# TVeblen: Cryptic? Belated link? What are you smoking? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 1, 2006, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941 "2006-01-01T10:15:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/1 "2006-01-01T10:15:43Z")
Okay, in this now-closed thread: [Staged end zone celebrations](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=6945924#post6945924), I wasn’t “pitting” anybody. I was in a conversation in Great Debates, and **pizzabrat** called me a racist. So I responded by insulting his intelligence. Unlike him, I opted to follow the board rules and move my insult to the pit, instead of doing it in Great Debates. **TVeblen** closed it with this comment: > [@](#): > > The main problem is that you didn’t put any effort into it. Why should Dopers have to puzzle out what you’re mad about? If you want to Pit someone or something, take a real swing at it. A few cryptic phrases and a belated link don’t cut it. I can only conclude that you aren’t very bright, either. First off, “belated” link? A whole 3 minutes? Did it ever occur to you that I might have needed to create the pit thread before I could link to it from Great Debates? My intent was to link to my last post in the original thread, (which by definition could not have existed until I created the pit thread, as I had to link to it), but then I figured it would be best to link to my post that precipitated him calling me a racist. (Thus the three minute delay.) Secondly, “effort”? I wasn’t making a circle-jerk “pitting”, I was actually using the fucking pit as it was intended to be used…as in, moving hostilities that arise in Great Debates to a separate forum. And finally, that GD thread had a three post block that precipitated the pit thread, with no posts in between. Three _consecutive_ posts. I linked to the first of the three. The last of the three linked back to the pit thread. Are you seriously stating that you couldn’t “puzzle out” what was going on? Are you really that stupid? Do you think that most dopers are so slow on the uptake that they wouldn’t have been able to figure it out? You know how some threads get moved by the mods to the pit when they get heated? Well, I moved over a hijack that got heated. It seemed appropriate to me, as the discussion was humming along nicely in Great Debates and I didn’t want to completely derail it. So what the fuck are you talking about “effort” for? And what the fuck is the purpose of the pit if not to serve as the safety valve by holding all the heated conversations so as not to pollute the other forums? Seriously, what the fuck? Oh yeah, and after being called a racist, a mod checks in to the Great Debates thread and gives _me_ the warning for moving my insult to the pit. So, **TVeblen** and **tomndebb** , you can both go fuck yourselves. Is that enough _effort_ for you, cunt? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/2 "2006-01-01T10:20:45Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > [Staged end zone celebrations](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=6945924#post6945924) That link shouldn’t be targeting the Jets post, but rather just the thread in general. (I must have used the email notification link, like a dumbass.) Proper link is: [Staged end zone celebrations](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=351729) ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/3 "2006-01-01T11:52:38Z")
You decided to insult someone in GD, and instead of just pitting them and posting a link, you had to get cutesy with it and split your insult into two posts. The first half of an insult is still part of the insult, so I think you still violated the spirit of the “no insults” rule. Not to mention that the pit thread is meaningless unless I want to go back to the other thread, read the whole thing, and figure out what’s going on. That’s a bad OP. You want to pit someone, just fucking write out a complete OP, like you have here, and post a link in GD, like you did there. See? That wasn’t so hard. Most of the problem with the last one was because you didn’t do a proper pitting. This thread is a properly structured pitting, I doubt anyone will complain about that aspect of it. No guarantees on the rest. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/4 "2006-01-01T15:37:32Z")
Du-u-ude! Put down that caffeine, man. You have hardly been censured. You haven’t been warned. You opened a thread in the Pit that was getting you more negative attention than you needed (because it was not really clear from the OP what you were going on about) and Veb closed it. My [exact statement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6947114&postcount=31) was: > [@](#): > > I appreciate the effort to not post insults in **GD**. It will probably be better, in the future, if you (and everyone) simply notes that they are calling someone into the **Pit** (with link). > > I don’t think you did anything “wrong,” but it does make my “cute” meter hum. As noted in the linked thread, itself, it also had the effect of riling up folks against you. So you had a Pit thread that was very much not going in your favor closed, you were given some advice on how to do a pitting, (which I see you have taken to heart), and you were thanked for not cluttering up GD with such posts. For this you have to get up in the middle of the night and write over a screen lenght of vituperation and angst? Well, enjoy yourself. