posted on August 23, 2001 02:33:26 PM new
ya know, I've sat back and lurked on these boards for a few weeks now, and think I have a pretty good feel for who is in whose camp and which poster gets under whose skin ... I've watched people react, not because of what others have said, but because of who has said it. I've witnessed folks jumping to conclusions and reading innuendo into posts (and often misinterpreting what the poster was trying to say). From an outsider's point of view, those that throw darts under any guise are guilty of RMS and other syndromes.
Don't get me wrong - I like so many of you and find your personalities to be top-notch. There are those of you that I agree with more consistently than others - but I don't want to assign myself to any team, so I keep quiet. I guess I'm just saying that it's disturbing to witness from the outside. I keep wanting to step forward and say "Can't you children play nice?"
Maybe (hopefully) all this bickering is just a phase? I do enjoy it here, but find myself becoming unexplainably anxious whenever the fur starts to fly a bit.
Just felt I should say something - guess this RMS is contagious.
Rosie
*There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
[ edited by RoseBids25cents on Aug 23, 2001 02:34 PM ]
posted on August 23, 2001 02:57:42 PM new
Yes,RoseBids25cents, I agree. Seems kinda childish. Sometimes flapping sarongs are more interesting than flapping lips.
posted on August 24, 2001 04:59:48 AM newRosie, good for you but several weeks does not give you enough background for the iritation that the situation has brought to those who have been around for a lot longer than even me! Donny, your little story is very sweet and totally without merit in realtionship to an ongoing series of inequities & absurdities with no end in sight!
posted on August 24, 2001 05:29:11 AM new
Gosh, gone from here for a short while, and find out that RMS, FIMS and others are finally getting their "treatments". I love giving shots, and will be more then willing to help our nurse out! Though there may be a few people who need stitches/staples for their syndrome then a shot.
Oh well, the beat goes on.
Rick
In the begining, God created the heavens and the earth.
posted on August 24, 2001 06:08:07 AM new
Hi Femme, Your post just bought back some old memories, and not particularly pleasant either.
Many years ago I was quite sick in hospital and I had to have several shots each day.
Most of the nurses were very good and caring, but I lived in terror of a particular giant Kiwi nurse who delighted in using my backside as a practise board for her training with the local darts team!
When that needle went in it took three orderlies to pull it out. Or so it seemed!
Bob, Downunder but never down.
posted on August 24, 2001 07:51:29 AM newThere is something very sadistic about people who like to give shots (shudder).
(being said in a teasing way)
Now, femme, are you saying that the 2.6 million nurses in the US are suffering from some sort of sexual perversion by administering shots?
LOL @ your post, bitsandbobs. My mother was a nurse in a day when they didn't use disposable needles. After many uses, the needles became *very* dull. One had to use more 'force' to get past the skins barrier.
posted on August 24, 2001 07:56:16 AM new
"Rosie, good for you but several weeks does not give you enough background for the iritation that the situation has brought to those who have been around for a lot longer than even me"
Now, that's just plain wrong. If someone has been here a couple of weeks, a couple of days, it doesn't matter. They can have an opinion, they can express it, and it's just as valid as anyone else's. Not to rag on you, Zilvy, but the "you haven't been here long enough to voice an opinion" card is a very old, overplayed one. It was probably thrown out by the first person who ever posted on the first-ever chatboard, to the second person who showed up, many years ago, and it hasn't won a trick yet.
posted on August 24, 2001 08:17:06 AM new
Donny posted:
Not to rag on you, Zilvy, but the "you haven't been here long enough to voice an opinion" card is a very old, overplayed one.
Zilvy had posted:
Rosie, good for you but several weeks does not give you enough background for the iritation that the situation has brought to those who have been around for a lot longer than even me!
Donny, please note No Where did I say you can't voice an opinion I appreciated Rosies input and was stating what I believe to be a fact...if you go back 3, 4, 5, 6 months you might and I say might get the flavor of the situation that this thread is about, but a few weeks doesn't really give a good overall picture. Everyone is entitled to their opinion....my statement was for clarification only!
posted on August 24, 2001 08:39:54 AM new
I liked the part about the ants going whereever it is that ants go. Or doing whatever it is ants do. Or something like that.
posted on August 24, 2001 08:53:03 AM newOMG now I know I am from outerspace?
