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What annoys you about other people online?

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10:35 / 23.08.04

Yeah, good point. The original thread was about new posters feeling neglected though (ir at least that's how I read it?). Yes this place isn't some care bears let's all hug and be nice board, the being nice aspect is difficult in a place of discussion. There is a core of people who post more than others, and as such stand out as prefects at this special school, if you will, and this will always be the case.

But there is a fine balance between good thoughtful posts and the odd smattering of quick witted off the cuff responses that makes the boards at best work wonderfully, so that you go away with a thought in your head to chew over and the splatter of milk or coffee burning the back of your nose where you cough/laughed it up.

10:43 / 23.08.04

it is baiting, trying to get a reaction by misrepresenting your beliefs
I used the COMIC BOOK Thing and the resulting response to show that perhaps people take barb and its high falutin intellectualness a bit too seriously. Thats kind of why I trying to triavialise barb with the Comic Book comment the fact people would see it as trivialising barb is indicative of their own snobishness...or something. Or maybe I was exagerating for effect. Anyway even me being a pleb an all its quite blatant that barb is not just about comic books.

"special school" "quality discussion" hmmm

I just meant that both seemed a bit snobby somehow.

I know this is going to ssound incredibly stupid of me but what exactly does interlocutors mean?

10:46 / 23.08.04

I know this is going to ssound incredibly stupid of me but what exactly does interlocutors mean?

They were the half-robot / half-reptile villains that the Zoids used to fight, weren't they?

11:30 / 23.08.04

Okay, so some people may be taking discussions on Barbelith too seriously. Is there a general 'just seriously enough' calibration? Did I miss the memo (again)?

11:38 / 23.08.04

From the wiki:

Our aim is to create an online space where the standard of conversation, discussion and debate is higher than anywhere else online

Standard? Higher? Those snobby bastards!

I should clarify that probably the thing that makes me more enraged than anything else... no, okay, I get enraged a lot, but one of the things that makes me pretty enraged online (and offline, actually) is the accusation of "taking things too seriously". Outside very limited application in personal terms ("Don't take that job rejection too seriously, you are a good person nonetheless") it's meaningless, it shuts down discussions, and actually I think it's a particularly nasty combination of snobby and lazy - as Ganesh has already said with more grace and wit than me, it represents the accuser as being better able to judge the correct (level of) response to anything than the accused, while simultaneously freeing the accuser from having to respond to anything the accused has said ("I don't have to refute that, because you are taking it too seriously").

11:42 / 23.08.04

interlocutor is 'the person you are talking to'. Like "Haus and hir interlocutors" = "Haus and the other people participating in the conversation." It's like inter-rogator, except from loquor, 'to speak', rather than rogo, 'to ask': someone who elicits responses from you by speaking rather than by asking questions.

11:59 / 23.08.04

Damn, I could have sworn it was a type of robot.

12:01 / 23.08.04

it's meaningless, it shuts down discussions, and actually I think it's a particularly nasty combination of snobby and lazy

Jeez louise, I'm not sure saying that people take high falutin intellectualness of Barb too seriously has shut down any kind of discussion. Surely your response shows that. Im sorry but i do think people take it too seriously. Perhaps rather than just shouting me down you should perhaps engage as to why the uber high class of conversation is so important. And why when someone posts something non particularly clever that means that your standard of converation has to follows suit.

12:20 / 23.08.04

people take it too seriously

Which people take what too seriously? Because if I'm talking about emotionally and intellectually difficult and risky discussions about race, sexuality, or terrorism, and you're talking about Joycore, this is going to be another RAF/RAF fiasco...

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:51 / 23.08.04

Perhaps rather than just shouting me down you should perhaps engage as to why the uber high class of conversation is so important.

I would argue that Deva has already "engaged as to why" by quoting the Wiki above. However, if you disagree with that stated aim of Barbelith, perhaps this is indeed something which we should be discussing - Barbelith should always reflect the desires of its members, after all. Why not start a thread in which you put forward the idea that our aim here should be to maintain a level of discussion which is no more intelligent or less intelligent than that found elsewhere, and we can see what the general feeling is about that prospect? That is, unless you think that would be a bit too serious...

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:39 / 23.08.04

People who are involved in conversation. Especially conversation with The Namer, enigmatic last member of the race that created the Zoids.

I think I said "quality of discussion", rather than "quality discussion" (as in quality meats or quality goal), btw. I think that does change the meaning rather. It strikes me that there's not a clear picture here of what is being decried as "snobbish". For example, if people are discussing a book in the books forum, and I start talking about it without having read it, or start talking about the film of the book, I don't think it is snobbish for the people who have read the book not to treat my opinions with the same weight... Likewise, if you misrepresent Barbelith as being a comic books board, I don't think it is snobbish for people to point out that it is not. If your intention is to communicate something like "Hey, this is an egalitarian place - the only qualification we all have to be here is that we joined. As such, it boots us little to try to make each other feel like we don't belong", then that's cool...

08:03 / 24.08.04

he just thought he was the last one.

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:06 / 24.08.04

Yep. There was the mad one with the pointy stick as well. Or do you mean that the entire population was alive and well, but had just moved, and the Namer was tramping around getting all angsty as a postman dogged his heels with letters from millions of Zoidarians, saying "Hello! Having a lovely time just the other side of those mountains - come join!"?

09:16 / 24.08.04

The Starriors still had their humans, they just froze them and forgot where they put them.

02:29 / 26.08.04

I hate it when that happens.

Especially when you've got yourself a nice, juicy one that you *know* is going to make for some great roast. And then you can't remember where you put the fucker! Geez. Then ya' gotta' go out and find yourself another prime looking specimen, lure them back to your place, and go through the bother of all the cutting and slicing and cleaning all over.

