Gosh–someone who calls himself a vile person accuses me of being on a high horse. I feel like I’m in a Saturday morning cartoon.
Daniel
Yes, we’d hate to have vitriol in the BBQ pit.
And I’ve certainly dished out and taken my share. The OP seems disturbed that he cannot slam Shirley for her “popsicle stick humor” in that thread. Too bad. Move on.
Q. Why didn’t the giraffe go to a bar in Texas?
eats popsicle
A. He already had a longneck!
It’s of importance because this is the Pit, a place which is supposed to be for, and I quote this from the stickies at the top, complaints about a poster’s behavior in another thread. As the thread in question went from being about SU’s behavior in Tripler’s thread to her behavior in other threads, IMO the scope of the thread changed. It became an attack against a single poster, and while those might be considered “vile,” they are within the scope of what is allowable for this forum.
And besides, it wasn’t Tripler’s thread, it was Thunder’s. The only person who might possibly be “allowed” to ask for its closing was Thunder. But even then, I don’t think it should have been closed–I agree with mhendo, once I post a thread it doesn’t belong to me anymore, it belongs to the community, and they can decide what to do with it, whether it’s to let the thread die, attack others with vitriol, or turn it back around on me. If SU was proud of her jokes in other threads (and I was NOT the only person complaining about her general posting style), then she should have defended them, instead of being a coward.
But no, the mods cut her slack because she’s a “sweetie” and an MPSIMSer. I swear, you people won’t be content until the entire board is mundane and pointless. Since when is “lame” (AFAIK, the strongest direct “insult” used in that thread) such a threat to one’s self-esteem? And since when is this forum about improving one’s self-esteem?
You’re probably right on this part. Tell you what, start a new thread about Shirley in general. That’d probably fly. Or email Lynn laying out your reasons just like you did here asking her to reopen it.
I closed the thread because Shirley apologized, Tripler (who had been the most wronged, IMO) said that it was all right, and I felt that anything else to be added would simply be flaming for the sake of flaming. The Pit is NOT here just so that people can wield flamethrowers at each other. If you have a problem with a poster, then by all means, bring it up. BUT if the problem seems to be resolved, and any further interaction seems to be mere shitstirring for the sake of shitstirring, then I will close the thread.
Incidentally, I got several messages from a variety of people asking me to look at the thread in question to see if maybe I should close it. I did choose the wrong message to copy in my closing post, but I still think that closing that thread was the right thing to do.
Lynn
For the Straight Dope
So now the question is: if one still had a problem with Shirley (e.g. you didn’t believe the apology was sincere) and wanted to flame her some more for that particular offense, would it be against the rules to start a new pit thread now that that one’s closed?
(not that I want to, mind you; I’m just curious)
Hey, I heard there was a dead horse in here …
Margie raises her bat, looks around
Because they can?
The horror…the horror…
Wait a minute, there’s no horror at all! Seriously, I’m trying to give a good goddamn about the idea that a pittee might request a thread be closed, but I can’t! I just can’t!
Yeah, I probably wouldn’t close a new thread flaming Shirley, assuming it wasn’t just a rehash of the old thread. That is, I’d want to see a new offense stated.
As I stated earlier, the Pit is not a free-for-all. There are other message boards and other communities where flaming is allowed simply to enjoy the heat. The SDMB is not one of them, never has been, and I very much doubt that it ever will be.
Lynn
For the Straight Dope
I’ve seen mods leave threads open, despite the request from the pittee that it be closed because they have already “taken their medicine.” The mods response is usually something along the lines of “Mope, you made your bed, now lie in it.”
Just shows that sometimes blanket parties are the best medicine.
…and when they said that, they usually had a mouthful of sandwich. I assume they mean to say “Nope” rather than “mope.”
Yeah, that’s just what I mean. This seems like nothing more than favoritism, and if there’s one thing that’s managed to ruin most other boards I’ve posted at over the years, it’s favoritism. Either announce a “pittee may ask for and will receive a closing of their thread” rule and post it to the stickies, or don’t close a thread for anyone. And that thread was also nowhere near a trainwreck. That’s an insult to the word trainwreck. As I recall, the majority of posters were sticking up for SU, which is not the case with other pitted members. There are many threads where mods have, quote, allowed people to “wield flamethrowers at each other.”