I almost think I get what you said, but, then again, who knows. Reading 101!!
posted on August 24, 2001 08:53:26 AM new
Thank you, Spazmodeus!
Zilvy... Rose said she'd been lurking. I lurked for quite a while before I registered also. But if I had or hadn't, it wouldn't have mattered. Someone's here, they have an opinion. I can't look at someone and say - your opinion doesn't carry enough weight because you've only been here 1 year, and I've been here 2 years. Or, I've been here 2 years and a day, and you've only been here 2 years. Because, if I do, someone who's been here 2 years and 2 days is gonna turn to me and say...
Anyway, some people are so unusually perceptive, or some situations so unusually clear, that the crux of that biscuit can be grasped nearly immediately. And who would we be to say otherwise?
posted on August 24, 2001 09:04:02 AM new
I agree, donny. I live in a neighborhood of about 600 families. Without fail at our civic association meetings someone will stand up and say,"well, I've lived here for 38 years". And you know the implication - screw everyone who hasn't been here that long. If you've been here 20 years or one month, you're opinion doesn't matter - we tried that once in 1956 and it didn't work.
I find many responses in this thread ironic. How can someone complain about uneven moderation and start a thread that's specifically designed to rip a few fellow posters apart? Am I missing something?
posted on August 24, 2001 09:06:02 AM new
Yes, but I doubt that I could explain it to you if you are unable to see for yourself based on past histories. you have been here longer than I.
[ edited by zilvy on Aug 24, 2001 09:06 AM ]
posted on August 24, 2001 09:10:23 AM new
Hi Rosie...
Maybe (hopefully) all this bickering is just a phase? I do enjoy it here, but find myself becoming unexplainably anxious whenever the fur starts to fly a bit.
I've been here for over 2 years and am sorry to tell you...it's not a phase. I can usually ignore it for the most part, but occasionally the irritation Zilvy mentioned overwhelms me...
Generally, if the posts that offend you are fewer than the ones that you find interesting...you'll enjoy it here.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:14:20 AM new
zilvy, I only post on this board but I've read most of the others. Some posters bring their problems from board to board. And I doubt that the problems originate strictly from board spats but perhaps from life -long ways of dealing with people -or perhaps the need to be noticed. So much for armchair psychology
Frankly, I don't care to make researching the history of board spats a use of my time.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:46:13 AM newFrankly, I don't care to make researching the history of board spats a use of my time.
But you can take the time to comment on them without doing the research which is just as bad, isnt it? No offense made to you saabsister..I enjoy your posts very much. I started this thread to prove a point, in a "humorous" way. I have not gone out of my way to be deliberately rude to anyone, but I also refuse to sit back and be made fun of with my hands down. Not my style and I hit back.
thread that's specifically designed to rip a few fellow posters apart? Am I missing something?
I ask that you take the time to not miss anything, and be aware of the reasons some get flustered and do what they do. DId you bother to read the link supplied by Irene? Its just one of many links available that has samples of what is dished out regularly.
[ edited by hepburn on Aug 24, 2001 09:50 AM ]
posted on August 24, 2001 09:57:01 AM new
If you don't read other OAI boards, you really have no idea just how insulated and protected AW posters are. The so-called "bickering" here is so tame as to be negligible.
I made a decision to opt out of the real board wars about a year ago. At the time new boards had just come into existence, places where posters could sign up anonymously and publicly eviscerate any other poster they pleased. Nothing was off limits. Insults about other posters' family members, their illnesses and handicaps, their business practices, groundless allegations that this poster had been stalking that one, foul, brutal, abusive language ... it was a free-for-all. It still is, and it's ugly as all hell. The only difference today is that there are more boards of this type than there were a year ago.
