What's going on? Lost Rudder?

The BBQ Pit
#1

What’s going on here at the SDMB? The level of civility has been dropping rapidly. Just today in the GQ section, a fellow “elbows” posted four questions that had been burning in him for TEN years

http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/002083.html

jayron 32 popped back that

I’ve noticed more and more questions are being shot down unanswered.

What’s up?

I thought the 2 unworthy questions were legitimate questions.

Is it just that you feel the OP should delve into serious research before asking, maybe search the SDMB archive (with the busted search engine), or go to www.ask.com.

Is not this board, and the SD in general, just for those sort of burning questions?

#2

That’s what I woulda thunk, Mr Thin, but others apparently disagree.

We do get questions that could be answered with about five minutes and a dictionary or encyclopedia. It doesn’t mean they’re not “worth” answering, it just means that the question-poser obviously hasn’t thought too hard.

Cecil sometimes declares that some questions aren’t “worth” his time to answer, but that’s usually because:

  • There’s no fact, it’s all speculation or belief
  • The answer is readily available elsewhere, and Cecil doesn’t need to spend a column on it
  • The answer is not of general enough interest to be worth a column

But that’s Cecil.

#3

Mr. Thin-
I agree with your observation that things have really cooled down here in the SDMB. It seems that since a lot of the regulars left, the general tone is much more hostile. People just seem ruder…
I thought it was just me…

An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.

#4

It’s not you, Mr. Thin. There are many defenders of SDMB protocol just waiting to put you in your place. Slythe, with his usual keen sense of diplomacy welcomes this long lost, well traveled, absentee Doper with:

I’ll leave this poster anonymous:

Umm? Yeah…in a hurry to attack spelling, grammar, and ‘capitalzation’? Well, slow down, think about it, and then don’t uhmm get irk, or be irk, well, you know what I mean, and I knew what you meant.

I’ve attacked here. From this day forward (trumpets tooting) I will never attack a persons English usage because I will assume it’s a simple typo, an oversite…sight. If my usage is attacked, I will not respond. I will not comment on the worthiness of a question, If I don’t like it, I will not respond. I will try, I know I won’t always succeed, to not be a jerk. I reserve the right to recant all of this bullshit.

#5

Actually, I was just kidding about the stupid part, in reply to the previous posts. The fact that I appreciated ORIGINAL questions for once, I was totally serious. Sorry if it came out the wrong way.

#6

My apologies to you, slythe…group hug…oh god, I think I’m going to throw up.

Am I being a jerk, yet?

#7

Um,Pooch? I’m omnisexual. NICE hug, though.

#8

I’ll claim responsibility for the decreasing quality of the board. I have no idea what I had to do with it, but I just recently found this place and started posting, so perhaps there’s some correlation.

Happened at Anandtech too, I think. :slight_smile:
Just kidding, of course.

#9

I think just the overall tone of the posts are so damned rude. A while back I posted on a topic in the pit- I was not confrontational at all…just put my 2cents in on an issue. Wasn’t even contraversial. So some idiot takes my comments out of context and starts ragging me about them. I posted back reiterating my original comment and saying that I though they were really rude to me. They told me since it was the pit, basically tough shit. I didn’t bother answering or reading any more, since obviously they weren’t interested in my actual point, just calling me a crybaby basically.
Well, even when its permitted, you don’t have to be an asshole or a nitpicker. I find that even outside the pit- someone makes a comment and immediately people are jumping all over them- correcting grammer- implying that people are stupid if they misspell something. I mean, come on already! Give it a friggin rest. Lots of people make typos or don’t spell great. Some people don’t have English as a first language. It seems to me the level of respect that used to be present on these boards is all but gone. What a shame.
So let the flaming begin…actually don’t bother- I’ll do it for you…

-Why don’t you leave if you don’t like it?
-Wah! Wah! What a baby!
-If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen!
blah, blah, blah.
Guess maybe I’m just in a cynical mood.

(On the other hand, thanks to Tomndeb for actually having a decent discussion with me, right here in the pit- about my possible mistake about boarder crossing from Canada. Didn’t feel the need to call me a moron or stupid, just talked. Thanks Tom.)

An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.