posted
Well, a lot of puns can be contained in a single thread, whereas posters of Dobies tend to create a new thread per pun.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
There are now two dobies of this thread. Both of them clearly proving my point, as neither are remotely funny.
The problem is, you can have 50% of the board feel that the onslaught of dobies are bringing the overall quality down, but they have absolutely no power to prevent the other 50% from making them. Heck, it could be 90%/10%, and those 10% still have the ability to muck the place up with a page full of one-post threads.
It feels like the 'rash of dobies' has been since I started participating again. Shouldn't it have blown over by now?
Posts: 7600 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
"Dobies are more humorous than practically all puns (in other words, barely humorous at all), and those are encouraged on this board."
Luckily, most puns are confined to a thread or two. Whereas Dobies, by definition, create a new thread of spam.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I guess you just don't get the exposure you would if you made a brand-new thread, and to be honest I've always thought of the non-funny dobies as attention whoring.
Feyd - Why on earth did you ask if I remembered you, you lug?
If it makes you feel better, I stopped myself from doing "Okay, it's Orificial" for fear of getting your boot up my ass.
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While I know my manner has been abrasive, I'm willing to be considered rude, having thrown my weight around, unnecesarily aggressive or just a bad bad meanie if people pause and reconsider before spamming the heck out of the board.
Posts: 7600 | Registered: Jan 2001
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I agree with the first post, since I was later listed as one of the five. *smile*
I agree with Squick's reasoning.
I'd add to Tick's guidelines that if a Dobie thread has any hope of being humorous, it has to be posted within a certain timeframe of the original thread, though I'm not sure what that timeframe might be. I've seen threads get bumped after a month, and then Dobied -- impossible to be funny at that point. If a thread isn't on the first page, it's too late. A second Dobie is invariably unfunny, as I believe there's a mathematical limitation that x<y => H(Dx)>H(Dy).
Icky, thanks for remembering that one. I think I'm proudest of that one and "Hatrack Infinity."
Architraz, I did in fact consider the "Feyd" Dobie, but it was just too late (a la Tick's and my guidelines).
The dynamics of Dobies and those of landmarks have some interesting similarities.
quote:While I know my manner has been abrasive, I'm willing to be considered rude, having thrown my weight around, unnecesarily aggressive or just a bad bad meanie if people pause and reconsider before spamming the heck out of the board.
I am willing to do this for other issues. I don't mind dobies - they are either funny and they register, or they are not funny and are therefore noise. Something only registers if it is eloquent, funny, or outstanding in some other way, and dobies never reach that bar. I just don't see them.
Posts: 1163 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I think the more sensitive an issue potentially is, the more careful I become.
Dobies are in the shallow end of the pool. Anyone who has an emotional attachment to them needs to get out more.
Posts: 7600 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Well, I'm done waging this battle. Hopefully two pages of anti-dobie sentiment will help the board out. There's really no reason to keep harping on the subject, as people ultimately do whatever they want to do.
After about a day when people with an anarchist nature have lost interest I hope that the pendulum will sing away from half the front page being filled with dobies to only one or two here and there. If not, I'll just go back into hibernation mode, and nothing really is lost.
At least I know I'm not the only one who hates 'em.
posted
The board often emmulates IRL gatherings. I would equate the present spate of dobies to hysterical laughter that is self-reinforcing. The original is mildly funny but then the laughter triggers more laughter and eventually no one is even laughing about the original impetus.
Edit for grammar. Thanks to LadyJane and apologies for editing her quote.
posted
I'd put excessive bad dobieing low on the list of things that could be improved at Hatrack.
Way at the top would be broad, sweeping classifications and generalizations of people with no backup.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
One of the things I love about Hatrack is that, while most of us think in terms of broad, sweeping generalizations simply out of lack of familiarity, Hatrack as a forum helps us redefine our concepts through conversation. While sometimes those conversations are heated because we form emotional attachments to our opinions, often times it's through those debates we realize - at the time or in retrospect - where we could have been more yielding, and where we were flat-out wrong. It also helps us solidify what we really believe, and test the metal of our own dogma.
I like to think I've come away with a far broader look at most things outside my sphere than I did coming in. But I don't get offended at broad, sweeping generalizations when they are directed at me. I always hope that, with a soft touch in those situations, I can guide others with their definitions like I've been guided.
