# Why is the Pit just for hate? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 16, 2007, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182 "2007-12-16T10:26:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/1 "2007-12-16T10:26:45Z")
I’ve recently noticed the (apparently routine) locking of a joke-pit thread, as well as a thread was deemed insufficiently angry – a mere “[pity party](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=447878).” I understand why all hate-filled rantings must go in the pit, but must that be all that’s allowed there? Is the sancitity of a Pitter’s outrage somehow threatened by the joke-pitting next to it? I think there are some amusing threads out there that can never see the light of day because of this restriction, and I see no benefit at all to the enforcement of said restriction. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/2 "2007-12-16T11:56:05Z")
I found the locking of that thread odd as well. 99% of Pit threads are pity parties when you get right down to it. How is **“I Pit My (Boss, Wife, Boyfriend, Neighbor, etc.) Because They Make My Life a Living Hell”** not a pity party? ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/3 "2007-12-16T13:15:49Z")
The OP wasn’t really pitting anything, I guess. It sounded more like a MPSIMS, where it probably should have been moved. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/4 "2007-12-16T16:38:13Z")
Any of those threads could have been reposted in MPSIMS. Don’t you think that one MPSIMS is enough? ---
**Author:** ![Bea\_Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Bea\_Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bea_Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/5 "2007-12-16T17:08:20Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] Don’t you think that one MPSIMS is enough? [/QUOTE] . . . and one Pit is one too many? I do. I don’t see how the pit fits with Cecil at all. What is it doing on this site. Looks like an idea that’s time has passed. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/6 "2007-12-16T17:37:25Z")
[QUOTE=Bea Spoke] . . . and one Pit is one too many? I do. I don’t see how the pit fits with Cecil at all. What is it doing on this site. Looks like an idea that’s time has passed. [/QUOTE] I’m sure that an expert on VBulletin will be along shortly to give you more specific advice but I believe that all you have to do is not read the posts there. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/7 "2007-12-16T17:56:26Z")
[QUOTE=Bea Spoke] . . . and one Pit is one too many? I do. I don’t see how the pit fits with Cecil at all. What is it doing on this site. Looks like an idea that’s time has passed. [/QUOTE] Well, the only forums that are even theoretically for fighting ignorance are GQ and GD. The others–not so much. Besides, the Pit is valuable. You know, when you are in the middle of a heated debate in GD and you get to the point where you want to call your debate opponent a hamster-cramming goat felcher (as we all want to do at some point in the debate), it gives you a nice outlet for that sort of thing. You know, kind of a pressure release valve. Helps keep it clean in the other forums. ---
**Author:** ![Bea\_Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Bea\_Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bea_Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/8 "2007-12-16T18:06:04Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] I’m sure that an expert on VBulletin will be along shortly to give you more specific advice but I believe that all you have to do is not read the posts there. [/QUOTE] I don’t. And neither do the vast majority, as some of the few pit threads I’ve read mentioned. It’s a dying forum for a reason. It’s time has passed. Flame wars went out of style. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/9 "2007-12-16T18:44:08Z")
[QUOTE=Bea Spoke] I don’t. And neither do the vast majority, as some of the few pit threads I’ve read mentioned. It’s a dying forum for a reason. It’s time has passed. Flame wars went out of style. [/QUOTE] How, in your short stay here so far, do you have any clue what the vast majority do? If you don’t read it, why do you even care? You’re new here. I hope that you stick around. Maybe you should spend a little more time before you tell us how we should do things that we’ve been doing for several years. How about a cite that it’s a dying forum? ---
