I have been reading these boards daily for over two years. I can safely say I have read every fucking thread in every forum, with the exception of some MPSIMS fluff and some in CCC or CSR.
I have seen it all. Phaedrus, Serlin, Concrete, the “Melin Thing”, “The Left Behind Fiasco” (Where on that board some of you became the asshole trolls you so decry here), “Satan’s (Stan A) Banning”, “Freak Feely Meltdown”, so on, and more recently JDT, the ongoing “Stoid vs The Evil Right Election Thing :)”(BTW Stoid, I disagree with you on a lot of issues, but I bet you would be waay cool to hang out with) Wildest Bill, the ever-present sock invasions and many more famous/infamous board moments I can’t recall offhand.
The thing is, in the last six months or so I have noticed a subtle change in the tenor of the boards.
The main thing I have noticed is the increased tendency for some long-time “established” posters to castigate relative newbies for posting OPINIONS or views that said oldtimers have expoused before, and oftimes with more sarcasm, vitriol, hypocrisy, etc than the newbie!
A few general examples:
(Oh, and no, I am not going to link threads, or give fucking specifics, you can draw your own conclusions, because if you see yourself in this thread, you will know it, and if you don’t, you probably won’t care.)
- Newbie A posts in the Pit: Christians Suck!
Oldtimer response: Do you have a cite? How dare you slam someones Religion! Righteous Indignation.
Yes, I know how it works, but the above oldtimer will gleefully rant about “fucking fundies, Xian assholes”, etc when given the opportunity in other threads.
- This is NOT a mod bash. Newbie B posts politely (mind you) in ATMB. "I disagree with a mod’s actions re X thread.
Oldtimer response (invariably to the Pit): “You stupid fuck!
Who the fuck are you with 30 posts? If you don’t like it, leave shithead!”
Where the oldtimer posted the exact same shit three months before and got a chorus of “Oh yeah, I hear ya.”
- Apparently, irony and sarcasm are now off limits here, at least to newbies.
Newbie C makes off color comment/joke in response to OP.
Oldtimer Pit response: “You insensitive cockwad, how dare you insult my mother/father/kid/ethnic group/sexual orientation/whatever.”
Where the oldtimer posted the exact same shit three months before and got a chorus of “Dam that was funny, hell, I’ll write a song about it!.”
Yes, some people are trolls. But think about this. Maybe some of these people have lurked a while, read your posts, and admire you? Maybe when they read biting sarcasm, or stinging irony, they might want to emulate your style?
Sure they might present it badly, but that doesn’t mean they are trolls/assholes/goat felching monkey fuckers.
I wish post counts/reg dates weren’t even listed.
Like I said I read this this board every day, and lately it has reminded me of a fucking junior high school pissing contest. I see more and more Pit brawls over perceived slights, semantics, and just plain egocentric crap.
I see virtually no slack for newbies trying to fit in, except for GQ and the social forums.
To be brutally honest, and in light of the recent “pay to play” controversy, I see some long time posters feeling a bit threatened, angered, and scared that their feeling of “power” might be diminished.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have made some remarks that I am sure have pissed some people off. And I have apologized here on the board. But I have not engaged in an unrelenting pattern of ragging on people for stating the same shit that you yourself have got away with.
To anticipate the first response, It will probably be "If you don’t like it, leave asshole!
And the second: A tedious line by line quoting of my post with rebuttals.
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