What's your least favorite message board quirk?

The current quirk is you can no longer search for short thread names like “Um,” one I liked a lot.

And a similar complaint is titles that don’t tell you what the thread’s about.

{My other problem (see if you can spot it below) has been solved. Yea IMHO! Lose some, win some, I guess.}

Here’s the current list {most blank lines, quotes, and hijacks removed}

** WHAT DID THEY LEAVE OUT THAT BUGS YOU ?**


FlatULance I hate to see sentences started with "Um, ".

casdave Seeing someone get their ass chewed off followed by a smiley face STOP WIMPIN OUT if you mean it then mean it.

Sealemon88 My least favorite message board quirk is long, unending blocks of text.

Dusy I think it’s poor form to “welcome” someone with a big dose of paternalistic advice and comments about how they’re a newbie. The message you get is
A) you’re unskilled at BB’s in general, because you just signed on to this one, and
B) Don’t forget I’ll always be ahead of you in my mind’s pecking order. You wish!

Farlley It’s odd when people tell you that you haven’t contributed enough to the topic, and then don’t add anything themselves.

mega the roo Mine is when people quote the whole OP in their reply. I mean, it’s not like if they don’t do it, we won’t know what they’re responding to.

tshirtz I think it’s dumb some people score a post numerically and that’s all they say. That’s just a lazy way to pretend you’re involved. Put some wit into it or give scoring a rest.

chiungtung The “what’s your weekend plans” hijack is pretty tired.

Koffing I don’t know if this counts as a quirk, but I find it annoying when someone’s posts have way to many columns and forces the entire thread wider than my monitor.

Coldfire OK, I’m gonna go out on a limb here. chiungtung. Registers today, and has so far only posted in the Pit and on threads about how the MB sucks. He’s either a very cynical lurker, or just a new incarnation of one of the posters that got banned over the last few days. And THAT’S what really sucks about this MB.

Homer what really bugs me
is when someone types up their shi
t in these broken chunky
blocks that
make no sense what is this some type of strange haiku or something why dont
you just type it correctly only
use the ent
er key when you really want to move on to the next line you dont have to use it every few seconds
just for the heck
of it
it really looks quite random and while
youre at it howzabout some
correct spelling grammar capitalization and punctuation you big freakin wierdo
s --T i
m

Satan_squared I hate it when some people start boring private chit-chat on a thread. Get out your instant messaging software, email or a real telephone and spare the rest of us.

Rechenanlagen I’d have to say it’s people who think they can sway you by refering to their grand post count. They all have several 30-post-long “smilie test” threads on About This Message Board. Pumpin’ Air.

Dusy The thing I hate is the packs of friends who use their AOL instant messenger to get everyone over to kill a new thread by someone on their hit list. Just not nice.

Esprix It personally bugs the hell out of me when people open a thread, read it, decide they’re not interested in the topic, but still feel compelled to post a message saying, “This thread is stupid!” Whiny brats. If you aren’t interested in a thread, no one is forcing you to read it, let alone respond to it. Esprix

Bucky I get bothered by two things, mostly:

  1. People telling everyone else how smart they are (the poster, that is) with a level of spelling and grammar that cannot be blamed on typos. Maybe booze could be blamed, but if you make five mistakes in a typical sentence, maybe you’re not that smart.
  2. People who initiate insults, especially using words or concepts that might get them punched in real life. Bucky

beakerxf The thing that has consistently bugged me at this board and others are the members who are there only to build themselves up by tearing others down. They’re either whining about unfair treatment, patrolling for infractions by other members. and accusing the other posters of having it “in” for them. Their only attempts to contribute to threads are to critique the posters.
Second pet peeve, those who constantly harp on the mods for not meeting the individual’s unattainable standards

ChiefScott Smilies. Goddamn, smilies.

Coldfire :smiley: :wink: :slight_smile: :open_mouth: :stuck_out_tongue: I hate smartasses post deliberately to piss another poster off.

Show_Biz I’d have to say it’s people who attack other’s “credibility” from a stupid answer on another forum. Take the individual posts as they come.
A) Nobody here is running for office. We don’t care what’s in our closets. (Although mine is just repainted, and I like to point that out. No one thinks to comment on that, some how, but it’s a lot of work, with the shelves and tight corners and all.)
B) Nobody here has researched all the topics they respond to. That’s Cecil’s job, and he even has helper bunnies

Mister Armageddon {quotes Coldfire} Interestingly enough, I find it annoying when someone with a low post count makes a good point, and then gets accused of being a troll despite the lack of any other evidence. But maybe that’s just me.

