Thank YOU, bjOrn.
And now, since I understand that spelling trolls exist, too, please accept my new signature line.
Maybe I should just stick to smart-ass remarks.
I did not want this thread to be devoted to bj0rn anymore, so I created a thread called “rebj0rn as a troll…” to explain why bj0rn is an ignorant troll. I define troll the way it was explained to me, so if you’re interested, kaylasdad99, it’s there. As for link #3, I think I included it because he was addressed in the topic and I didn’t bother to actually look through the thread. woops! 
The reason everyone was upset with Thorleifur was because he posted his opinions about Americans in the GQ Forum instead of MPSIMS or the Pit (Great Debates did not exist back then.)
I have to finish a paper for English, so I’ll post back later.
krish:
No, the reason Thorliefur was scorned was that even when he asked legitimate questions, he always phrased them “If you people are so great, why do you . . . .”
Since his manner of asking questions was pointed out to him on several occasions and he continued to use the same insulting style, it became obvious that either 1) he chose to be insulting or 2) he really was too stupid to realize what he was doing. Either reason was more than sufficient to get him flamed.
(It does not take a sociology major to realize that Manhattan, alone, with 5.5 times the number of people as Iceland on 1/1700 the amount of land is going to have more problems than Iceland–and the U.S. is a lot more than Manhattan.) However, for several weeks after this sort of discrepancy had been pointed out, Thorliefur continued to post questions in the same snide way. kaylasdad99 is right that several of the questions were legitimate topics for research or discussion, but when Thorliefur wouldn’t drop his attitude, PapaBear smacked him upside the head with his thread.
Several of bj0rn’s posts have been hard to understand. His clarity seems to fade in and out like a shortwave radio. On the other hand, he can be amusing and he has posted valid comments and I suspect that a lot of folks have simply decided to hate him and choose to react violently to all his posts. Could he improve his clarity with better punctuation and capitalization? Sure. But he is not indecipherable. I figure he and his booing section are having a good time baiting each other.
I have always felt that the S&G Police attitude of some posters does nothing to actually improve the Board, (I’m unlikely to be an S&G Cop target, myself), but I doubt that S&G Police are going to accept my views on the subject, so I generally don’t get involved with those feuds.
Tom~
kaylasdad99: you are signed
tomnebb: yes, in those regards i suppose i am a shortwave radio…hehehe.
but then again like a short wave radio, you just have to stay still and listen more carefully, preferably with the fingers on the fine tuning button.
why? because sometimes i dont want to explain myself, i am either expecting people to understand it (related to earlier postings on the thread) or i want to see how people will understand it (related to what they want to see posted).
when i do not quote directly, i am asking people to take it as it is and to put it into their perspective of the dicussion, perspective in regards to the people involved and the statements already made on the thread.
if i dont want that, i quote or speak directly to the person involved(like im doing now).
all in all, if you dont understand it, just shake your head and read on. if you understand it, see it as wrong, speak up!
if you understand it, see it as right, do whatever you want. if you understand it, see its debatable, post a reply…noting your opinion on the matter. but noting your opinion on how it is posted is wrong. its like krish said:
i say again, it doesnt matter. what does matter is what it says. are you going to lable a piece of crayon writing as kid scribble just because its written in crayon?
darn, i miss kindergarden (understand this as you want to, if you make a wrong comment about it, ill correct your error)
bj0rn
yes, that was bloody brilliant!!! < (see, a looney sign)
it was of course supposed to be: but NOT your opinion on how it is posted wrong
I thought bj0rn used the Zero because it shows up with a slash through it in some fonts (like a Ø).
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.
Thorleifur’s attitude was a problem, but the reason PapaBear created his Iceland thread was becase he displayed this confrontational attitude in GQ.
The shortwave radio is a brilliant analogy. To extend it a bit further, I am the kind of person who becomes annoyed when the signal fades. It ruins the flow of the song, news piece, etc. to which I am listening. You hear that bj0rn, I just want better recepSTATICon. I hope I made myself clear.
I’m sorry guys for bringing Bj(zero)n back to the spotlight again but I just could not get the following quotes out of my mind.
Well sorry Bj(null)n but in the English language we do have rules of proper grammar. I am sure you learned how to be LITERATE in English as you were learning it. In fact,people who learn other languages as their second language are often more literate in the language than the natives (So why aren’t you?). As the saying goes, “When in Rome Do as the Romans do”.
That quote of yours is just an excuse for you to get away with your poor handle of even the basic rules of the English language (such as capitalizing the first letter of the first word of each sentence and proper names).
[QUOTE]
a writer named halldór kiljan —Snip-- halldór didnt use proper grammar when he was writing —Snip— perhaps i am bothering you now with my lack of capitalization and other grammar thing —Snip—. but as i see it, its better to make it wrong my way(which really is right), that fail in trying to do it the right way.
