[QUOTE=nyctea scandiaca]
Anyway, yes I was outfuckingraged and I felt the urge to share the stories with fellow Dopers, hoping to let off some steam and to engage in intelligent conversation about them.
[/QUOTE]
I think this is what causes the RO hate.
What intelligent discussion do you expect?
Most RO threads are about things like babykilling and rape, so the only responses you are going to get are in the same vain as the OP : It is bad, mkay, very bad.
Most RO threads just have 0% content, except outrage.
[QUOTE=lissener]
There’s no such thing as threadshitting in the Pit; if you want to lament the latest baby murder without threadshitters, take it to MPSIMS. Can’t stand the shit, stay out of the Pit.
In any case, PALATR at the self-righteous attention whores who get off on RO threads is moderator endorsed as a community-driven method of reducing their numbers. So I, for one, will continue to PALATR whenever one of them opens a thread with no other purpose than voyeuristic attention whoring.
[/QUOTE]
Just curious, please explain why you can’t just ignore the threads you aren’t interested in, like a normal non-douchebag non-asshole person?
[QUOTE=Scoundrel Swanswater]
I think this is what causes the RO hate.
What intelligent discussion do you expect?
Most RO threads are about things like babykilling and rape, so the only responses you are going to get are in the same vain as the OP : It is bad, mkay, very bad.
Most RO threads just have 0% content, except outrage.
[/QUOTE]
That’s my problem too. What are we supposed to do? Compare who is more emotionally affected by atrocities done to people we’ve never met? Decide what fantasy Dante-esque punishment is more fitting, despite having no intention of carrying out any counter-atrocity?
Really, all RO does is either allow the poster to demonstrate their superiority over baby-rapers (impressive feat, that), vent their own inflated pain (if so, toughen up, you didn’t know these people and there are worse things), or enjoy the crimes vicariously, like a horror movie. Often all three at once.
If we ever gave any thought to the causes or cures for such crimes, that’d be one thing. But as is, they’re just a waste of space. I’m undecided whether the better solution would just be to let them wither away, or, in a forum where such is not only allowed but encouraged, attempt to discourage them through mocking.
[QUOTE=Menocchio]
Really, all RO does is either allow the poster to demonstrate their superiority over baby-rapers (impressive feat, that), vent their own inflated pain (if so, toughen up, you didn’t know these people and there are worse things), or enjoy the crimes vicariously, like a horror movie. Often all three at once.
[/QUOTE]
So your advice is to shut up, and stop talking about it?
I know that’s different from saying “pretend it doesn’t happen,” but I’m still thinking about the various campaigns against racial violence, sexual violence and sex abuse that all begin with the premise that silence is abetting the the abusers. I admit that there are probably the motives you see on the part of many of the posters in a “traditional” RO thread, but if you’re focusing on baby-raping, and the warped minds that focus on that, what the Hell does that have to do with the $62 Million lawsuit for lost pants?
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
So your advice is to shut up, and stop talking about it?
I know that’s different from saying “pretend it doesn’t happen,” but I’m still thinking about the various campaigns against racial violence, sexual violence and sex abuse that all begin with the premise that silence is abetting the the abusers. I admit that there are probably the motives you see on the part of many of the posters in a “traditional” RO thread, but if you’re focusing on baby-raping, and the warped minds that focus on that, what the Hell does that have to do with the $62 Million lawsuit for lost pants?
[/QUOTE]
I don’t consider the $62M pair of pants to be RO, since it’s by itself odd enough to be newsworthy, and there are some actual issues there that can be debated: abuse of judicial power, tort reform. Hell, one poster even provisionally sided with the plantiff. There’s a discussion there. RO at its worse doesn’t allow for that.
As for just condemning bad acts: Meh. I tend to assume that my fellow posters are *already *against rape, domestic violence, child abuse, murder, cruelty to animals, etc. Speak out against slightly less universally condemned acts of bad behavior, and/or count to ten and phrase the OP in terms of determining the causes and possible remedies for them. If the OP contains more than a catalog of bad acts and anger, then it’s not really RO, and I don’t have a problem with it.
I think we all understand why people find the RO threads annoying.
It’s just that when I meet an annoying person I avoid him as much as possible. I don’t walk up to him and shout YOU’RE ANNOYING! YOU’RE ANNOYING! YOU KNOW HOW ANNOYING YOU ARE? REALLY ANNOYING!
Of course, it’s amazing to me that no one seems to have shat over any of the Virginia Tech Shooting threads. There are several posters who’ve been very immediately affected by the events there, but they’re the minority of those who posted in such threads. For most posts it seems to be nothing more that the same fucking reiterations of how awful it was.
So, if RO threads are so awful, why didn’t I see those posters most offended by them shitting over those threads? Is there some minimum number of deaths at which point it’s allowed to be pissed off? It’s obvious that one isn’t enough. Especially not if it’s one child killed a sex offender. Does it take two deaths to make it worthwhile to Pit? Or should we wait til it’s fifteen or twenty?
[/QUOTE]
Here’s my working definition of an RO thread:
Not a headline story.
The poster went out of his/her way to dig up the story - e.g. peruses sensationalist rags/websites every day looking for things to be “outraged” about.
The story, while no more egregious than other crimes that happen every day (think about how many gang shootings there are every day), has some special “outrage” factor, like hurting a puppy or kitten. The outrage factor doesn’t make the crime more heinous, only more emotional for the poster.
The poster includes gory details of their fantasy retribution against the perpetrator, or says “Normally I’m against the death penalty, but…”
Let’s all share in some RO about a long time poster here resurrecting a zombie thread.
I tend to agree, though, that thread shitting in this forum is impossible. Or next to impossible. Whoever starts a thread here has to recognize that the thread can turn on him at any moment. Anyone who post a link (or even a link with a quote) and says something like: Word fail me… You’re going to get raked over the coals as a Pittable and Pitiable ROer.