**Author:** ![Bea\_Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Bea\_Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bea_Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/10 "2007-12-16T19:12:42Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] How, in your short stay here so far, do you have any clue what the vast majority do? If you don’t read it, why do you even care? You’re new here. I hope that you stick around. Maybe you should spend a little more time before you tell us how we should do things that we’ve been doing for several years. How about a cite that it’s a dying forum? [/QUOTE] Well, to answer you in kind (answering a question with a question): If newbies are so stupid you don’t care about their input, then why not just not read their posts, and if you do by accident then just ignore them? Personally, I never saw your name before in my lurkage (to coin a clumsy term), so why should I care about enlightening you now with a cite after you’ve insulted me? ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/11 "2007-12-16T19:57:07Z")
[QUOTE=Bea Spoke] Well, to answer you in kind (answering a question with a question): If newbies are so stupid you don’t care about their input, then why not just not read their posts, and if you do by accident then just ignore them? Personally, I never saw your name before in my lurkage (to coin a clumsy term), so why should I care about enlightening you now with a cite after you’ve insulted me? [/QUOTE] See, this is totally the kind of discussion you guys could have in the pit. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/12 "2007-12-16T20:34:33Z")
[QUOTE=Malodorous] See, this is totally the kind of discussion you guys could have in the pit. [/QUOTE] That’s what I’ve been itching to post. \*\*haj \*\* gets sarcastic, \*\*Bea \*\* gets mad, and before you know it, they’re telling each other to fellate syphillitic farm animals and get sodomized with porcupine carcasses. That’s what the Pit is all about. I vote a mod moves this to the Pit. It would be at the same time totally appropriate and utterly ironic. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/13 "2007-12-16T20:52:49Z")
We started the Pit because we wanted to allow people an outlet for insulting each other, while maintaining some degree of civility in the other forums. While flame wars are less common, that need for outlet is still there, we think. As to why a particular thread is closed or not: if there’s no explanation offered by moderators, you might try emailing them if you’re sufficiently interested. There are times (many times) that we don’t want to make something a public spectacle or bring attention to it. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/14 "2007-12-16T21:02:15Z")
[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion] Well, the only forums that are even theoretically for fighting ignorance are GQ and GD. [/QUOTE] And the “Comments on…” forums, to some extent. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/15 "2007-12-16T21:36:06Z")
Personally, I have no interest in reading most Pit threads, and even less in participating in them… Which is why I’m very glad that the forum exists. With all of those threads sequestered off in their own forum, it’s very easy for me to avoid them. If that forum didn’t exist, then flaming threads would be all over the rest of the board. ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/16 "2007-12-16T21:52:13Z")
**Why is the Pit just for hate?** Because everything else belongs in the other forums. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/17 "2007-12-16T21:53:51Z")
All I know is that every forum I have seen around, on whatever crazy topic or area of interest there is, has a BBQ Pit area for people to rant and rave about each other and RO. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/18 "2007-12-16T23:32:03Z")
[QUOTE=Indistinguishable] And the “Comments on…” forums, to some extent. [/QUOTE] Oh, yeah, and those too. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/19 "2007-12-17T01:50:13Z")
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven] We started the Pit because we wanted to allow people an outlet for insulting each other, while maintaining some degree of civility in the other forums. [/QUOTE] When this board started, was that the **sole** purpose of the Pit? Was it strictly a forum where discussions that started in other forums, but got heated, could continue unrestricted? Plus grievances with the mods/admins? Or has it always been a place where one could vent about anything IRL as well? Because it seems that for the past few years, hostility has been creeping up. Now it’s at the point where opening a Pit thread sets the OP up as a secondary target. “I Pit the cretins who stole my car.” “Oh, that’s terrible.” “Here’s what you can do legally.” “Hey, it was an SUV! Serves you right!” [half a page later] “Well, he opened a Pit thread! I don’t have to be nice in the Pit! Everyone’s fair game, even if their planet-ruining vehicle was stolen!” And don’t say that’s not happening. It is happening, a lot. So is it happening because the original purpose of the Pit has been subverted? Should anyone with a non-SDMB-related grievance keep it in MPSIMS (or perhaps IMHO), on the grounds that a forum devoted to flaming and accusation is not to place to admit any vulnerability? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182/20 "2007-12-17T05:20:27Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] Any of those threads could have been reposted in MPSIMS. Don’t you think that one MPSIMS is enough? [/QUOTE] The only thing I don’t get is why, if they’re fine for MPSIMS, they aren’t just moved there, rather than closed. Takes just as much moderator time/effort to move a thread as close it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-pit-just-for-hate/430182.md?page=2)