[QUOTE]
And? You are just a poster on the SDMB who confounds, and annoys everyone else with your incoherency, and semi-illiteracy in a language you should have learned the basic rules for when you were learning it. The Difference between you and Halldór Kiljan (using correct capitalization for a proper name here) is that you are not writing a book where you can write it however you want. Here we at least try to follow the basic rules.
It’s worse to not even recognize the basic rules of capitalization and simple punctuation than to fail in using them. At least if you fail, but still try to use them, you show you have at least tried to apply what you should have learned.
You also say your way is right. Maybe in Icelandic, but not in English. If I were to apply the exact rules of punctuation and grammar of English to Spanish, my professors would fail me, and I would have to either rewrite what I have written or take the course over again to make up those lost credits.
Despite the people of the country you dislike who speak English (AKA Americans), at least respect the language MOST of the posters here speak, and learn the proper rules of punctuation and grammar. There are many on-line grammars of English. Do a search on www.yahoo.com for one and study up.
krish: maybe you need a new radio?? (that was a bad one, sorry but i have to post it.)
but thenagain, maybe i need a new transmitter (to save you the trouble of posting that one ;)).
one question, do you know how its is to be blind? related to understanding what other people are saying of course. you have to either rely on how the words are spoken, or just plainly on what words are used. the logical choice is of course, the words that are used. now comes your part, to decipher what the other person said based on the words that were used. you can make you own assumption on what the meaning of the words are, and act on that assumption. but one thing you may not do, assume that what you translated into your type brainwaves is accually what the other person meant. so be careful at judgement day.
my static …oy you.
bj0rn
bj0rn:
You blew it on this one, bj0rn. Every one of us (who is not hearing impaired) listens to people as if we were blind every day. It’s called “radio.” While the content of the words is certainly important, it is simply untrue that you can determine the speaker’s meaning solely by “what words are used.” Phrasing, pacing, emphasis by inflection, volume, and tone. All are required to understand a speaker.
Doubt it? Try getting the original text-to-audio software that simply translated text into monotone phonemes. It is nearly indecipherable if it is used to “read” more than a single sentence at a time. A single page of a novel or a scientific text really cannot be understood in those conditions.
Tom~
It may be that in the not too distant future, this message board thing will be conducted by voice only, rendering all the concern about grammar obsolete. Just think, ya won’t even have to be literate! I’m sure we can hardly wait.
tomnebb:
yes, i know exacly what you mean, but you are missing one point of it, you are assuming the speaker is a native in that language. people learning a language might not know where to emphasise or how to tone that word and so on. that is what i meant with: “…or just plainly on what words are used”.
thank you (with a certain tone of voice)
bj0rn
Sorry, bj0rn, but that is strike two. A person speaks differently when he wants to show that he is upset than how he does if he wants to show his anger. This is true regardless of the language he uses to express these emotions. I have never heard a person learning English talk in monotone because he did not understand the finer points of the language.
Bjorn: Even if someone is not native in a language, ALL of the languages I have had experience with (Japanese, Tagalog, Spanish, and of course, English) convey meaning, tone, emotion, etc. the same way. I have NEVER come across ANYONE who had trouble getting their feelings across, emphasizing certain points, or stating facts in a language they are learning. It’s handled the same way in ALL of the languages I have been exposed to.
Although you might be excused. Maybe Icelandic uses a drop in voice for anger, a raise in pitch at the end of sentences for statements, and yelling to ask questions. Perhaps that is why you are trying to argue this silly point LOL.
here are a couple of statements from MPSIMS - mispronounced words
go to the tread for more http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001908.html[Mispronounced words]
then there is the http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001830.html[Favorite mistakes (your own or someone else’s) made in language class]
here is one for people who are lazy
and the best of it is, i didnt even write it myself 
bj0rn
erf…darn…ugh…urls!!
here they are again, and no fancy stuff this time:
mispr. words: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001908.html
fav. mistake: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001830.html
and one more thing(i just cant get enough)
you know this guy who played the teacher in “ferris buellers day off”, whats his name again, Ben Stein…yes thats the guy. you know how he talks.
bj0rn
Okay, bj0rn, you obviously don’t realize the difference between reality and fiction! Ben Stein speaks in monotone only for that movie, episodes of the Wonder Years, and Clear Eyes ™ commercials. On his game show, Stein does display emotion in his voice. His voice might be a very nasal, but there is definitely emotion in it.
Your links talk about pronouncing words. That is completely different than expressing ideas with emotion. You can tell if a person is angry by the sound of his words regardless of whether he pronounces all of them perfectly.
you didnt get it did you??
ok then, ill repeat it.
thank you (with a certain tone of voice!!!)
got that?
bj0rn
bj0rn,
Nobody on this board will EVER get it. Go away. Eat lava and die. Stop annoying us. Go plant some trees on that damn rock in the Atlantic. Enter the “Worlds Strongest Man Competition” and get crushed by a log. Become the mayor of Reykjavick, do SOMETHING to decrease the amount of time you have on your hands and thus devote to this board.
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)