Show_Biz I find it strange some people will put their real message in the signature, varying it for every post to add a little fillip. I often miss that unless I reread the Thread after I post. Then I see what they were driving at.

Fonz Sign me up for being tired of “WTF”. Did you learn that at kindergarten? If you want to say, say it. If you don’t, don’t use lame babytalk. It’s reading as old to me now as “What the f*ck” did 10 years ago.

Pink Slinky I hate it when Catholics, just because they invented Christianity, think they can tell the true followers of God who we, the Messengers of the Lord, have to pray to on this plain of sin and sorrow. Oops, wrong board.

Shayna My least favorite message board quirk is when it crashes and I can’t get in to read or post. All the other shit I can ignore if I don’t like it.

beakerxf {quotes ChiefScott} [newbie hijack] Why do some people hate smilies? [/newbie hijack]

UncleBeer {quotes beakerxf } Do we need a reason? I hate menudo too; I’m sure I don’t need a reason for that.

Nacho4Sara I hate when ex-members have “BANNED” after their name and I don’t know why. I wanna know, damnit! Maybe there could be a full-length, detailed, explicit explanation afterwards? Just a thought…

evernewbie I’m kind of sad to see people’s posts slip out of sight in a couple of hours, even if they get some answers. Too many questions, not enough forums. {Thank you IMHO!}

Rilchiam Just a word of advice, not a rant: Use the new “Preview Reply/Post” feature. It’s given me a number of second chances on smilies

It_is_to_laugh-Non I guess the thing that always surprizes me is when someone complains you are responding to the original post without having read every detail of all 128 intervening posts. You’ve probably read them over several versions and forgotten the details, is all. And the OP and last post are more important to the next person to enter the thread than all the sidewinding inbetween.

Fonz Why do some people do this?
.
.
.
.
.
etc. Just DOTS until they run off the screen. What IS the point of that?

meara I roll my eyes at the “Setting up a lawn chair and sitting back to watch the fun” messages, but they don’t really bother me.
What bugs me most are complaints like:
“I can’t believe all of you non-particle-physicists are even presuming to debate this. You are obviously ignorant of even the most basic thermo-nuclear-gigawatt-hyperdrive theory and have no idea what you’re talking about. Hopefully some real scientists will stop by to correct all of your errors since I don’t have the time right now.”
e.g. this real, live example: {quotes other threads}
Geeeesh. If all debates were confined to experts in the subject, this would be a encyclopedia, not a message board. In many cases, there are no “experts” available and it is left to us to argue among ourselves and try to hash out some answers. If you know better about something, say so, but don’t insist that nobody had the right to debate it without you.
On the other hand, if you have nothing to add and are not interested in the opinions of the unwashed masses, don’t read the thread!!

: D UncleBeer: “Why do some people hate smilies? Do we need a reason?” me: :frowning:

Revtim I agree with the OP that people typing a sentence that starts with “Umm” is pretty idiotic. It’s like that Simpsons episode where Lisa is reading the note from Hans Sprungfeld/Springfield, and he apparently wrote out “HA HA HA HA” at the end.
And thread hijacking in general irks me. If you are so turned off by the subject matter of the thread, ignore it. Why do you think you have the right to pollute other people’s conversations, because you don’t like what they are talking about? Go straight to hell, censor wanna-be.

ultress For one, people who have nothing better to offer a topic than to bitch and moan about it. Stay away from topics that you don’t like.
Two, you get bitched at when you try to help someone new on the board, and you get bitched at when you don’t. A losing game.
A message board is what you make it.

Brunetter Revtim, don’t forget “the castle ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH” from Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
I realize that posting here as a newbie is only going to get me into trouble, but I am hoping that someone will pounce on the chance to define “troll” for me. I assumed that it was a poster who had simply fallen out of favor due to being obnoxious/stupid/etc, but looking at Mister Armageddon’s post it seems to have a deeper meaning. Help a newbie out and 'splain?

Kricket Damn and I was going to bring extra chairs for others. Did anyone bring any munchies?
Cristi usually brings the Cheezy-poofs, but she’s in the process of moving right now.
I so far have no complaints about quirks, but then again I am pretty easy going.
Brunetter, that is one of my favorite movies!

