PRR and beebs, good to see both of you back. What's up?
PRR and beebs, good to see both of you back. What's up?
Not very much, in my case. I'm actually feeling homeless, electronically speaking. I don't feel at home here, on Giraffe, on the SD, anywhere. It's weird to feel like this, that I have no pack of internet-buddies to run my weird ideas past, to ask questions of, to get into their weird issues with. I may have to find a life IRL--my RL is incredibly slow, no excitement on the job these days, no drama going on in the romance department, no sports I give a shit about (This is the single dullest period of the year, post-NFL, pre-MLB). Seriously, I have no major complaints--no severe illness, no family crisis, no hard-up for $$$--just terminal boredom.
There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"
Well I did start a Spring Training thread and I hope you decide to post more here. It seems the board has quieted down, (maybe too much) but activity is picking up a tick and we're still here somehow.Originally posted by prr
I've said it before: the bulk of activity on Mellophant is chat. When more people are chatting, fewer are in the forums posting away. It's just part of the site's culture, inherited from DoMeBo.
Wow it sounds like you're having a February.
Welcome to Mellophant.
We started with nothing and we still have most of it left.
That is a very honest appraisal and it needs some serious consideration by regular members.
An exceptionally pertinent question. At the very least, it might be a good idea to leave behind a majority of SDMB feuds instead of transplanting them into this more fragile environment. Then again, certain personalities seem unable to live without a free flow of that sort of vitriol, much to the general detriment of all involved. Or, put another way:
I don't expect everyone to "just get along", that would be boring in the extreme. However, agreeing to disagree more often might lend an air of civility right when it is most desperately needed for this site's eventual success.
The entire clique issue was quite poisonous over at the SDMB and, from what little I've seen, shows signs of infesting itself here. Few things are a bigger turnoff than seeing evidence of malicious backchannel gossip and spitefulness.
I hope this input is constructive and can help build this site into a more fun place to visit. The cyberworld is chockablock with every imaginable sort of information source but not too many genuine communities that are able to contain a wide variety of viewpoints. Let's hope that Mellophant can succeed and thrive where others have not.
If you want a possible explanation as to why so few people post at Mellophant, I can offer you no better example than the Crucible thread titled: Do you support your government committing extra-judicial murder/preemptive assassination?.
In it, I provided a well constructed account of why this strategy is one of the only viable methods to avoid escalation of jihad into the World War that Islam currently seeks to ignite. Documentation was provided to answer valid concerns raised in those few legitimate responses that were posted.
Instead, the entire discussion was derailed by a senior Mellophant member who engaged in childish name-calling, ad hominem attack and intentional misrepresentation of the commentary provided.
This was done without any retraction or even remotely suitable counterargument and a potentially productive debate about defeating Islamic jihad was stifled by irrelevant, juvenile misconduct. The other participants have now evaporated and I can assure you that Mellophant’s membership is very much the poorer for having lost a chance to review this important topic.
You're acting under the likely false assumption that people here think it would somehow be of benefit if this place, like the SDMB, were to humor every nutty, extremist viewpoint thought up my someone like, well, like you. It manifestly would not benefit us from the perspective of having useful, interesting discussions on important issues. Whether that's less important than being a "safe place" for people to express antisocial and/or insane viewpoints, I leave to greater minds than my own.
Needless to say, this place has been, thus far, fortunate in that people like you are a small minority, so the implication that "hostility to expressions of insanity" is what's driving people away is, pretty much, unsupportable.
:: huggles ::
Evaporated? Have you looked around this place? If you respond to that thread and address posters specifically, they'll see it. How can they not? It's not as though the thread is going to fall off the front page of the Crucible any time in the next, say, 3 months.
Quite frankly, if all you want in a message board is a captive audience for your undeniable brilliance, then I doubt you're ever going to find a place you really like. You should get a blog where you can fully control the discourse and the reaction you receive. Posting on a message board implies a willingness to receive any response or no response at all, keeping in mind that there's a better than good chance you won't like what you read.
