Like this? [obvious hijack] What about this “waste of bandwidth” Liberal? Or could it be that was just for fun? Like, um, people talking about a TV show in Cafe Society? Hmmm.[/obvious hijack]
Right . . . I am the one who dragged lib into this picture. You are a model of honest reflection, witty urbanity, and self-control. What leaps of imagination it requires to picture you flying off the handle in response to another’s post and then blaming that poster for your inability to be a better man.
:wally
Trolls do exist. Are you saying that Lib is one or simply making an observation that has nothing to do with the OP?
Just wondering.
Certainly, for folks who lack the ability to read with descrimination. I generally find it condescending to imagine that posters on this board are incapable of meeting that standard.
No. Obviously, I’m saying Lib is a book that needs editting.
While we can hope that everyone is going to read and post with discrimination, it’s certainly not condescending to realize that not everyone will. Lib has shown himself adept at fishing for those indiscriminate posters and staying within the rules.
I don’t want him banned either but you just seem to be portraying this place as some new Athens; where all the practiced debaters will let hijacking float past them. Hate to break it to you but…
Not quite . . . what I am saying is that if I do not care about an issue raised by another poster I can avoid both reading and responding to further exchanges regarding that issue. Furthermore, I can continue to address the issues that do concern me, and if anyone else shares my sentiments they are able to respond to me accordingly.
What people write about topics that I don’t care about is, rather obviously, of no concern to me.
Liberal, I’m afraid you may have missed my point.
I understand that one may find topic sentences anywhere, but if you’re searching for topic sentences, you have to realize that there are many sentences that are not the topic of the post. Indeed, when the vast majority of a post and a thread are about a different topic, you can be pretty sure the one sentence touching on one of your pet areas is not the topic sentence.
You ask: “How am I to know that the whole point of a three post rant about store operations is not intended to build a case for anti-capitalism until, bam! ‘I hate capitalists.’” I would expect that any series of posts intending to attack capitalism would have something actually connecting the bitching about store rearrangements to the capitalist system, other than a one-liner. And it would be odd in the extreme for a poster to wait until his third post well into the thread before springing his devastating assault on capitalism. I cannot believe that there is any way that you could have reasonably believed that a single disconnected sentence claiming to hate capitalism was somehow the jumping off point for any sort of serious attack on the capitalist system, requiring you to virtuously ride to its defense.
It seems to me that when you’re posting about something that is bound to lead a thread off topic, a short digression is just as discourteous (or perhaps jerkish) as a long one. Indeed, posting in a manner that you will be a hit and run (or perhaps hit, parry and run) could be viewed as worse than introducing a topic you genuinely want to discuss.
I’m not sure why you must “reserve the right” to make your point in threads that are focused away from the issues that interest you. And I’m not sure why you think that a brief thrust and parry will do anything but antagonize other posters.
First off, there is no compelling need for you to post every time you see something that you disagree with, particularly if the point of disagreement is entirely tangential to the thread. Next, if you see the need to make a point in a thread where the general trend of the thread is away from the topic of that point, I do not see how making a limited “thrust and parry” will advance whatever cause you feel bound to defend.
Instead, I would urge you to ask yourself whether the point you are thinking of making really needs to be made. If so you should ask yourself whether the point fits in well in the thread you are thinking of making it in. If the point is important and doesn’t quite fit in, you should find another thread to post it in or start a new one to address the topic.
Frankly, if you can grasp the thrust of a thread well enough to decide whether to just “thrust and parry” or whether to fully engage, you are savvy enough to figure out those threads in which your participation will be disruptive. Quite simply, if you think no more than a “thrust and parry” is called for, it should be omitted entirely.
Picking up the general direction of a thread isn’t too difficult. Thousands of us here do it successfully and virtually automatically. It seems that you are unique in your tendency and ability to repeatedly pick up a thoroughly tangential issue and draw the conversation to that issue (or to your own conduct), much to the chagrin of the other posters. You’re not too stupid to get the point of most of the threads you post in – indeed quite the opposite – so it is troubling to me that you appear to miss the point so frequently.
In my view, if you intentionally derail threads, you are being a jerk. Unintentionally derailing threads is not in itself jerkish. However, if you do so repeatedly and refuse to change when other posters point out how disruptive you are and how you can avoid being so disruptive, you are again being a jerk.
I would urge you to stop and consider the direction of a thread before you post, and only post when what you intend to say advances the direction of the thread.
:: hands on hips, glaring ::
Lib, will you puh-leeeeease listen to Billdo? That’s excellent advice.
