I used to chat online quite a bit…in fact, it’s how I met my wife. But one of the things that always annoyed me was the fact that the people I tried to talk to were either unintelligent or behaved that way. Go to any chatroom for an example. FisherQueen introduced me to this board after apparently finding me worthy. I thank her for that, because I enjoy being able to discuss the issues of the day with people I feel are my intellectual peers (and sometimes superiors). The lack of riff-raff is refreshing. And if that makes me a snob, then I’ll just have to type while gazing down my nose with an imperious gaze.
It’s just intelligent straight talk, with a very diverse group of participants. I get frustrated with bulletin boards that have monocultures; i.e. all men, all college-aged people, all liberals, or all conservatives.
Tolerance for my typos certainly helps.
I enjoy this board. You wouldn’t believe how many times I begin a sentence to my wife with, “They’re saying on the internet that…” Of course, the “they” is usually this place.
However, it has it’s limitations. I’ve lived in Los Angeles and Oakland all my life so perhaps I’m a little biased, but the racial and ethnic diversity of the SDMB is generally overrated. It’s pretty white-bread, folks. I’ve deleted a fair share of posts on race issues because the board hasn’t demonstrated to me the maturity to discuss them in a constructive way. Sorry.
I know people of all races are represented, but we non-white folks seem to be a tiny minority.
We’ve got threads on everything from thawed spinach to pan fried semen.
How could you just not love that?
Practically all of them. I think there are Friends, though. That’s pretty close to what I am. But when I said not much diversity, I meant that it’s not very tolerant of dissent or people who think differently from the rather leftist norm. In my opinion, this is evidenced by the inevitable pile-ons that occur whenever, for example, a fundamentalist Christian opines about homosexuality or a libertarian explains why she dislikes government bureaucracy. In fact, even raising the topic of such pile-ons can bring people out of the woodwork to mock you for being a martyr and so forth. People raise questions about whether you’re having a meltdown or your personality has changed with “Politician denies fraud charges” types of posts, and then others join in for no reason other than they share a grudge against you. It can be quite a cruel place in a high-schoolish, parochial sort of way. To me, diverse would mean that all could speak without fear of being taunted by five or ten at a time.
I think we have a huge diversity of opinion and tolerance of same here—it all depends on how a question is phrased, and if it’s the same poster dragging his or her pet dead horse out to be flogged over and over again.
Well I always like the fact that we get paid to post…Do other boards do that?
:eek:
[sub]Uh Oh…did I let something slip[/sub] 
Well, you would, or course. It’s all a matter of perspective. Free-Market dot net is internationally diverse as well, but give it a visit and you’ll be surprised to hear what a “dead horse” you’ve been riding for so long. But your response was pretty much what I meant. You declare your tolerance while taking the opportunity to dismiss someone else’s view as a dead horse. Why isn’t your own view a dead horse? And if I take what you say personally, I can be accused of having a persecution complex. These things — cries of martyrdom, persecution, or psychosis — are dead horses from my point of view, as is the inevitable pile-on in defense of you because you are a popular woman here, held in the highest esteem, and rightfully so. I am one of your admirers. I’m only being honest with you here because you asked. Spin it however you think is right.
Heaven save me from my detractors, then!
Maybe I’m misinterpreting what Eve said, but I don’t think she was calling your opinion a dead horse. What I took her comment to mean was that the board was intolerant of those who repeatedly drudge up old gripes.
Perhaps I’ve wholly misunderstood what she said, but only Eve can say…