Really, why did she feel the need to dig up that fossil, dust it off and stick it? Ed already has a new rules sticky in the Pit and in some cases, his rules directly contradict hers. Yes, we get it, Lynn thinks she runs the Pit. Ooooh, all hail the mighty Lynn. Raaaar, Lynn smash!! Honestly, is a little consistency too much to ask around here?
Elucidate, please.
Okay, I would amend that. That was the wrong phrase to use. What I mean is, it says nothing whatsoever that Ed’s doesn’t, and leaves out a whole lot. If someone were to read that thinking it was THE Pit rules, they’d be sadly mistaken. It’s just…unnecessary, to put it charitably.
Plus it has a bunch of really stupid rules like the “No Lawnchairs” one–yeah, discourage people from posting–that’s a good idea. Used to be that the “lawnchair” posts were a way of people keeping a thread at the top of the queue while waiting for the pit-ee to arrive–without necessarily piling on. An “I’m interested…let’s wait and see what happens.” post. Now? Without that? People just start piling on before the pit-ee arrives. That really helped make the Pit a more interesting place.
Or the “No joke threads” rule. Because, y’know, funny rants are bad…somehow. (And of course, someone will be along to say “No, it means no threads that are about jokes–like ‘dead baby joke’ threads”. which, granted, is what the rule says…but that’s not what got Esprix suspended and many other threads closed and the posters warned or suspended. What’s been enforced is "No humorous rants that bug one of the Admins.)
While I do not deny that most of what you both are saying may be true, I just don’t get the motivation to complain about it. It just doesn’t rise to that level on my RO meter. It sounds like you may have authority issues, and just don’t like it when someone else exercises theirs in your direction, or even in a direction anywhere near yours. To each his own, I guess.
Well, if you can explain to me why two independent Pit rules stickies are a good idea, I’m all ears.
Speaking only for myself, it’s hardly authority issues as I’ve been accused of being a suck-up for the mods a lot (not so much recently).
My concern is that Lynn’s rules actively hurt the forum.
The “No lawnchairs” rule makes pile-ons worse and inevitable–used to be that two posters could duke it out and others could kibbutz on the side. Now? You HAVE to participate–which means taking sides, which means what could have been a fight between two posters is now a fight between everyone. Imagine a ‘rule’ in a bar that if a fight broke out, instead of being allowed to stay in your seat and just comment, you had to pick one of the fighers and throw a chair at his opponent’s head.
The “No humorous threads” thing, though, is what really pisses me off–I loved the pit–it’s in large part what drew me here–people in fits of anger would write funny, FUNNY posts–someone (and it’s been lost-I’ve looked for it) once spilled a can of something or other–and wrote like ten haiku sequence about it–using graphic language–it was gut-bustingly funny. Under the " No humorous threads in the pit" rule, it’d be banished to MPSIMS where it would probably be closed for over-the-top language.
Both rules badly damage the culture and content of The Pit.
Come on, now. As I remember it, the lawnchair practice was a means of announcing to everyone that you planned to enjoy the anticipated trainwreck. If that was the sole purpose of the post, it was pointless and obnoxious. I doubt keeping the thread on the first page was a concern.
FTR, the rule is:
I have no idea how you’ve managed to interpret the rule to mean that everyone must pick sides. This would seem to imply that every pit thread must remain on topic, so I think the notion can be dismissed. Even if this was the intent of the rule, I’m certain a clever poster could find a way around it.
There, see what you’ve done? You’ve made me defend Lynn and by extension the board administration. Now I’m cranky!
I agree that that’s not what the rule says, but I honestly believe it’s had that effect. I never saw a complaint (and there certainly wasn’t any outpouring of complaints like there was about, say sign-offs recently) about “lawnchair posts”.
So, even if you’re correct about the lack of effect it’s had, why institute the rule? Lawnchair posts didn’t piss off a majority of posters…hell, they didn’t even piss off a small vocal group of posters. It pissed off ONE poster: Lynn who had the power to simply say “Fiat Lux!” and adjust things to her liking, regardless of what the customers may or may not have wanted.