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/5 "2006-01-01T23:49:13Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Are you seriously stating that you couldn’t “puzzle out” what was going on? Are you really that stupid? Do you think that most dopers are so slow on the uptake that they wouldn’t have been able to figure it out? > \ > Is that enough _effort_ for you, cunt? This apparently comes as a shock to you, **Ellis Dee** , but Dopers don’t slavishly follow your every move on the board, forum to forum. Your being upset doesn’t rate the board equivalent of a CNN news crawl. “Oh no! Ellis Dee outraged in Great Debates!” Most Dopers pretty much decide whether or not to read threads that look interesting to _them_. Self-centered of 'em , isn’t it? See, Dopers don’t automatically give a shit whether you’re upset or not, or even why. Your first mistake was to assume they cared that you were all that angry when you didn’t even bother to say _why_. A few little clues is not a Pit rant. Your second mistake was to assume that Dopers should then wade through a big honkin’ GD thread to figure out whether your outraged was justified. You mistook complete indifference for stupidity. So yeah, your behavior in that Pit thread was lazy as well as arrogant toward other posters. Your third mistake was to attack mods for doing our jobs, no matter that we did it civilly and fairly. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/6 "2006-01-02T02:48:57Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > Your third mistake was to attack mods for doing our jobs, no matter that we did it civilly and fairly. Is snarky the new civil? (I’ll give you fairly.) On the other points, uh, crap. I see your point. _sigh_ One thing that strikes me as funny is how wildly perception fluctuates from person to person, even among mods. Was the closed pit thread “very much not going in [my] favor”, or was it met with “complete indifference”? This is a rhetorical question, the answer to which demonstrates to me that I flew off the handle. Sorry, **TVeblen** , just being snarky in your closing didn’t warrant my response. And sorry, to you as well, **tomndebb**. Still, the thread is open to **pizzabrat** , if you’d like to continue the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/7 "2006-01-02T03:00:24Z")
Yeah, sometimes I figure the Mods must be using a Magic Eight Ball to determine their responses to some threads. Then, I just light up a big fat one and say, “What the fuck.” ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/8 "2006-01-02T03:10:19Z")
Damn **Ellis Dee** , way to go. I can only hope I would show such graciousness in a similar situation. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/9 "2006-01-02T04:11:36Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Is snarky the new civil? The Offenderati are so cute. If you find that explanation for a thread closing ‘snarky’, consider the apt and time-honored alternative: “Too stupid to live”, with a slap for dicking around Pit readers. I swear, some people would complain if you beheaded 'em with a clean axe. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/10 "2006-01-02T10:53:44Z")
Shit. I can remember when it was mandatory to use red 72-point all caps bolded characters when the C-word was used. The Dope is slipping, man. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/11 "2006-01-02T16:01:21Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > I swear, some people would complain if you beheaded 'em with a clean axe. Well, certainly, if you do it from the wrong side! And your grip’s _all wrong!_ ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/12 "2006-01-03T19:37:49Z")
> [@Coldfire](#): > > Shit. I can remember when it was mandatory to use red 72-point all caps bolded characters when the C-word was used. > > The Dope is slipping, man. 😃 The red 72 point all caps bolded C-Word was retired in your honor when you hung the mod clogs. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/13 "2006-01-04T04:07:26Z")
I feel responsible in some way. Not enough to feel guilty about it, though. What the OP did was equivalent to a 10 year-old told that name-calling was forbidden on school property, who then steps off school property in mid-sentence to call another 10 year-old a name. And thinks he’s being clever in the process. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tveblen-cryptic-belated-link-what-are-you-smoking/337941/14 "2006-01-04T04:42:39Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > What the OP did was equivalent to a 10 year-old told that name-calling was forbidden on school property, who then steps off school property in mid-sentence to call another 10 year-old a name. Let’s avoid criticizing people who can’t respond due to being on suspension. I’m going to go ahead and close this one.