We're small here. we have our own culture now, after a year of fits and starts. If you like that culture, then we'd like to have you (general you) here. But if the personalities that make up the board aren't attractive to you, what can we do about it? Have the moderators come down hard on people for being themselves? Try to turn the Crucible from a place of relaxed but intelligent discussions (which I quite like) into a structured place for intellectually rigorous debate? Fuck that noise, man, I'm just here to hang out with friends.
I'm still swimming in harmony. I'm still dreaming of flight. I'm still lost in the waves night after night...
Do you have an idea or an article you would like to see on the Electric Elephant? Email me at theelectricelephant(at)gmail.com!
I have zero problems with legitimately expressed opposing viewpoints. They provide important perspective without which productive debate is impossible.
Who's asking you to do anything about the makeup or “culture” of this board? My point goes towards personal conduct according to the specific forum rules set by your own selves. The Crucible’s forum header reads: “The Crucible The serious stuff. Debates and discussions on current events, politics, science, religion, etc.” The Crucible’s ground rules state: “However, repeated use of the more obnoxious logical fallacies (ad hominem, poisoning the well, appeal to ridicule, etc) may earn you a STFU from a mod or a caging.”We have our own culture now, after a year of fits and starts. If you like that culture, then we'd like to have you (general you) here. But if the personalities that make up the board aren't attractive to you, what can we do about it?
If you have a personal issue with another poster, take it to the Thunderdome. Trolling and threadshitting are not appropriate for this forum.”
These internal rules were clearly not respected and yet you seem to represent this as acceptable behavior for The Crucible.
Since when do "intelligent discussions", relaxed or otherwise, in a forum dedicated to courteous deliberation involve name-calling, ad hominem attack and willful misrepresentation of someone else's posting?Have the moderators come down hard on people for being themselves? Try to turn the Crucible from a place of relaxed but intelligent discussions (which I quite like) into a structured place for intellectually rigorous debate? Fuck that noise, man, I'm just here to hang out with friends.
Finally, a statement like the following; “Quite frankly, if all you want in a message board is a captive audience for your undeniable brilliance, then I doubt you're ever going to find a place you really like.”, clearly indicates that you are more than willing to import old hostilities from the SDMB into Mellophant and, as I noted in my previous comment, that may go a long way towards explaining the lack of growth hereabouts.
I do not know if you have intentionally done this while in your capacity as a moderator at this message board but, if you have, I see that as a rather egregious abuse of your position.
What old hostilities, Zenster? Our paths have never once crossed, and quite frankly, if they had crossed on the SDMB, it was over 6 years ago (but I'm almost 100% sure we don't have a history between us). I can't remember shit that happened six days ago. I was responding to something you said today in this thread (bolding mine):
When I see that sentence, I see arrogance. You're implying that we're all poorer because you are now going to refuse to post about the topic. What part of that sentence indicates you want to have an actual discourse? It's quite presumptive, too. Quite frankly, I don't feel at all poorer because you're not going to further enlighten us on why 1,000-10,000 people need to die. In fact, if I never have a conversation entitled "Why Thousands of People Need to Die" I'll be quite a happy person.
As for the reference to my "capacity as moderator", you can drop that bullshit too. This isn't the SDMB and the mods aren't venerated here or put on a pedestal (for both good and ill). I'm posting as a poster, not a moderator. But even if I weren't, so the fuck what? An egregious abuse of my position? What the fuck are you talking about, dude? You haven't been warned, suspended, or banned. I can't put you in Mellophant jail, I can't punish you any meaningful way, and you aren't being oppressed or tortured. "Egregious abuse of my position"? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that even sounds? My job around here is to basically make sure that everybody keeps the level of cuntiness down to a minimum.
I'm still swimming in harmony. I'm still dreaming of flight. I'm still lost in the waves night after night...
Do you have an idea or an article you would like to see on the Electric Elephant? Email me at theelectricelephant(at)gmail.com!
Hey, Zenster, it's cool. You're used to that other place, where stupid, crazy viewpoints were treated as equivalent to viewpoints that are actually worth hearing.
Folks here aren't inclined to play the same game. You'll just have to get used to it -- if you want to post here. People (if I know them) aren't going to pretend that some stupid, or nonsensical, or lunatic, viewpoint is valid just because a poster shares it. That certainly makes this place less "interesting" for some portion of users. The rest of us hope that it makes it even better for everyone else.
