I don’t get it. If the terms of service don’t allow personal attacks why was the pit forum created. I’m a new poster and I was shocked by the comments made against certain posters.
I guess if someone upset me enough I would pit them. I just don’t understand why there is a forum devoted to this. I’ve never seen any other boards that do this and it is quite unique.
I also read the rules and I am LMAO about what language is allowed and which swear words were ok and which ones were off limits…very funny.
The Pit allows personal insults to allow blowing off steam and confine that sort of behavior in one place.
That way, if you don’t want to see fighting between members, you just stay out of the Pit and it shouldn’t intrude on your enjoyment of the other forums.
It can be fun and it’s a good release valve. There are rules against insults and other kinds of behavior in the other forums, but there is not a rule against it for the entire site. And it’s not only for attacking other posters.
I find it amusing that people get so worked up over a message board that they need a release valve. But as others said, if one doesn’t want to read it one doesn’t have to.
I always found validation on a message board silly as well, but again whatever floats your boat.
To clarify, the Registration Agreement requires that discussions on this board “remain civil.” The degree of civility expected varies between forums. The Pit is the only one in which this requirement is mainly removed, but even there some comments may be over the line.
I find the existence of the Pit funny. It’s like you have guests over at your house for a nice dinner party, and they are hanging out in the living room and out on the patio and having nice, civil conversations, but you also announce that if discussions get heated or people want to vent, they can go to the kitchen, where they can yell at each other and call each other asshole and a jerk. But, they should limit the name calling only to the kitchen.
So, Bob and Paul are having a civil conversation in the living room, then they go to the kitchen and scream at each other and call each other an asshole, and afterward they head back to the living room where they continue being civil to each other.
If this sounds ridiculous in real life, why isn’t it ridiculous on the SDMB?
What’s so ridiculous about that in real life? You’ve never seen people get in a fight at a party, take it outside, and then return after it’s settled? Admittedly, it’s not something you see too much after college (I would hope), but it’s not exactly an unprecedented social dynamic.
That’s exactly what I’m saying. Outside of college kids (and younger), having educated, grown adult acquaintances have a special room to go and cuss each other out, and then return to the rest of the house to continue a civil discussion is unheard of.
I don’t think the behavior of kids is something this board is trying to emulate.
That is not unheard of. It’s actually fairly common. Suppose you are having dinner at your wife’s parent’s house, and they are a little uptight. In their presence you adhere to certain conventions and promote a certain decorum. The moment you are in private with your wife or friends, you may let out some curses. Or consider serving a rude customer at a restaurant. It would be one thing to give it to them straight-up (heh, pun) while waiting on them; it is another if you meet them around town the next day. Or consider behavior in a classroom as opposed to in the halls. The real world is filled with different ‘forums’, each with different degrees of social restrictions. In some forums it is OK to curse and rough-house; in others it is totally inappropriate.
But this is not a good analogy of what happens in the Pit. The analogy would be:
Suppose you are having dinner at your wife’s parent’s house, and they are a little uptight. In their presence you adhere to certain conventions and promote a certain decorum. After a couple of hours of this, you can’t take it anymore, and ask your father-in-law to a specially designated room, where you start saying “You fucking asshole, you are a shitstain on humanity.” He responds in kind. You wife and mother-in-law join the discussion, and you call your wife a whore and your mother-in-law calls you a fag. After half an hour of this, you all go back to the living room and start politely discussing the latest movie and you ask your father in law if he would like some tea and crumpets.
Oh shit. She just pitted the Pit. It’s… it’s… just too meta. The world may implode. The only thing that can save us now is if she calls the Pit the C-word.