07:17 / 26.08.04

But, but this thread was nearly dead!

Eieon, Mate. Stop bloody apologising to people that you'll probably never meet, and stop being such a drama queen about everything, eh? Nobody really gives a shit. If you want to earn the respect of people on here – and Christ alone knows why that seems so important to you – then make good posts.

Yeah i see what you mean i'll chill out a bit. I had a freakout over the weekend and i'm a lot better now. I'm not really after earning the respect of people here i just thought i was the most annoying member and it was grating on me in my post Filth, dehydration, mental state.

I've been drinking quite a bit of water, eating healthier food and smoking less in the last few days and my energy levels went right up yesterday, it was quite a good feeling after so long. It's funny how i've been freaking out about magick and wondering how to get myself together and all i needed was water, decent food and less smokes.

Oh yeah and less internet addiction.

Anyway, enough of my ranting.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:09 / 26.08.04

It's funny how i've been freaking out about magick and wondering how to get myself together and all i needed was water, decent food and less smokes.

Yeah, don't forget the "little" things or you can fuck yourself up prison-style on the big ones.

17:29 / 26.08.04

he just thought he was the last one.

He was after he killed the other lad.

18:29 / 26.08.04

Haus: The best way to balance that out is generally to contribute something of value. Unsuported and acontextual allegations of superiority, snobbery and condescension are rarely productive.

You could've just mentioned Flyboy by name, Haus. The majority of his posts are, indeed, snide little put-downs. Sometimes justified, sometimes not. But insults do not somehow negate a shit post either way.

19:23 / 26.08.04

Flyboy gets a pass. He was not born a monster: It was you that made him so.

You.

And the weight of your sins.

Haus of Mystery

20:13 / 26.08.04

I come to Barbelith for the snobbery.

20:29 / 26.08.04

I think I'm here for the snobbery, too.

Actually, the fact is, I don't see the snobbery everyone's always talking about. Or the love-ins. I feel like there's some secret fourteenth forum, where all the personal attacks, snit-fests, love ins, cliquery and snobbishness happen. And then the fallout and aftermath is spoken of here and there in conversation.

Not to get all RAF vs RAF here, but just what are we talking about?

21:33 / 26.08.04

I come for the snobbery, but I stay for the pie...

22:15 / 26.08.04

I throw pie at the snobbery.

ONLY NICE THINGS

23:22 / 26.08.04

"Snobbery" is frequently shorthand for "you are objectively wrong, but I have no resources with which to express that opinion. Nonetheless, it is true. Ergo, you must be cheating."

This is not a massively useful or helpful position. I hope that over time people will become able to cope with assimilating their own need for validation through ad hominem attacks into a useful comment. Perhaps when we try to deal with the issue rather than score points off the person, we can make some progress on this.

00:09 / 27.08.04

Not to come over all prefecty and superior, but isn't snobbery pie one of those dishes from Cornwall or Devon made from bits of beef and songbirds? Soaked in port wine? Cubes of apple mixed in?

00:21 / 27.08.04

No, thats a snobbery pastie

flufeemunk effluvia

02:28 / 27.08.04

Don't they throw pies in canadian parliament?

12:05 / 27.08.04

Can I score points off the person by throwing pie?

14:35 / 27.08.04

Flyboy's not a snob. He just doesn't suffer (people who he considers to be) fools gladly. I don't think that's really a problem, is it? Lots of people here can come across as a bit abrasive if you catch them on a bad day, or misread the tone of their posts. That's just... people, I suppose. If everyone insisted on having a big scrap every time their feathers were a little ruffled we'd never get anything done round here... I mean, there are times when it is justified, and times when it's not (mind you, so much depends on the individual that I suppose you can't set rules for this). But I do sometimes feel that if people took a little more time to consider things we might not have so many squabbles.

What annoys me about other people online? Well - usually it's either a) people having continuing jokes that I don't find funny (but that's my problem), or b) people who post for no other (apparent) reason than to talk about themselves or to crack jokes, irrespective of the topic, and without making any interesting or amusing contribution to any threads... there are such, though I know you will find it hard to credit...

15:37 / 27.08.04

(Throws pie at Kit-Kat Club)

16:56 / 27.08.04

Flyboy's not a snob. He just doesn't suffer[...]fools gladly.

are those not at least related?

perhaps snobbery in this case is shorthand for the attitude "you are not like me, and I have no desire just to let you be."

18:05 / 27.08.04

I don't think Flyboy's a snob, i think he just speaks his mind, which is a good thing.

ONLY NICE THINGS

23:43 / 27.08.04

perhaps snobbery in this case is shorthand for the attitude "you are not like me, and I have no desire just to let you be."

Hmmm... problem is, letting be has consequences. First up, it gives out the message that, say, racism, sexism, homophobia or just good old-fashioned stupidity are acceptable and accepted parts of Barbelith. There are a shockingly large number of places on the Internet devoted to any or all of those things. I'd rather not see Barbelith become one of them, and as such become a place which people do not visit because they know that if they do they are likely to have to wade through large amounts of material that is either offensive to them or just very boring.

Obviously, different people have different sensitivity levels. The trick is to observe that while also keeping Barbelith a worthwhile provider of a specific experience.

23:07 / 29.08.04

I'd rather not see Barbelith become one of them

do you really think that's likely to happen? its a remote possibility at most, surely.

'you're not like me' was not meant to be a description of a right-on meeting a racist, but a simple difference of opinion.
i think your slippery slope might have been over-greased, dude.

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