But, and I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way, that lowbrass was the one to suggest a civil conversation is possible made me delete-without-posting a response to Red that, while it certainly belonged in the Pit, didn’t belong in this thread. I feel crappy that someone I can’t remember ever agreeing with could so politely point out what a childish thing it was to carry on like that.
Maybe IMHO could have kept it from devolving into what it became. Probably not, tho.
blush Now I appologize to my response to Plan B. :o :smack:
But that leads me to another thing I don’t like:
-The black and white view of people here. If you dislike Bush/Clinton/Dems/Reps/etc, you’re anti-American and you hate democracy and support terrorists. Da’fuck?
-The whole atheist vs. religious crap. No, this board is NOT anti-religion (Christian, Islam, Judaism, whatever) nor is it anti-atheist. And no, your variety of beliefs, or lack of, are not martyrs here. Get the fuck over it already.
As long as we have smilies, we might as have a wider scope and the pukey one is the one that folks seem to want the most. I’ve seen smilies on many message boards and these guys :dubious: :smack: :rolleyes: are much more useful than many I’ve seen. I don’t need the dancing smilies or the dizzy smilie, but a pukey smilie I’d like.
I am against all of the stuff you mentioned on the bottom, but I don’t need my pukey smiley to dance or move or anything. It can be as stationary as the ones we have…just imparting the message.
How have I missed all these? Are they as popular as the poop threads? Or is it just a side of Evil Captor I haven’t seen?
In case this isn’t a whoosh…
this is referring to all of those people who, when they read about a criminal, say “I hope he gets raped in prison,” yadda, yadda.
Good point. I’ve deleted more posts than I’ve actually submitted because of that sentiment. Just not this time (obviously).
People who link back to moments of trivial posting glory that are the only thing that make their humdrum lives worthwhile.
After you say this I realize that there are times when it’s necessary, and there are times when it isn’t, and it’s all so incredibly subjective.
I think what bothers me is that a quote of a quote doesn’t show up, so it can be very hard for a third party to follow the conversation. If the quoted segments are self-explanatory, that’s not a problem.
In other words, I probably shouldn’t even have brought it up, especially since I forgot to mention the real reason I even opened the thread:
People who start posts with “Um.”
I hate it. There are a couple of posters who do it regularly, and I want to bite them.
The pukey smilies I especially hate are the ones that look fine, then look sick, then turn to the side and projectile vomit. That’s nasty. (I really hate puking and the thought of puking.) If it’s a stationary smiley that just looks like it’s about to be sick I guess I’m okay with it. I just don’t want to see the actual vomit or the act of vomiting.
Me too. I don’t like it either, (and I think the current trend in movies to show it is disgusting). however the one I like has puffy cheeks and a green face, but is not actually puking.
I believe someone made that, but the mods never did anything about it. I really, really liked that one.
That is one of my pet peeves, as well. It sounds so obnoxious. I think some people don’t take the time to read their posts and imagine what it would sound like if they said it out loud. (Or maybe they do, and they just don’t care, which makes me feel bad for their friends, family, & coworkers.)
It’s also possible they’re putting an entirely different tone to it and not realizing it could be taken another way. I’ve used “Um, sorry, but…” in speech before as a way of respectfully/meekly making a correction. With the proper tone it’s fine.
That said, yes, it’s entirely natural to read it with a snotty tone; as much as I prefer to type as if this were dialogue, there’s some things that just don’t translate well to text.
Umpires and umbrellas are perfectly good ways to start a post.
I’m not sure if this dissuades or persuades me.
I dislike it when every other thread fails to implode on itself the way this one seems to have.
As with everything except bare, naked facts, it’s a matter of interpretation. I say it IRL and nobody’s ever gotten offended. IMHO it’s way, way gentler than any number of the alternatives usually used to get the same point across.
That said, I agree iwith the OP and with many of the initial posters; **Ichbin Dubist, Antinor01, TroubleAgain, Shoshana, featherlou, and especially eleanorigby, who said
** all had great points. Now, however, this has dropped into the Pit and so will likely end up like so many other Pit threads, in a no holds barred pitched battle.
Yes, the Dope is cliquey. There are two sides to ‘community’. One is exemplified by the thread the other day where members got together to send money to a member in need. The other is that the clique will circle the wagons and actively repel people they decide don’t fit in with ‘the group’ because they don’t share the same ideas.
For a while, I thought the Dope was less a ‘community’ and more a gathering of independent minds that were loosely associated; in other words less likely to act like a mob. I was incorrect. Of course not everyone does jump in when hive mind gets going, but it certainly does happen sometimes and isn’t very appealing.
I think what’s hardest is that I seem to be under the impression that smarter people would necessarily be more compassionate and more accepting of other people. Maybe that’s ignorance on my part or maybe that’s some Pollyanna gene that I can’t fight. Anyway, SDMB has certainly enlightened me in that regard. OTOH, there are some posters whose POVs do seem to come from the kind of attitude that I hope to find in compatriots; one of kindness and compassion.
I look forward to reading those posts. I wish we could subscribe to posters rather than to threads.
Clearly you have not read the entire thread. 
I think it’s mostly an “I don’t care” reaction. It’s been mentioned often enough that I don’t think it’s simply being unaware.
As with many things, it’s fine in the Pit when someone wants to be obnoxious. But I don’t think it’s appropriate for the other forums.
It’s right up there with rolleyes smilies for sneaky aggression.
Oh! I thought of another thing. People who quote a post, but NOT THE NAME. How the hell am I supposed to know who said it, without slogging back through the thread?