Nobody posts here because it smells fucking terrible in here.
Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.
"It's a taxicab air freshener, sir."
"Great, you've pinpointed it. Step two is washing it off."
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."
find me at Goodreads
People are not posting more because they do not respect my opinions on everything that i write! I am astonished the Internet works this way!
More people would post here if we gave away money.
I would. Give me some money and I will demonstrate.
"I won't kill for money, and I won't marry for it. Other than that, I'm open to just about anything."
-Jim Rockford
I'm with Zenster on this one. If some one makes wild crazy claims attack his Ideas. Give your own. Just calling some one a big pooppie head does nothing. But Zenster there is no need to get on your high horse about this. A mod note was made in that thread. About this very issue. And neither I, Exy or anyone else around here are senior members whose opinion counts for more or less than anyone else's.
Welcome to Mellophant.
We started with nothing and we still have most of it left.
I'm afraid it's been done. Xploder was banned today for doing just that.
Just to clarify: for shouting 'cunt, cunt, cunt', not for drinking tea with his pinkie extended. Just in case there was any doubt.
Last edited by NineToTheSky; 24 Mar 2010 at 10:50 AM.
Any idea what finally made him snap?
What makes any of these 'suicide by mod' posters self destruct? There are some people who can't seem to stop themselves - or don't want to.
In a thread asking why he couldn't say cunt. Xploder:
Rico responded with this:Better yet...to the tune of the Meow Mix commercial:
cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt..
fuck it I lost count..
<mod>
You know, there is respectful and constructive criticism and discussion of rules you don't like, and then there's...things like this. Suspensions in the past, warnings, nothing works, apparently.
Seeya, Xploder.
</mod>
Somehow I doubt they'll let him back. Well at least he had some fun on the way out.
He posts on the Giraffe Boards, so he won't be too bereft. I think their style suits him better. Some people find the rules at the Dope chafe too much. Which, obviously, is why here and Giraffe exist. Me, I'm too easy going to care, and I prefer the structure and the churn of the Dope, though I may not always agree with all the regulations - though I love the soap opera. Better than the telly any day.
Liar.
Librarians rule, Oook
Well, you got me. For some people and in some cases, I do have quite an extensive memory. But the fact remains that if Zenster is referencing any specific hostilities, I have no idea what they are. And if he means general ill-will due to his time on the Dope, I have none towards him.
I'm still swimming in harmony. I'm still dreaming of flight. I'm still lost in the waves night after night...
Do you have an idea or an article you would like to see on the Electric Elephant? Email me at theelectricelephant(at)gmail.com!
This thread has, in Doper mod parlance, run its course. There were some decent points made on page one, but now it's turned into a place for people to bitch about the fact that sometime, somewhere in the history of Mellophant, someone took issue with something they said. Too fucking bad.
It is neither healthy nor, I would guess, desirable for the majority of Mellos for this to be a place where no disagreement is allowed. If you have political beliefs that run toward the outrageous, or have manifold issues with women, or whatever, someone's going to say something. Suck it up, or - speaking just for myself - don't post here.
I am no longer interested in wringing my hands and worrying about the fact that we have significantly fewer posts than other boards. I like this board the way it is and ALL I care about is whether we have enough to interest the posters that are still here. I think we do, most days, so by and large I am happy.
everything in nature is sort of gross when you look at it too closely. what is an apple? basically the uterus of a tree - terrifel
*shrug* I, for one, already indicated that "Don't post here" is an acceptable option for me, so no bitching. I merely chimed in above to point out that, as a matter of fact, Pepperlandgirl can't cite previous good character in the matter of not bearing grudges. It's always amusing to watch someone backpedal. You're happy for Mello to remain a tiny clique and far be it from me to intrude.
Librarians rule, Oook
Moderator Note: This has drifted far away from AG's OP and lingered far too long. If anyone has a specific complaint, suggestion or idea a thread in AM would work nicely. Questions and Answers is not the place for it and a catch-all complaint thread smells a little too much like the days of Dumbo for my taste.
Thread closed.
Posting rules