I happen to enjoy heated debate when a principle is at the heart of the argument (for example, the question of uneven moderation). I have no taste for purely personal attacks. Sometimes the arguments here may seem a little personal because the participants cite examples to illustrate their points, or make reference to posters whom they perceive as benefiting from the problem they're complaining about ... but when you get right down to it I think the debates here are still about principles rather than personalities (although it can't be denied that sometimes there is a little overlap). Still I don't believe that even the worst "enemies" here, no matter how catty some of their exchanges may get, would ever intimate that their opponent is a bad person. I think that's an important difference about this board.
So buck up, Rosie, things really aren't as bad as they seem.
posted on August 24, 2001 10:05:04 AM new
Spaz is right. There isnt one person in here that I consider a "bad person". I just bump heads with them from time to time. Still, I wouldnt want any of them to feel pain, or hurt, or illness, etc.
But I wont keep my mouth shut if I feel the need to respond to something unwarranted, and neither will they, Im sure.
posted on August 24, 2001 10:23:26 AM new
spazmodeus, I agree with your assessment of other boards. None of them are earmarked on my list of sites to visit. I've viewed them when an allusion was made to them here or by following a link elsewhere. I suppose I get prickly because I enjoy this board in all its diversity - and particularly because of its moderation. Perhaps you'd agree that the unmoderated boards are failures in their original intent - to offer posters a means of self-moderation with the implication that people could discuss topics civilly. (I enjoy a good debate also. I'm the type of person who is willing to change her mind if someone can rationally convince me to do so. But it won't be by name-calling or ganging up on posters. Those tactics don't influence me.)
, but I also refuse to sit back and be made fun of with my hands down. Not my style and I hit back
But, hepburn, why not take the problem to moderation or put those people on ignore? When the discussions become a slugfest, the bystanders get bloodied. After the moderators have asked several people to ignore each other, why start a thread such as this? There's always been uneven moderation and there always will be. It just a judgment call where the moderators do the best they can at the time. Let 'em know by email when someone bothers you. You know , if we were all sitting at a bar quietly having a beer or soda and a fight broke out, don't you think our inclination would be to get the heck out of there? The slugfests may be why people don't hang around.
posted on August 24, 2001 10:29:37 AM new
Saabsister, I have taken it to email. I have never complained about anyone on AW before to the moderators except for that last "argument" between me and another poster(s) who said I was an alpha-male/gangbanger and accused me of the usual "Ive been insulted" routine. I realize people get tired of seeing it, but I also get tired of being accused of it. Proof is in the pudding, and most here know that no matter what one says on one thread, it will be referred to on another out of the blue, so whats the use of putting them on ignore? I have been trying to avoid, yes. However, not only does the bar guests get in the line of fire, so does the one constantly being focused on as well as the bartender. It gets old.
I also debated with myself on starting this thread. I figured it was no worse than any of the other tongue-in-cheek ones posted recently. Only difference is, WHO started it, not the meaning of it.
[ edited by hepburn on Aug 24, 2001 10:33 AM ]
posted on August 24, 2001 10:51:59 AM new
"but let me tell you a little TRUE story..."
But my story about the movie was true, and that 50 cents I lost by not getting a children's priced ticket was worth 50 cents more than all of this chat board puffery added together.
Parallel in your story? I suppose you're serious... what can I say?
I think all chat boards must be basically alike. I have a friend who swears by a Rambus chat board over on Yahoo. He doesn't post, he doesn't even own stock, but he enjoys seeing the shorts and the longs going at it.
posted on August 24, 2001 11:10:00 AM new
I've said it before, it's pointless to repeat it, but what the heck.
I really, really hate this "email the moderator" business. I find it childish and demeaning to run and snitch in secret. So and so did such and such! Did I say I hate that? I have a serious thing about it. I cannot do it. I will not do it.
posted on August 24, 2001 11:10:53 AM new
don,u do have your priorities, and the day when you get moderated and your antogonizer is allowed full latitude above and beyond what anyone else gets you can just think of it as puffery!! Fluffery puffery if you prefer! Poofery puffery, whatever...buh bye!!