:: whacks Lib upside the head with large mackerel ::
Have I? I suppose that, given the next nine paragraphs of your post, you rather should have expected me to miss it. After all, I am uniquely, if you are to be believed, dense.
Well, let me tell you what is troubling to me. Not that it matters, but what the hell. What is troubling to me is that you assign to me a uniqueness that in fact permeates the board. This very forum is full of threads that meander, twist around, and contain off-topic posts — threads that I haven’t even posted in. I do not see the Gang of Twelve descending into them and ripping people apart. I’ve even pointed some of these out. The response when I do? Well, they were attempting humor, so it’s okay. Or, they did not first raise the off-topic, you did. Or, you did not first raise the off-topic, they did, and you shouldn’t have responded. Or, in one case, they’re just behaving like you — and I didn’t even post. So-called derailed threads even make Threadspotting. Do you think that the thrust of the OP in Cafe Society was for people to post that they are not Eve? The thread was nothing more than a massive hijack, and all had a good time. Even this thread we’re in right now — Biggirl has chosen to attack me because her OP was about the staff. If you expect me to take your criticisms seriously, then you have to stop pretending that I am the unique and sole cause of shit like this. There are a dozen people making this thread about me. And you are one of them.
And I would urge you to apply your advice equitably. When I see you and the others march into the other threads and tell people to get back on topic, I’ll see evidence of your sincerity.
Oh for fuck’s sake, Lib, it’s one thing to make a small, off topic joke. It’s quite another to derail the conversation entirely by making an argument about something that’s only remotely related to the topic at hand.
I cannot believe you are not smart enough to tell the difference, or that you are immature enough to use the “Well, everybody ELSE does it!”
Apparently the answer to my question is “no”.
Oddly enough, Guinastasia has covered a lot of what I would respond, but much more succinctly.
No, Liberal, you are not unique in derailing threads. I said that quite clearly in my first post. You are, however, unique in the number of malignant hijacks you set off. I although others sometimes set off the type of mini-trainwrecks that you do, but none do it nearly so regularly.
Yes, there are many hijacks, and some of them are wonderful, but the wonderful ones are funny. Yours are not.
I don’t know what “Gang of Twelve” you’re talking about, but I ain’t a member. I don’t regularly interact with you, and I don’t recall ever discussing your posting habits before. I’m just a neutral observe, trying to give neutral advice to make the board better.
If it’s any consolation, I don’t think anyone in the Gang of Twelve is a member, either: they’re sort of like the Illuminati.
Daniel
You got numbers to back that up, Kimosabe? Or might it be the case that you and your cohorts just let many of the others slide?
Had I known I was being advised by a man who fancies himself to be the objective arbiter of humor, I would have ignored your advice to begin with. I had naively assumed you were a man who would listen to a counter-argument and see from another point of view.
Does what? No one is doing anything wrong. Clearly, what you don’t like about my arguments is your own impotence at refuting them.
Apparently, your premise is flawed. I haven’t stopped beating my wife because I have never beat her.
Your motives don’t matter. What does matter is that you’ve told Lib things he doesn’t want to hear. It’s clear his brief interval of “Tell me what I do that provokes such harsh reactions” has, as it always does, given way to his usual “Speak ill of me and you are contemptible curs whose sole mission in life is to slaver at my ankles” persona.
I give up, Lib. You don’t really give a damn about anything except slinging your rhetorical weight around, as nastily as possible upon the slightest provocation. The intermittent pleas to “Tell me how I may amend my (tiny) errors” is just a figleaf over your arrogant insistence that you do no wrong and anyone who calls you on your BS is a mortal enemy.
You’ve received, as you always do in these threads, excellent advice. You’ve thrown it aside, as you always do after briefly toying with it. I shan’t bother engaging with you further, as it’s a waste of bandwidth.
:: Trudges off to join the Gang of Twelve – or is it Thirteen now? ::
You can come down off that cross. I haven’t asked for anyone’s advice in this thread, and I’m not responsible for your “harsh reactions”. You need to own your decisions. As usual, your disingenuous “Lib, I only want what’s best for you,” has turned into your, “Damn you for not seeing things my way” persona. Oy. I don’t even care enough to say fuck you.
{Don’t bother} The red wine is lousy and believe it or not, it’s impossible to butter the unleavened bread without it cracking into a dozen shards.
You’re the one who’s pwned, muthafucka.
Better watch out. Biggirl will be in here any minute to chastise you for hijacking her thread. Hoards of ten or more will descend and advise you that you should stop posting, that your quips aren’t funny enough, that the mods should ban you. They will gather together off-board and plan your demise. They will do that because they are honorable people who apply their judgments equitably and without regard to person.