I just wish there wasn't so much spam so I could find those conversations easier.
posted
Can soemone give me an example of a doby? is it something from harry potter? and..... in the mean time..... DOWN WITH THE [INSERT EXASPERATION HERE]!!!!!!!!!!!
Posts: 1567 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Look at the three topics on the top of the page. They give examples of dobies. Normally a link is included.
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Though I guess in an odd way that could be considered dobiesque in nature.
I've been a sometime offender with the dobies. But I have to say there was a considerable cessation of them for several months, it seemed. For a while my only real reason to post dobies was to annoy pat.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:There have been, maybe, five people in the history of Hatrack that could work a successful dobie. They have not been making dobies for a long time.
You are not one of them. For the love of all that is good and holy in the universe, please. freaking. stop.
posted
I miss Dobie's brand of pun. He was an original and I think that it is testament to the quality of his jokes that we still call a spoof thread a Dobie.
That said, I think that one of the reasons they were so funny is that they were few and far between. Timing IS everything.
And a big consideration for me, was the fact that "Dobie's" were the only thing he did. If I had the time for a light chuckle, I would read one of his threads, if I wanted to be informed, I'd read something else.
I think that one of the things that bothers me is that, since I get very little time to read the 'Rack these days, I have to decide where to spend my time. If I get used to someone always making Dobie's, I miss the truly intelligent and insightful things they have to say because I don't take time to open their threads ::shrugs:: My loss I guess.
Maybe we could have a shared name to put all "Dobie's" under? That way, we could easily distinguish between content and fluff. What do you all think?
Posts: 2425 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote: And, yet, if my officious manner is the end to this particular rash of dobies, I'll have felt it was worth while.
Are you this sensitive in real life? [Razz] [Smile]
I want to point out that I attempted to edit my post to add a smiley to indicate that it was dry wit, but the internet connection went down at work while I was editing it.
Was kind of frustrating to sit there trying to get back into the thread.
Posts: 720 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
"broad, sweeping classifications and generalizations"
Yeah, but you have to understand, Dag, that this is your personal hangup. If some people are Grammar Nazis, you're a Generalization Nazi; it may, to generalize a bit, stem from your background as a Catholic lawyer.
I mean, this is SO your personal hot-button issue that the last time somebody made a ridiculous, sweeping generalization in my presence here in MeatSpace, I actually paused for a moment because I expected you to swoop in at any second, possibly wearing a cape and carrying a briefcase, to point out how what they were saying was obviously not true in EVERY case, and could in fact be accurately called a gross distortion. Sadly, you did not appear.
quote:"broad, sweeping classifications and generalizations"
Yeah, but you have to understand, Dag, that this is your personal hangup. If some people are Grammar Nazis, you're a Generalization Nazi; it may, to generalize a bit, stem from your background as a Catholic lawyer.
But is should be everybody's issue. Anyone who doesn't hate broad, sweeping generalizations is Satan's spawn.
quote: I actually paused for a moment because I expected you to swoop in at any second, possibly wearing a cape and carrying a briefcase, to point out how what they were saying was obviously not true in EVERY case, and could in fact be accurately called a gross distortion.
I would like to see this happen. Dagonee, please start lurking around the outskirts of my conversations, prepared for people to make generalizations. With a cape.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:I want to point out that I attempted to edit my post to add a smiley to indicate that it was dry wit, but the internet connection went down at work while I was editing it.
Was kind of frustrating to sit there trying to get back into the thread.
Oh, man. One little smiley, a whole world 'o difference.
It's good to know you're not just some little sissy boy. I totally was going to give you wedgies and monkey bumps to toughen you up, and now I won't have to work for it! And as every one knows, I hate work. (Maybe a monkey bump or two for show.)
Posts: 7600 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Ten bucks says Toni could get I3 prone or in another noogiable position within fifteen seconds.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I suppose if I3 were gay, madly infatuated with another Hatracker, or equipped with some kind of hydraulic knee/back brace, it might take her a bit longer. She'd have to subcontract the thing out.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
What interests me is that there will probably be a West Coast gathering sometime where all this will be tested. I hope I'm there. With popcorn.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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