I liked lawnchair posts…the “Oh boy, this is gonna be GOOD” tone, the occasional witty one, but if there had been a discussion/debate about them and I was clearly outvoted by my fellow patrons, I’d have gone along with it. What I didn’t like (besides what I perceive as the somewhat serious unintended consequences) was the fact that it was a rules change for one person–just a person who has the power to enforce it.
This is truly the crux of the matter for me. I have no general issue with authority; I have an issue with arbitrary authority. One moderator should not get to make up new rules willy-nilly or capriciously stretch existing rules to fit the behavior of a particular poster just because someone or something irritates her. It’s not the Lynn Pit, it’s the BBQ Pit.
It pissed off me too - posting “pulling up a lawnchair” or similar things was nothing but a stupid waste of time. I remember complaining about it at the time, and in fact I believe that it was less than a day after I complained that the Rule went into place, so maybe you should more correctly blame me, except I doubt I have that sort of pull to influence the Rules. However, I remember others complaining about it at the time too, especially as most of the time there was no wit or wisdom in the lawnchair posts, just someone padding their post count.
I don’t know why you’re all getting so upset about this. It doesn’t matter anymore; you’ve got two other places where these problems don’t exist. Ed and Lynn are insisting you play by their rules, but now you can break free and not be inhibited by them. Is this just RO, or deep down, do you want to stay at the Dope?
Totally agree. I well remember the thread complaining about “lawnchair” posts. I was one of the first to post my support in it along with a lot of other people. That’s why that rule went into effect and it’s a good one.
The no joke threads in the Pit doesn’t mean that the threads can’t be humorous. It means that there can’t be retarded threads that really belong in MPSIMS like “I pit my cats for waking me up at night” or “I pit Fenris because he always wins when I debate him in GD.” The Pit was becoming MPSIMS II.
Who’s upset?
I don’t mind the lawnchair rule specifically. But regardless, ONE sticky with the current rules is the way to go. Ed’s sticky, getting rid of Giraffe’s sticky, and resurrecting Lynn’s old one just is not exactly a model of clarity. How about, I dunno, one sticky with the current set of rules and nothing else.
Concerned?
I stand corrected about it being only one poster then ( 
) but some of the lawnchair posts were funny, to me. One in particular…I can’t remember the pitting, but I remember the lawnchair post…had someone posting a whole “Tailgate party” type post that had me chuckling.
But even if they did offend a number of dopers and I’m in the minority on them, the way it was implemented was ham-fisted, arrogant, and arbitrary.
I don’t think we have to subject every rule to a formal vote, but wouldn’t it have been nice if a thread had been opened, stickied at the top saying “Hey guys, I’m getting some complaints about “lawnchair” posts and I personally hate 'em myself. I’m thinking we should ban them. Anyone have any dissenting opinions?” and letting the rule be talked about.
Keep in mind that I wouldn’t apply this standard to something like “real life addresses” or “serious threats of violence” or similar rules where the possibility of immediate harm exists. But these are posts that, at worst are kinda annoying. It wouldn’t hurt to let the members discuss that rule rather than making it a fait accompli.
Aside from **Lynn’**s rules being outdated and sticking the thread being largely an exercise in public masturbation, the tone of the rules is a problem. It’s all “I don’t want this, I don’t want that. Me, me, me, me. Let’s talk some more about me. I am mod hear me roar.”
Then explain Esprix’s suspension–I linked to it above.
As opposed to now, where it’s GD II?
The rule before the “no humorous threads” rule was that it was the heat not the subject that made it into a pit thread. Uncle Beer had an excellent post about how he decided which went where.
A “My neighbor ran over my cat” thread could either be a Pit or an MPSIMS thread, depending on how you wrote it. So could a “My cat woke me up…again” thread.
There’s really not that much difference between a cat waking you up at night and, say, a telemarketer calling at dinner time. It’s how it’s written, not the subject.
Some were very funny, at least at first. I think at the time I complained they were getting very tedious, and there were Pittings where 3/4 of the posts on the first page were people “lawnchairing.” It’s the same sort of thing that happens a lot on here - someone does something really funny, a few repeat it and it’s reasonably funny, then everyone and their grandma tries it and they Epic Fail.