Mod note
Users are admonished to refrain from insults. I grant you this is pretty mild, so no warning issued, but don’t do it again.
Then why does this thread exist?
Try reading this post:
Well, you make a point. Idle Thoughts suggested we start one in the thread I linked to. The question came up- why are there special rules just for the GoT threads?.
I didnt like the fact that one “special” poster for one thread and one thread only (every week) had special rules, just for him. I have said this is wrong and not necessary, that the standard SDMB rules are all that are required.
Idle Thoughts has answered that-* there no longer are any special rules for GoT threads.*
Mind you, the standard SDMB rules about spoilers remain and** Idle Thoughts** has asked that the threads continue to be spoiler free. I have also said that the request of the OP that we refrain from going into discussions about the books is a reasonable request and should be honored. But perhaps a profanity laden frothing at the mouth tirade and hijack of his own thread if the word “book” is even mentioned is a bit over the top, no?
I guess I am being a bit weird on this, no doubt.:smack: It’s not that his request is unreasonable and I think that the request of the OP in his Opening Post should be honored as that is a polite thing to do. But making it a hard and fast special SDMB Official rule just for one person? Can you see the difference?
Do note that after Idle Thoughts explained his reasonable position in post two I agreed and said this thread can now be closed.
So, the Mod asked this be taken to ATMB so it can be discussed and answered, it was discussed and answered, so it’s done.
Maybe next year/season this thread could be resurrected, rather than starting a new one!
IdleThoughts: now you can close this thread.
Ha!
But since next year we hope there will be no special rule, there will be no need. 
[quote=“DrDeth, post:1, topic:717771”]
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=754326&page=2
I responded to a couple posts about mentions of the Books in the weekly GoT "non-spoiler’ threads.
QUOTE]
Please note your link directs people to the spoiler thread.
[quote=“Gothic, post:27, topic:717771”]
Yes. In the in the SPOILER! thread which I linked to, there was discussion about the weekly GoT "non-spoiler’ thread.
So three years ago your feelings got hurt, you’re still unable to get over it, so you continue to start up the same bullshit thread every year in an attempt to crap all over an on-going thread that literally every single other poster on this message board other than you is able to comprehend and live with?
Get over it. Move on.
Thanks, I have. Note* we *were requested by a Mod to open this thread. And, quite a few posters agree with me.
Perhaps you could get over it now? Note this isn’t the PIT, dude.
I will have to disagree with that. The fact that you bring up this very same topic and discussion every. single. year. also disagrees with that. People who get over something don’t bring it up every year in an effort to try to change the underlying cause of their original wounds.
Which brings up another question - since you aren’t ignorant to the fact that bringing up questions of board moderation and specific thread rules belongs in ATMB, why did you bring it up in Cafe Society (in the GoT thread specifically) in the first place? Surely you’d have known - from your countless other ATMB threads on this very. same. subject. every. single. year. - that such a question would have to be brought up in ATMB, right? I’m certainly not suggesting you were trying to derail the GoT thread (again) with more whining about the “please don’t mention the books” guideline (again) - but it does seem to be a pattern (again).
Enough to start a thread of your very own where you can talk about the book and series, or the series with occasional mentions of the book, or whatever the hell it is you want? Please, Shane. Don’t go!
When I want to Pit you, I’ll let you know.
I wont have to bring it up again, as the “Special rule” is no more. *Have you not read this thread? *
I didnt “bring it up”. Check the thread. I replied to others who were asking. And, I pointed out that the topic should be in ATMB. Have you not read that thread?
Really, is it so hard to ask that people read? I mean, sure I understand the GRRM books are thick and full of hard words. But can’t dudes at least read the thread here?
Read, dude, READ.
[quote=“DrDeth, post:32, topic:717771”]
I wont have to bring it up again, as the “Special rule” is no more. *The “special rule” was apparently no more before you posted this thread - so what’s going to stop you from posting it again next year? Or the year after that? Did you not read my post? :rolleyes
Sorry, my apologies. While you certainly didn’t “bring it up” this time around, you showed considerable restraint exhibiting how well you’ve been able to cope and deal with being admonished 3 years ago. Seriously - get over it. You are clearly unable to talk about this topic without any level of restraint or self-awareness. Someone else bringing it up isn’t complete license to info-dump every single issue you’ve rehashed in your brain over and over and over and over and over for the past 364 days.
Yet you responded in Cafe Society. So are you saying you continued the conversation there in full awareness that it was an issue solely for ATMB?
I think this is a good opportunity to again bring up the suggestion that maybe you just get over yourself, and that entire set of matching emotional baggage you bring with every mention of Game of Thrones. I’ve read all threads in question, and you’ve come across the exact same in every single one. Maybe “getting over it” has a different connotation in your mind.
Why are you unable to get over this? I mean, in post Six I said I was happy and it’s done now. But why do you keep bringing it up? Cant you “get over it”?
Why hello buddy! First of all, I’d like to thank you for putting this thread in ATMB rather than trying to argue it out in the threads. That was the appropriate thing to do.
Secondly of all, I’d like to retroactively thank Gukumatz for moderating the threads so well when he did. I realize that anyone who follows him has a tricky job.
