Squire your thread-itude

Originally just posted this in my journal -- but then I realized that nobody reads my journal, and thus, I wasn't making a very public plea:

What's going on with people on the boards lately? Has all civility gone par fenetre?

I meet idiots everyday. Hell, there are days when it seems they're all that meet. But could I function in normal society if I took it upon myself to make sure that everyone of these idiots knew exactly what they were? Do I get all up my new manager's ass at work because he's a "noob," or do I make a polite suggestion?

Do I tell the 75-year-old Pakistani driving the cab that he's an idiot because he incorrectly used an ellipse or gerund? Last time I checked, most of us were here to see naked beauties and make a few friends, not have some alternative George Plimpton teach me what my 5th grade teacher missed.

I know that some people come here askin' for it... And that's fine. If a person's going to repeatedly incite people on the boards, then let them have it. I just hate to see newer members be made to feel insecure about posting simply because they don't know how the mob will react.

Groupthink has destroyed most of the great online communities that arose in the nascent days of the interweb. Are we really going to do the same thing -- particularly when SG prides itself on being different?

Hell, I've got a paltry comment count myself; maybe I don't feel like spending the time trying to post something when I know the thread will quickly degrade into a game of one-upmanship and tit-for-tat. And I feel like I'm pretty thick-skinned. We're not being very good "soldiers" in the SG Army when we perpetuate this kind of behavior. So how about a little civility?

edit, apparently I'm a rascist

[Edited on Jan 12, 2005 by Samebeat]

Oh, this is why they don't read your journal.
</evil>

Nobody reads your journal huh?

Damn shame.

I believe that riding someone for a little bad grammer is harsh.
But when people start whiny threads about how no one will be friends/have sex with them, you have to give them shit.

edited to say that a LOT of stupid threads have been started lately. It comes and goes. There is nothing wrong with stupid people being 'coaxed' into submission if you ask me. It just gets people to start thinking about what they are going to say before they do.

[Edited on Jan 10, 2005 by iamabondgirl]

I'm not mean to new people. I'm mean to dumb people. It just happens that a lot of the dumb people are new...

Oh... and I'm not REALLY hardcore on grammar... but some people have it coming.

I'm so happy to have Clara around.
She's nutritious and delicious.*



*In that one sane person on the internet kinda way.

If you don't check people for doing dumb things, they will continue to do dumb things. then you have a whole board of people acting like morons, and that will also kill a community.

it's really as simple as that. if someone does something stupid, you call them on it. not in a super mean way, but the same way you treat your friends when they goof. and if they can't go "oh that was foolish of me, ha ha, good one" and have a laugh at themselves, i don't want a thing to do with them, and i don't see why anyone else would.

[Edited on Jan 10, 2005 by randomcharacters]

But that's exactly it. The SG community has gone through five years of evolution, and has become something more than a place to pick up cheap chicks and pimp your punk band (not that it was ever that to begin with ).

Noobs that have no concept of this because they didn't look around first will get flamed. That's a fact. The rude awakening works on most members, and they chill out real quick; a lot of the coolest new members go through this process. But some never get the message, and I have a feeling it's the responses to those noobs you're writing about.

Also, though I'm sure no one really cares, I'd like to use this thread to mention my annoyance with the dating profile thingies that were instituted in the member profiles relatively recently. It's not helping this problem.

Er, what I percieve as a problem, anyway.

Yeah... but that's cause you're hot. Not because you're dumb.

Now bend over.

Maybe I didn't put enough a disclaimer in my post. I'm fine with giving hell to those that deserve it. What I hate it when someone says something kind of stupid but minor, and then someone else (usually someone who has already posted their disagreement with said person earlier in the thread) uses that as an excuse to hijack the thread.

The your/you're thing comes to mind first. When a thread degrades to that point, I quit reading. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of coherent and readable threads, but we seem to be falling into a different sort of trap. It goes like this:

1. New member "Lonely_Spacehornet" posts his or her new poem where they describe what seeing pictures of their fav SG made them do to themselves.

2. The usual suspects show up and take a few (and almost always funny) potshots at the unsuspecting clod. It reminds me growing up in Montana and going out to bars... Some guy that clearly isn't "from 'round here" strolls up to wrong end of the bar and yells to the leathery old barmaid, "Why don't you have Vox vodka?" The look she gives him answers his question. The wise-asses in step two and this old barmaid are the same.

3. A few lampreys stroll and post the obligatory, "Pulls up chair, sits down." Or, "Get popcorn, watches the show." Salivating at noobs' impending humiliation.

4. Lonely_Spacehornet shows back up and defends him/herself. Flustered, they incorrectly use "you're" instead of "your."

5. Insert 3-4 pages of talking shit.

6. On page 5, the your/you're debate starts. Resumes and school transcripts start showing up to show how smart people are and prove that they did know the difference between your/you're. Assets are listed, profile pics are posted and entire disciplines of university study are mocked.

7. Thread dies

8. Two months later some asswipe bumps it back to the top.

Oh that's it... no ass play for you.

Can't disagree with that.

I like hijacking threads, though. Gives me a chance to joke about naked camels giving birth to Teletubbies without starting a new thread. I mean, if they're done with it, I might as well use it...

Umm...

arbiters of taste and style
indulged and left a visceral pile
a palette clear of all such bile
i queerly rhyme all the while

Taste isn't just something in your mouth. And poems don't suck!

I'm new. I got my account three days ago. Before that, I hung around SG like flies on a corpse since the end of march last year. Perhaps I had an advantage when I joined, of knowing almost how everything worked, observing from the outside as much as I could, so when I became a member, I'd know what I was doing. Almost. I admit I was a bit unsure of how things would go down, and if I'd get flamed for a stupid comment, but so far, all I've done is laugh and joke around and meet some very nice and interesting people. I tried to not get annoying, and I think I'm doing a nice damn good job of if so far. Since I am new, I don't really make any comments about/to other new members, because hey, I don't want anything thrown back into my face, and who should I be to judge, in my 'early days', atleast?

I forgot where I was going with this. But hey anyway. This thread has good intentions and that makes me happy is all I wanted to say, I guess..

I agree with your intentions, samebeat. I don't like seeing people get torn up over little things like grammar. And sometimes things could be nicer around here, yes.

I'm a long time member, but my first post was probably a month ago or less. So technically, I'm a n00b. I haven't been flamed or derided or run out of town with pitchforks and torches (yet).

I attribute this to starting off slow. It also helps to have some self-respect and have respect for others. Like any normal social situation. After all, that's what this is.

[Edited on Jan 10, 2005 by venomkid]

Clementine Kruczynski has had Joel Barish erased from her memory. Please never mention their relationship to her again.

--Lacuna, Inc.

[Edited on Jan 11, 2005 by theSpotlessMind]

That's some quality n00bing right there.

Moya's the bestest n00b I've ever met.

Aww I feel so special and giggly and tingly inside

HUHU...HUHUHU...huh? Wha? oh sorry, what were you guys talking about?