posted
I'm not particularly happy with the influx and...is enabling the word I'm looking for here?...of juvenile and insipid posters, but I think this trend of people in a certain clique of doing a sort of show off mocking of them is a bad thing. It's childish, especially the "laugh at people behind their backs with my clique" aspect of it.
Maybe it's just me that isn't happy with it. I'm willing to bet most other people haven't even seen it. But you know you're doing it. And I, at least, am saying that I don't appreciate it and don't think that it's good for the forum.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
First of all, if I offend anyone with my light-hearted silliness, I do apologise. I come to Hatrack to get away from some seriously heavy things in my real life, and I enjoy the silly fluff.
Second of all, I really don't want to offend anyone, so please, if you do find me obnoxious, email me off the forum, so that I can have the opportunity to apologise sincerely and personally, and to reform my obnoxious behavior.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
If you find ME obnoxious, email me off the forum so I can be confident that my spam filter will prevent me from ever being aware of your discontent. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Good old Mr. Squicky, courageously telling the truth to people whether they like it or not! And in such a comfortable position, too, routinely insulting people in a blunt and very non-playful fashion rather than insulting them in a playful (but still sometimes hurtful) fashion.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I feel sad whenever I see mean-spiritedness here. I keep thinking we can be better people individually, and a better as a group than that.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Where have people gotten the idea that it's okay to mock, attack, or insult people on a regular basis on this forum, whether playfully or not? Certainly not from anything OSC has said. Perhaps the newer members saw older members doing it and thought it was okay, but the older members should certainly know better. It's pretty shameful that it has gotten to the point it has - even if not as bad as some forums out there.
Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
I love insipid as well. Especially when someone carefully selects it because it so *perfectly* fits the situation they're describing. That's the best.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I gotta say I was waiting for that, and wondering if there would be a thunderclap or something to alert me when it happened.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Hmm...to me, the clap of lightning when someone appears is associated with villians. Is that how you meant it?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Tante is like a mother and Tom is like a father kinda, like I like you both equally though now I'm miffed that my 1000 or so fan mail letters didn't make it to Tom.
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I'm clearly getting sensitive about this topic. I think I need to be careful not to see negative things that are not intended, especially when everything I know about the person denies that it would be. Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Bob the Lawyer: I love insipid as well. Especially when someone carefully selects it because it so *perfectly* fits the situation they're describing. That's the best.
For whatever odd reason I totally loved it when my best friend used the word to describe her bemusement over her children adoring the "Clifford" videos. I guess it tickled my funny bone because she is ultra vigilant about what her children are exposed to, very conservative in her views, and I would have thought that she would be delighted for her children to be entertained by something so devoid of any negative influences. So when she rolled her eyes in disgust at her children glued to "that INSIPID cartoon" it made me laugh.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Of course I should probably shut up since I'm probably one of the offending "insipid" posters, LOL!
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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If you are open to suggestions, Uprooted, I thought the post was fine. It's a good story.
I think the part that may be offputting is the LOL. Leaving off the LOL and ending with a period makes the post sound wry and slightly self-deprecating. Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
I've always thought of LOL as "laughing out loud," not "laugh out loud." A fine point, I know, but it's the difference between describing what I'm doing and ordering you to do the same.
Then there's ROFL and ROFLOL and ROFLMAO, ad nauseum. Lots of times I have to google the Internet acronyms I read here on Hatrack to find out what they mean: YMMV and IIRC are a couple I've learned here. I never use them, though.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Where have people gotten the idea that it's okay to mock, attack, or insult people on a regular basis on this forum, whether playfully or not?
I would be willing to bet that at least part of it comes from the long-held tolerance of mocking, attacking, and insulting people who aren't participants in the forum. It's a small jump from there to simply doing it to everyone.
That being said, I'm not entirely sure that "What the crap are you talking about?" and the near constant assigning of motives to others aren't worse than any mocking going on.
posted
I'm not talking about the motives for mocking. I'm talking about the near contant assignment of motives in general that happens on this board.
Doing it about mocking - which I didn't even say had been done - would be just as bad as doing it about anything else.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
[completely off topic]My sister decided to change ROFL to ROLF just because she accidentally types it like that all the time. So now she'll email me back with "ROLF ROLF" and it reminds me of the muppets for some reason. [/completely off topic]
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
Hm...I think I haven't noticed that. Does that mean I'm completely unaware, or that I am part of the problem? Both are possible.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
The motives thing definitely happens. I know I frequently get accused of saying something because I'm out to avoid looking wrong, or for the sake of argument, or to advance some political attack, or to score points, when in reality I normally just say things because I think they are true. I've seen the same treatment given to other posters, whether it is assumed their hidden motive is to get someone else to do their homework, or to make themselves popular on the forum, or to insult some person or group. I've even seen OSC himself directly state that someone's hidden motive was a campaign to tear him down.
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
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quote:when in reality I normally just say things because I think they are true.
Tres, if that's the case, what are we to make of all the times when, if pressed on an argument, you immediately withdraw to "it's just a hypothetical; I don't necessarily believe this?"
As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly okay to assume someone's motive -- provided you're willing to, when wrong, admit that you were wrong about it. Because let's face it: it takes a remarkably unimaginative person to NOT speculate on someone else's motive. It'll happen whether you choose to do it or not; it'll happen in the time between your eyes read the letters and the letters make it to your brain.
Whether you let this speculation affect your own behavior, and whether you let this assumption blind you to the facts before you, are things you can control.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I think part of the motive problem is the limitation of language in general, and the medium of text in particilar. Since we lack determinants like inflection that we are used to using to judge meaning, it's often easy to misunderstand others. I know I've done that once or twice.
Edit - I realize this could be a sort of cover-all excuse, but I think it'd be hard to understate the problems of communication via language. Telepathy would be so much easier.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote: it's perfectly okay to assume someone's motive -- provided you're willing to, when wrong, admit that you were wrong about it. Because let's face it: it takes a remarkably unimaginative person to NOT speculate on someone else's motive. It'll happen whether you choose to do it or not; it'll happen in the time between your eyes read the letters and the letters make it to your brain.
Whether you let this speculation affect your own behavior, and whether you let this assumption blind you to the facts before you, are things you can control.
I think there's a difference between assuming motive (Hmmm...Tom must post on Hatrack because he likes the community) and assigning motive ("Look, everybody, Tom posts on Hatrack to destroy our community!").
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:[completely off topic]My sister decided to change ROFL to ROLF just because she accidentally types it like that all the time. So now she'll email me back with "ROLF ROLF" and it reminds me of the muppets for some reason. [/completely off topic]
Which reminds me...have I just missed her posts and she's still here, or has sarcasticmuppet left Hatrack? I don't remember seeing any of her posts lately.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I've always taken >.< and >_< to be wincing emoticons, one with the mouth puckered and one with it pressed into a thin line.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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