And no, I’m not going to open a new thread to pit SU, because frankly it isn’t that important to me. I wasn’t planning to post any more in that thread anyway. I just see the same kind of crap happening here as happens on other (worse? not so sure anymore) boards, and I wanted to call it out.
But Lynn didn’t close it because Shirley asked for it be closed. Lynn closed it because she felt Shirley’s apology made continuing the thread unnecessary, particularly in light of Tripler’s posts near the end of the thread. Mods close threads all the time that they think have run their course.
Just one question, davenportavenger, about something I noticed about you but hadn’t up to now felt the need to say. When you were called continuity eror (by the way, I liked that username, it was clever), you seemed to be a good participant to the discussions here, rather polite, and actually, I think that I considered you to be rather “sweet”. But since your change, you seem to exist solely to flame. It started with the Wesley Clark pitting (which was actually a little bit before the change), continued in other threads, such as the Unregistered Bull pitting where you were trying to convince us that there are posters here who value animals over humans, a few other threads which I forgot, and now we see you seemingly take pleasure in bashing “MPSIMSers” and actually claiming to be “vile”. So I ask, what’s up with that? Did you decide that a change of username would be a good time to change your persona here? Unless you were just as vile before, except I didn’t notice it; but I doubt it, since I had noticed you before but you hadn’t given me this impression.
Ah, so here comes the “turning it around” part of the post. OMG I want this thread to close!
No, I don’t believe the tone of my posts have changed. WC’s posts and post titles have pissed me off since I got here, so I finally made a post about it. And like you said, that was before the change. And in the “Katrina animals” thread, there was at least one poster (PapSett?) who said that if it came down to saving a human or saving her dog, the human was toast. So yeah, there are at least a few posters here who care about animals more than people. As for all of my posts being vile slams against other members, prove it. So far, the only people I can remember pitting on are SU, WC, and maybe some of the people in the animal thread, but then, they deserve it for ragging on my species. That is way less abuse than a lot of other people dish out. Maybe I am just choosing the wrong people to target?
And I bashed MPSIMS before; you (and the whole Googleverse, now) can search the archives and see. Maybe I’ve gotten more confrontational, but maybe that’s just because there’s more to get confrontational about. Garbage in, snarkiness out.
You’re continuity eror? I had no idea. I am not motivated enough to search for posts to support this, but as continuity eror, you weren’t on my “asshole radar.” As davenportavenger, you are. I agree with severus that your style has changed.
Woosh? 
Well, the thing is I hadn’t noticed you be angry and flame other people much before, but now that’s about all I see you do. I’m sure that’s not all you do – I don’t read all your posts – but that’s almost all I see.
Yes, it was her. This is the post. Note, though, that she was pretty much the only one to say that. And in a way, I see where she’s coming from. She’s been ostracized by humans all her life, and only her animals have been there to offer her love. Maybe in such a situation, a tough girl like you wouldn’t care, but not all people are like you. And unlike you, I can certainly understand her point of view – really, from a selfish point of view (and we’re all selfish), why should I help things that harm me instead of things that heal me? Not that I share this point of view, of course, and you know it, and you know that most people here don’t share it either.
And anyway, you started posting in this thread long before her post. People were under the impression that you were saying that it was okay for survivors to be sad over the loss of their possessions, but not to mourn their pets. I’m sure that’s not what you meant, but you never clarified. Plus, this exchange made me go :rolleyes: :
[ul]
[li]Your first message;[/li][li]Guinastasia’s reply;[/li][li]your reply.[/li][/ul]
Way to attack a strawman. That’s not at all what uglybeech was talking about.
I’m sure they’re not, but I’ve seen you much more angry than you were before these last few weeks. And you’re the one who called yourself “vile”.
Meh, I also don’t really like the “MPSIMS culture”. (By the way, {{{davenportavenger}}}.) I just roll my eyes and check something else. Believe me, Thunder’s thread wasn’t closed because we must not harm poor Shirley’s feelings. Lynn said she closed it because Tripler, who was the harmed party in this, and who was the one whose feelings we should mostly try to consider, seeing how he just lost a colleague, also requested it closed.
Yes. davenportavenger claims that pit victims can request that threads be closed to spare their feelings, so now that she’s pitted, she pretends to ask it to be closed.