Osip Um I hate responding to threads where the OP poster has been banned. Along with 4 others in the thread. I see the Mods are on the ball today. Way to go Mods!
High Five and various other forms of encouragement! That is what I LIKE about this message board. Osip

Baloo [Absurd] Thus thrwead is soooo stupifd! And mnone of you have any right to qestion my abilty to rendr suc a jujment becase I was in the miltrary for 20 yearrs, and stoopd is a marital art! [/Absurd]
It’s no-one’s fault, but sometimes it bugs me when I make what I think is a meaningful/relevant/deep-and-thoughtful reply, and either some troll comes along and says something really stupid about it or (lacking a troll) my genius goes unrecognized and everyone keeps going like I never posted.
Another thing I hate is when I’ve been absent during a troll-war (or some other juicy, scandalous event) has ended (and been cleaned up after) and I missed everything! It’s so much less satisfying having to winkle the details out of others second-hand than it is to see the fireworks first hand. (I don’t feed trolls, but I don’t mind watching them starve to death, either.)
Then again, I like the fact that this message board allows me to preview my messages and (usually) cach mistakes. (I said usually!) --Baloo

Oat Willie {quotes Brunetter}This and other local terms are defined (with varying precision) in the thread: Molosters

tshirts Osip I’m not fond of posts like Osip’s above: {quotes Osip} 1) Starting with um makes you look stupid (previously noted)
2) It’s disingenuous when people say they don’t want to respond and then do.
3) Banned status doesn’t affect any of the arguments above.
4) Encouraging the mods is not frowned on (I’ve done it, as others above, such as coosa) However, you should check the details before you ascribe their motives as relating to your concerns.
Your concerns may just be starting if you attack four strangers at once without knowing where they are now. They could all be waiting in the wings to laugh when it’s your turn to trip.
(In this case, tshirtz was a second name of mine, and was banned for the 1-name rule. It was actually tshirts that got into trouble, yet kindly they permitted me to use it as the surviving name. FlatULance was here before as Flat U. Lance, and was probably here under another name earlier. So, it’s a reasonable guess he’s with us yet (perhaps with the name Osip, for all we know). Farlley was likewise here in two incarnations (one was Farley). chiungtung doesn’t look banned, but other threads said he was, and I now see the name chiung-tung when I just searched. So here, your supposition was backward. Etc. for the others.) Personally welcomed (5/5/2000 09:41pm) by Cecil- Noblesse Oblige personified ™ :slight_smile:

handy Oh, this one is easy, it’s that so very many posts don’t seem to have any meaning at all. Some of the questions, although not stupid, I just can’t figure out why anyone would want to know the answer…
And then those who don’t search first.
Plus, those who think they know more than you do, which is almost everyone

Baloo “And then those who don’t search first.”
Well, even I know the answer to that one (because sometimes I do it myself).
Sometimes ome posts a question, even a seemingly unimportant one, not because you are interested in “The Answer”, but because you are interested in all the answers. That is to say, f’rinstance, when Opalcat or UncleBeer have something to say about a matter, you get so much more than “X because Y”. :slight_smile:
(I do wish images were on. I prefer my [8]own smileys.)

Brunetter Cheers to Baloo <thread hijack for shameless praise> Baloo, I enjoyed that quote so much that I stole it for my new sig. Thanks for summing up the heart of the SDMB. </thread hijack>

mouthbreather I do occasionally use the “Um…” starter, but only in response to something blatantly moronic. ex. “How do you know that the word green starts with a “g”? what if you have been taught that the letter “h” is actually “g”? how would anyone know???” my response: “Um…ok, sparky…now run along.”
Note: I would never use “um” when seriously responding to a post.

funneefarmer Um, don’t it jes’ irk ya’ when someone posts a topic that belongs in either ATMB or The Pit. Or does it irk you when someone comes along and tells ya’ this belongs in The Pit or ATMB and uses really bad sentence structure and alot of apostrophes ?

I don’t like it when people say you should lurk before you post. Most people come with a question for Cecil. If they lurked first, they would realize Cecil only reads email, not threads, and we’d miss all the new good questions.

Mine is having to boost your own thread.
Some gems deserve more permanent status because they contain information you want to refer back to, but don’t really call for responses. E.g., Don’t forget the link. Here’s how to post one, Part Next

(If someone will boost mine one time, I’ll boost theirs. :slight_smile: )

‘Lurk before you post’ is a very basic peice of netiquette. Like in any social situation, you don’t just barge in and start with the questions that have been answered a thousand times, lame jokes that were told 5 minutes ago, etc.

You visit, figure out the group dynamics, injokes, and common knowledge, and then get involved. That way you don’t make a fool out of yourself, and annoy the people who are already there. Well…you still might, but at least you’ll have tried.

I hate people who tell you when to start posting, and what’s OK not to upset the old folks. Old folks: Take a hint. If you don’t like hearing new voices, turn down your hearing aid.

I agree with this (not surprising, because I did it).

