred. Blah blah fricking blah.

So those of you who are truly and honestly repulsed at the Admin of the SDMB: What keeps you here?

I know, I know. The community (MPSIMS basically). You have online buddies here. Hey, I can dig. Even the “grumpy SOB” (Cheers, C3 :rolleyes: ) that I am has managed to make good friends over this board.

But let’s say someone takes initiative and starts their own MB. Let’s say OpalCat, Mod-ophobe Extrordinaire, makes her TM Homepage a new Refuge. MPSIMS II. And the P can even stand for “Personal”. Awwwwww. You can even make Melin a moderator! Wow, wouldn’t that be great? That’ll show em! Ha ha! You guys can pretend that you are your own little Taiwan. Wouldn’t you leave for that sweet Utopia?

I am certainly not questioning your right to post here or demanding that you leave, but I have to wonder why you stay if you feel so repulsed. I mean Opal, every post you have made since the Melin Exile has been a dig at Ed or a Mod or the SDMB Admin. Doesn’t it get as boring to you as it does to some of us? What keeps you posting here under such harsh tyrannical rule?

Not that most of you give a ferret’s ass, but I considered taking a Leave of Absence from the board because of the widespread whining. Why am I still here? I love GQ. I like helping people answer questions and I love reading the answers to questions. I love a good Great Debate, even if I sound stupid participating in one. I’d miss contributing to those forums.

I mention this because many (but certainly not all) of the main plaintiffs have minimal contributions outside of MPSIMS. Hey, I know there’s no posting requirements here, but if your most lucid concept of “Fighting Ignorance” means unbanning Melin… Hellooooo.

Personally, I’m not scared of being banned by a Mod. I’m honestly more scared now that I’ll be sued for something I said in the Pit.

I think some of you look at the SDMB as some kind of online “Hogan’s Heroes”. With the fun-loving good-hearted regs being forced in line by the bumbling Ed “Colonel Klink” Zotti and Jill “Sargeant Schultz” Gat.

If it’s so damn oppressive here and all that keeps you here is the community, I’m honestly curious why you don’t pack up your things, herd up your buddies and continue your community elsewhere? We’ll fight ignorance here, you can perpetuate banality there.

Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you.
Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.

2

Well said, Alphagene. BRAVISIMO!

3

What keeps me here? Why YOU do, sweetie!

[getting on tip-toes to give the grouch a big kiss]

4

You’re right as fuckin’ rain, Alphagene!

Although your TV analogies frighten me.

Yet to be reconciled with the reality of the dark for a moment, I go on wandering from dream to dream.

5

What, leave? Just go? Out there?

The torrential rains, the poisonous snakes, the man-eating croccs. The head-hunters and the cannibals.

Face that? Ha! Do you take me for a fool?
I stay here!

6

Yeah, I’ve always seen this place more as analagous to Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (NBC, 1965-67), with Cecil as Professor James Nash, TubaDiva as his nonconformist newspaper columnist wife Joan, CKDextHaven as Kyle, David B as Joel, and Gaudere and manhattan as those mischievous seven-year-old twins Tracey and Trevor.

And, uh, Lynn Bodoni as Martha, the family maid, and Eutychus as their 150-pound sheepdog.

And we’re all the nosy neighbors, or the college students, or something.

Otherwise, well said. Carry on.

Uke

7

[Werner Klemperer voice] MEEEEE-LLLLIIIINNNN!!![/Werner Klemperer voice]

8

“Please Don’t Eat the Daisies?”

Oooh, can I be Dolores Gray, the slutty showgirl who vamps David Niven? Nuts, that would probably be Tuba . . .

9

Jesus, you scare me, Ike. :wink:

Jodi

Fiat Justitia

10

Right on, Alphagene.

11

Well… I certainly like MPSIMS, although I’m a free range sorta guy, hitting GQ and GD more than MPSIMS.

I stay because… Anatevka is… our home.

Wait. Wrong speech.

I stay because I like the discussion, and the environment is not repulsive, to use your term. When I thought it was repulsive, I left. When I discovered additional facts that changed my view, I came back.

  • Rick
12

Thank you Alphagene. A sane voice.

Bricker - I’m not sure you can call leaving for a few hours “leaving.”

trisha

13

I agree with you 100%, Alphagene.

I can picture Hitler putting on his mittens as I write. :slight_smile:

Lisa

67.5% of all statistics are made up

14

Weel, truth be told, I’ve always wanted to be a Sweathog.

“Oooh! Oooh! Mister Zotter! Mister Zotter!”

15

Why do I stay? Because this is the best damn place I’ve found on the Web.

And it still is.

Thanks to all the other regulars here who make it so – and to the people that provide the forum.

“Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known” - Michel Gyquem de Montaigne

16

Re-reading that post, it wasn’t very Pit-like, so let me add:

To all who disagree with me? Go fuck a cheese grater.

“Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known” - Michel Gyquem de Montaigne

17

I stay because I find entertainment and value. If I allowed that to prevent me from speaking up where I have ethical concerns then I am a coward. If I do nothing but criticize my hosts, then I have created for myself an adversarial role. That does not mean I find no value in said role. (Why did/do non-Christians post on the LBMB?)

Opalcat and I have had differences in the past, and no doubt we will have them in the future, but I do not think that her passionate response to her friend’s banishment makes her in any way unfit for this board, and I do not think it is irrational or inexplicable for her to post views critical of a specific action by the administration.

The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*

18

If you don’t like the whining, Alph, just stay the fuck out of the two or three threads it’s taking place in. Frankly, I’m sick of hearing you whine about other people whining.

BTW-I ain’t going anywhere. I like it here even if it is run by a bunch of petty egomaniacs. Actually, that’s the same reason I haven’t left the United States either.

19

You know I love ya Alph :rolleyes: but you put into words my exact thought.

I consider Melin a good friend and I am truly sad that she won’t be here anymore and hope that we still chat VIA instant message and e-mail.

But you know, people - THIS IS ONLY A FREAKIN MESSAGE BOARD!

Get a grip, fercryingoutloud!

Let me add my “SHEESH”!

Luv
Diane Brady

20

Well, I guess you don’t give a drowned rat’s ass why I’m staying because I haven’t been whining about the situation here. But I’ll tell you all anyway: I stay for GQ. GQ is the reason I started coming here and I’ve always loved that you can post a question and 5-10 minutes later, you usually have a halfway decent response. Within a day, you can have 20 responses which amount to a damn good answer with additional elaboration.

Yeah, I post in MPSIMS but it took me months to go in there and it’s still my second stop on the SDMB railroad. I check the Pit about once every few days, usually after I’ve read through GQ and MPSIMS. And I’ve never been enthused enough to read any Pit thread (or really any MPSIMS thread) that goes over 50 posts.

Oh… and I really like the booze at the Dopers get togethers.

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”