Why not? Seriously…why not? Why is a bunch of flirting any less appropriate than a bunch of people playing with movie titles (as is happening right now in Cafe Society) or complaining about rude questions they’ve been asked (which is going on in a BBQ Pit thread at the moment.)
Well, since we’ve got thousands of members at this point, and hundreds of threads in many different forums, I see no reason why it can’t be many things for many people. As long as those things aren’t illegal, don’t hurt anyone, and don’t create a hostile environment for others, what’s the problem?
Fair enough. But there’s usually some sort of non-capricious, logical reason why some uses are appropriate and others are not. In this case, I haven’t yet seen a particularly persuasive explanation for why the single Dopers thread was an inappropriate use of the SDMB.
To quote from the posters in this thread, The Straight Dope Message Board is not in competition with The Personals.
It should be noted in passing that the personal ads’ corporate owner, The Chicago Reader, offers the Straight Dope Message Board as one of their services. It would not be a good idea to set up anything that could be construed as being in any sort of competition with them, especially as they charge for their Message Board.
(You always want to keep on the good side of your paying customers, in any event.)
You know, I wish the thread had been left open because a thread full of single Dopers flirting with each other helps keep them from flirting with each other all over IMHO and CS.
Yes! Thank you! Keep the furshlugginger “wiggles eyebrows, winks” horseshit contained, I say.
Hi! I’m a 36 year old straight white male. I’m a Gemini, 5’11", 180lbs with blonde hair and blue eyes, and my friends tell me I’m attractive. I enjoy books, movies, music, conversation, good wine and food, and long walks along the beach: are you that “special someone” who’d like to walk beside me?
Bah! Young Audrey Hepburn – I wish! And of course it’s flirting. I’d give you a big hug, too, if I could, 'cuz you know I just love you to pieces. And as much as I adore my husband, he could so not kick your arse. That image is almost as funny as me looking like Audrey Hepburn! Well, that is of course unless we’re talking about a Nerf Machine Gun duel. Then he might stand a fighting chance - hehe.
Ironically, if this bullshit had been in effect four years ago, I likely would never have even met my wonderful husband, seeing as how the Straight Dope is what brought us together. And more ironic still, today is the 4 year anniversary of the day we met at Amsterdope!
Seriousl TubaDiva seemed to be saying you can only flirt in threads where it is not directly appropriate to the OP (you can’t have flirting threads, but some flirting is allowed) which is just plane wackout daft.
I think it’s pretty damn sad that we have to set up another board in order for people on this board to get to know each other and flirt a little.
Tuba’s excuse makes exactly zero sense. As everyone else has said, a flirt thread is nowhere near being competition with the Reader.
Get to work, Mods and Admins, and start shutting down all the threads in Cafe Society, since they must be in competition with any arts or movie articles in the paper… not to mention the social advice threads and the danger they pose to Miss Manners. Also anything that mentions any current events and gives an opinion on them, since we’re probably putting the jobs of the opinion columnists in jeopardy. Oh, and the threads that link to cartoons, too. If we can read Dilbert online, we won’t buy the paper for the comics!
Why is it sad? Why must this board be all things to all people?
I say they cut back to core. Eliminate MPSIMS and merge BBQ into GB- maybe let OPs tag their threads “flame on” or “flames off”. Merge IMHO & Cafe Society, again maybe let OPs set tags so members can still view on more specific subjects.
I don’t know. I guess they’d lose a few older members who mainly like the socializing but it could work out ok. Financially it would be easy, any new member pay double so he would replace two “charter” members.
Just a question for one part: If we’re not eliminating the content specifically to certain forums that go bye bye (like your combination of GD and the BBQ Pit) with exact titles so that people would know what to open or not that they’re interested in, what’s the difference (besides possibly taking away from the Reader’s personals revenue) with a particular thread or two, that has “flirting” or the like *right as the header" before you ever go any further?
Isn’t that basically the same thing, only playing with semantics though?
Responding to what the functional differences would be:
Flirting wouldn’t be appreciated at all in this world. I said eliminate MPSIMS and I would further say have mods clamp down on flirting in any of the merged forums. I believe excessive flirting and socializing stifles clean debate, as much as excessive flaming. I don’t want to be told to “take it easy on the guy, his mom just died” when debating nuclear policy on a message board. I save that style of debate for staff meetings and community halls.
The merged BBQ/GD would be better because most of the good political arguments happen in BBQ, shame not to have them on the same page. I would ban “pitting” of other members. If you can’t respond within the context of the thread where you have the problem, then fuck off and buy a thesaurus.
The problem is that I would never use the personal ads at the Reader, or anywhere else. I wanted to talk specifically to Dopers. Not random people in the Personals; a self-selecting group that posts here and not there. So there’s absolutely no competition going on.