In no way am I saying that lurking should be mandatory, or that some people aren’t perfectly capable of jumping in right away (particularly if they AREN’T new to message boards), but I do think that lurking first is generally a smart thing to do, in terms of figuring out what’s appropriate, how to fit in, etc. I wouldn’t criticize someone who didn’t lurk, but I will say lurking made MY “initiation” a LOT easier.

People responding to cites and quotes with “I don’t believe that” or something similar. Or people demanding cites when they themselves haven’t given any and should have. Or people demanding cites when the issue at hand is a matter of opinion.

Or people who bring up people who bring up cites…

Or people who start silly threads about Star Destroyer vs. Enterprise…

Just kidding–I really like your posts and your sense of humor, SPOOFE! (And I’m in awe that the ISD vs. Enterprise thread is STILL GOING!) :slight_smile:

My quirk is to dislike incredibly long posts and/or signature lines.

They should give me some warning. After all, I’m bringing the keg.

The one I used to cringe at, but now laugh at, is the assertion that someone must have done something terrible to be banned. I did a few things, but I’m pretty sure some of the others were just standing in the crossfire with a low post count. But I no longer grieve for them. While I made amends to get back, I’m sure now the pattern is just to start fresh. (Hmmm…)

I’d say it has to be this troll/troll hunt cat and mouse thing. It’s so lame, back and forth. Neither side wants to quit when they’re ahead, so they push for a new round. And we’re supposed to feel sorry for both sides. Yes, boo hoo.

I’m kind of surprised that you can change your name, and the count is big and the new name appears on all the old threads, but when you search, you only find the posts made with the new name.

I wonder if people know this?
Soupy here. He’s got 100+ posts and some people know him, so I think I’ll look him up, but I only get twelve listings.

So, I guess we need a scorecard program with footnotes, like baseball players who changed uniforms and got new numbers.

I’d have to agree about the incredibly long sigs. Some people have two or even three sigs, one right after the other. This slows up the loarding time of the thread.
Pick one, and change it when you want to, please.

[ul]
[li]Back in the “good old days”, when the SDMB used the UBB software instead of the current vBulletin software, clicking on “quote” would prepend the words “Originally posted by <username>” to the text of the quoted message, where <username> was the exact username of the poster. Nowadays, if I want to say who it was I’m quoting (and I always want to), and it’s a long or weirdly-spelled username, I have to go back to the thread and copy-and-paste the poster’s username into my reply.[/li]
[li]You can’t edit or delete a message you have already posted. If you hit Submit and then notice a flagrant spelling or grammatical mistake, tough tookies. You also can’t delete any of your own double-posts.[/li]
[li]If you change your signature, the change is retro-fitted onto all of the signatures of all the messages you’ve previously posted. It’s really, really bizarre to go back and read messages from a month ago whose signatures say “We miss you, Wally”.[/li]
[li]Posts written before the switchover from UBB to vB have had all their UBB square-bracket tags turned into uninterpreted HTML tags, like <I> and <B>. This is probably because the UBB software converted the square-bracket tags into HTML tags internally, but it still sucks.[/li]
[li]Leading and trailing spaces are not trimmed off of usernames internally, but they are trimmed off when they’re displayed. This allows trolls to create new accounts with names like " WallyM7", which looks like “WallyM7” when displayed in a thread and would make everybody think that Wally was still alive and had been playin’ a big mean joke on us.[/li][/ul]

I don’t know if it’s a bug, if it’s fixable, or if it’s even a problem, but I don’t like the fact that if you preview your post, it doesn’t show how your vB brackets will display. I’m so used to coding HTML that I’ll hit the carat key instead of a bracket. Then I look like a dunce when my post goes up.

I hate to see tons of mushy {{{{{{{{{…}}}}}}}}}}

and :::::sad face:::::

It’s strange, like when little kids say they are “very very very very very…” or beg “Please please please please…”

Just too whiney.

  1. I hate to see subjects that are not complete. Like, in the subject line, it’ll say “How do I make…” Then when you click on the thread, it’ll say “…my own ice cream?”

  2. Tracer already mentioned this, but I’ll reiterate it here. That function of the old UBB software that allowed you to reply to a user’s post with their name in it was real nifty. Now, it adds 5 or 6 unnecessary lines.

  3. People who don’t hit return twice to begin a new paragraph. If you’re going to hit only once, why hit it at all? The paragraphs will still be together. One poster really sticks out in my mind who is guilty of this, but I’ll refrain on the name.

I don’t like the way quotes are separated by spaces and in bold and solid lines _______ and more blank lines.

It’s just too much. I end up creating quotes on my own with a simple line, like this:

John:___
Blah blah…


I don’t like imposter trolls. Especially the ones who try to tell me what to do.