The softer, generic, non-special rules that DrDeth wants were gradually tried. They led to constant probing, both intentional and unintentional, towards more spoiler-oriented information, and then a backlash again, and then yet more fighting for the thread. Of all the policies we’ve tried, the “the books do not exist in this thread” policy has been clearly the best policy to almost every participant. The ratio of arguing about how you could discuss the show to actual show discussion went from somewhere around 60/40 at one point to roughly 99.5/0.5 now.
Part of the problem is that people like DrDeth have a resentment. A burning resentment that apparently motivates them to keep fighting the same battle for 5 years. This isn’t the first time he’s done some version of this thread - probably not even the 4th time. My favorite of these is this wildly successful pit thread.
There were a handful of users who for various reasons were very aggressive and angry towards the people who simply wanted to enjoy the show as its own entity, all of whom tried to either tried to ruin the threads themselves with constantly pushing the rules about spoilers, or who would attack the rules themselves. The sad part of all this is that there has never been a restriction on creating the threads they want - you can create a thread where anything goes, or where certain things are allowed - they’re angry that a non-book/show only discussion exists at all and want to destroy it.
While that sounds melodramatic, it really isn’t. Especially in the first season threads, there were a bunch of people being total jerks, and basically saying “I get to decide what’s a spoiler, not you, and you’re going to take your medicine, you illiterate wimp”
So when the rules are softer and less clear, you have both inadvertent crossing of the lines that most felt comfortable with, but possibly more importantly you had the deliberate actions of some posters to try to skirt within the rules to see how they could use the threads as weapons in their tantrums against those illiterate wimps.
The hard, unambiguous, easy-to-abide-by rule of “the books do not exist in these threads” did a very effective job of improving the discussions of the threads. That’s pretty much inarguable. No one had to make a judgment call about where the line was bieng crossed - the line is hard and obvious. It has been a good policy. Softening this policy opens up the doors to ambiguity, unintentionally posting information that others don’t want to read, and it would allow people who are motivated to make some point - say, perhaps, the same point they’ve been trying to make for 5 years now - to deliberately probe those rules to try to make their point.
I don’t have time to dig through the old threads to pick out quotes to demonstrate the sort of posts DrDeth would like to make to the threads, but I will later if there’s serious discussion on this. His request seems innocent enough on the surface, but he’s got a history with this issue and his behavior was one of the main drivers for the hard rules to get the discussion back on track.
Oh, again - I offer my apologies. I take it you’ve since requested that the mods close this thread? Because you’re done here now, right? You’ve gotten over your previous inability to comprehend the rules, and are now willing to clearly abide by SDMB Rule #1? That’s a relief, I’m sure, to everyone involved.
You’re right - I haven’t gotten over it. I likely will not get over it until the mods make a hard and fast rule regarding this issue - likely culminating in a user-specific restriction, not dissimilar to Handy being prohibited from posting in medically related GQ threads, Lissner banned from posting about Paul Verhoeven, or that guy who kept posting super creepy things about his sexual history with his wife who he wasn’t attracted to. Your obsession with this particular subject has led to countless hijacks and undo attention to your personal crusade. I have no idea what extra burden this has placed on the moderation here, but I’d be willing to bet it isn’t trivial. Absolutely no one would miss your exclusion from these threads, either willingly or unwillingly, and I in particular would gladly welcome an official exile. Start your own thread - include all the hookers and blackjack your little heart desires. Don’t be surprised if you end up playing solitaire.
Just so it’s clear, there IS a thread where people can talk about the show and the books. And there’s been one every year as far as I can remember.
So it’s not like DrDeth and the so far anonymous but apparently numerous posters who agree with him don’t have a place to go.
I would be more inclined to believe that the concern here is with a special rule, if DrDeth didn’t refer to show watchers as illiterati.
Senor, I do want to thank you for your thoughts and truly involved posting about the HBO TV show. Sincerely, thank you.
And look, we agree! I posted right there in my OP :“And, we can all agree that in the first Season of GoT, the threads got a little out of control. As is common with first seasons, emotions ran high, and many things were posted that were best left unsaid. Particularly annoying were the "Well, I have read the books, and I can tell you- dont get too attached to that character! " type of posts. That’s not only being a spoiler, that’s being a jerk.”
And you are right I* have* brought this up maybe a little too much. :smack: Can you admit you got a leetle bit carried away a couple times in your reactions?
But I never posted any sort of spoiler in your threads, Senor. My “behavior” has been to complain about the special rules- not post spoilers in your threads. So, my behavior had nothing to do with the “hard rules”. In fact, I very rarely posted in your threads.
And while I agree and admit that bringing this up once a year was perhaps a little tedious- how many times did you bring up your Game Room complaints?
So Senor la tetera may I introduce myself- **Doctor la olla **.
Can we call a truce now?
I promise not to post any sort of spoilers in your no-spoiler threads, nor try to hijack them with mentions of how the book differs, etc from the HBO show. But if someone casually mentions the "b-word’ can we ask you to not over-react? Fair?
Christ on a cracker, this is going the way of the Paris Peace Accords.
No, it just made the threads and discussions not with participating in, both GoT & TWD, for some of us.