No, we aren’t.
The columns aren’t churlish. They are mocking but good humored. Your “Fuck off” post, now that was churlish. Do you enjoy giving the rest of us the impression that you’re an adolescent boor?
Yes, we are. I’ve been talking privately to several members who aren’t renewing because they believe that the louts are taking over. There’s a circle of us who are dropping out one by one as our memberships expire.
whoooosh
No, no whoosh. I got it. It just wasn’t funny. It was crude.
He said something that contradicted your post and validated it at the same time. I don’t find that crude. If you do go and report it. I hope the mods see it in the same light.
That’s evolution. The board is adapting to it’s environment. Sometimes evolution gets the creature killed, or sometimes it makes it more effective in it’s niche. It’s a headless beast that we should watch with interest.
Feel free to defend your ideals and fight for the direction you prefer, but don’t hold a grudge if ultimately it moves away from you.
Goodness. You have thin skin.
Personally I am never rude to decent newbies, and indeed very welcoming to them. That said I have found the SDMB to be absolutely crammed with the filthiest mucky humor ever. You think my “Oh fuck off” joke was “crude”? Try “go felch a goat”, and the description of “squicking”.
The SDMB is full of ribald humor, which is one of the many reasons I remain subscribed. I think rude humor is a fine inheritance from our Anglo Saxon literary forebears. (And indeed other cultures: Rabelais loved a good fuck/fart/shit joke.)
I am flattered that you think I am a lout. But rather incredulous that you think a mildly profane joke is loutish.
I wonder what kind of board you think you are on?
I’ve been at least been lurking since the AOL days. The louts have always been the loudest of all. On the Dope as it is in life. Unlike most MBs the mods keep them in line without stifling expression. Most of the time. The ones I still can’t stand I just ignore. It is not getting worse.
I don’t mind bawdy humor. I’ve read Rabelais. He’s funny. That’s the difference between you and Rabelais - he’s funny, you’re not. If you had made a genuinely amusing retort, I’d have let it slide. But it wasn’t amusing, it was crude and adolescent.
Thin skinned, you say. Maybe. You would certainly not say “Fuck off” to me in real life if we were face to face. Why should I tolerate it here?
Just up front, I like you just fine as a poster. However, the “Fuck Off” was obviously a joke although a rather obvious and throw-away one. He didn’t mean it as an insult to anyone in the least. It was just a play on a theme in the style that tends to happen here. I predicted someone would say something like that just by reading the thread title.
I have a sense of humor that is so dark, layered, and subtle at times that it can earn me many enemies both online and in real life if a person just doesn’t get it. That is neither a self-compliment nor an apology. It just is. There have been some lengthy pit threads about me where some people said they got everything completely and other people just thought that I am a was a humorless asshole prick all the time.
My point is that there may be things going on here that don’t obviously look like humor or lighthearted interaction when they really are. Some people can only recognize part of it and some of that just comes through experience. That isn’t your problem but it isn’t their problem either. The Straight Dope column itself is full of sarcasm and cheap shots and the board reflects that.
People leaving the board for whatever reason doesn’t mean anything individually. It isn’t like magazines offer to change the format when one viewer drops a subscription. I don’t know what the subscription rates are but people come and people go. That is just the way things work.
I admit I didn’t you in the beginning. Now I do and I think you’re pretty damn funny most of the time. And smart.
My hat is off to you. You found a way to circumvent the rules of this message board. I get your message loud but not clear . You don’t like somebody and its either me or them. Either way you are not a positive person and I’ll put you in the camp of those who like to piss people off rather than find a way to gert along.
Hey, I think he’s pretty damn funny and smart, and I still don’t like him.
Especially when he’s funnier and smarter than me, which I think should be a bannable offence.
Oh, and to the OP: You might have noticed that this is a debate board. Kind of hard to have a debate if everyone agrees with each other.
If you stay out of the pit and GD people get along pretty well. In GD a lot of posts are about politics and religion and I don’t think you’ll ever get people to agree on those topics. The only boards I’ve posted on where people get along all the time ban those subjects from the board.
From time to time people ask for opinions about relationships and such that get heated. I’ve never understood why anyone would ask for opinions on some of the topics they do, but since they do ask I assume they know what they’re in for.
Thank you to you both. You made my day. Miller, you might like the fact that I have basically the same personality in real-life and the consequences are much more serious when family, friends, and coworkers don’t get it as opposed to people on a message board. Oh well, fuck’em. I can’t change my personality even if it makes me look like a real prick half the time (the other half, I really am being a prick).
Meant to say I admit I didn’t get you in the beginning.
But we are all on the same page:
Yeah, and the OP better stay out of here 'cause it could get pretty ugly.