The function of the BBQ pit seems to be as a release valve, or at least a place for people to speak their mind more frankly about other members. That said, these loosened rules also lead to far more negative things, like noxious jerks joining basically just to sling abuse at other members. That’s… kinda shitty.
Or to put it another way: maybe it shouldn’t be okay that your first ten posts on the forum contain quotes like this:
I think there should be some kind of limit on how much is acceptable from newer posters in the pit. If you join the forum and then proceed to participate exclusively in bashing other people… that strikes me as bizarre and wrong, to be perfectly honest.
Maybe that posters need a certain number of posts to gain access? Or that if a certain portion of their posts aren’t in other forums, they get put on notice? As is, it feels like we’re allowing a lot of unwarranted and unpoliced abuse from people who… well, let’s be blunt, haven’t earned it. If I want to make a thread slagging off, say, iiandyiiii, sure, I’m gonna be mean to him, but we’ll at least have the context that we know each other from more than just “me being a dick to him”, y’know? (Example chosen because nobody in their right mind could pit iiandyiiii, we all like that guy ) Whereas if a total newbie shows up and starts randomly flinging insults at random people, it gives off a totally different, much more sinister and negative vibe. Am I the only one bothered by this?
I’m sure the mods could handle any such situation. We have posters who never post in the pit. If we also have posters who always post in the pit that makes no difference to me.
The board’s big guiding principle: Don’t be a jerk.
If a newbie (or old timer) posts only in the pit, but isn’t a jerk, who cares? And if they are a jerk in the pit or elsewhere, let the mods deal with it.
In plenty of ways, my politics are, well, ‘reactionary’. But, great guy that I am, I often post in GD while hoping to learn from those I disagree with (because, after all, the odds seem better than learning from folks I already agree with). But that’s running a risk for me, since it’d be easy for me to run afoul of rules in GD and wind up getting banned; after all, I’m outnumbered by left-leaning locals (so if we all screw up at the same rate, I’ll be out first, and fast) who presumably know the rules better than I do (so we presumably won’t screw up at the same rate).
And so I post — from a place of sincerity, not trollishness — in the BBQ pit, figuring that there are fewer rules to run afoul of. (I mean, I still post in GD, because, again, being a great guy, I figure I can do a pretty good job of staying on the right side of rules and bannings and such; but if I were a little less sure of myself, I’d only ever post with pure sincerity in the BBQ pit, because, well, why not?)
Since those are my posts you quoted without giving me credit or showing the context, I guess I’ll chime in.
It seems your main gripe is low post count users having the audacity to say mean things in reply to high post count users who say mean things in a sub forum deliberately created to say mean things and ridicule/shame people.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s not the low post count user who is the one driving the discourse into the gutter.
In any normal human interaction in real life, nastiness begets nastiness. I don’t see how the pit is any different.
That said, most forums have a 50 post rule before you’re allowed to even view areas like the pit. If those were the rules I would have gladly done that, but they aren’t. I’m actually kind of surprised by this fact, but it is what it is.
There can be fact patterns that are not against the rules, but uncommon enough which could merit additional scrutiny. I’m not sure we need new rules but feel free to make your case.
If this rule were to be put in place, would new posters also be immune from criticism in the Pit as well, since they wouldn’t be able to post there?
I have also stated more or less the same before about why I post in the pit, and another reason I stay out of the other sub-forums like GD is that when you are a right leaning poster in a sea of left leaning posters there tends to be an “Inmates running the asylum” type of thing going on with the report button.
I’m not saying that this is the case here, but every other forum I’ve been in it happens. The outliers get too much scrutiny because they are outliers which means they get the report button hammered more than the mainstay positions which means more moderation attention, hence the inmates run the asylum.
Don’t know if it happens here but I prefer a level playing field.
I gotta say that this is a solution in search of a problem. There’s no really good reason to limit what a new poster can participate in. Seems a little snobby and elitist.
) Whereas if a total newbie shows up and starts randomly flinging insults at random people, it gives off a totally different, much more sinister and negative vibe. Am I the only one bothered by this?