Having read some things in TSB in the past couple of days, it's becoming clear that this forum is more uncivil than even Chit Chat. This thing is full of nastiness and hate, based as much on differing personalities as substantive opinions. I certainly know that I've been guilty of it more than a few times, and so have many others that have posted here lately. I'd like to think that we could have intelligent discussion without succumbing to being crude, petty or insulting.

So, I'd like to make the following proposal: Let's take the personal attacks out of TSB. Let's have discussions that don't resort to personally insulting to one another.

Before you dismiss it out of hand, how about we try it, and see if we can encourage others to participate here as well?

6/22/2010 3:40:42 PM

i support this...but i think it will be hard to do, as the stupidity of certain users is so rank that it affects others personally

but yeah, i don't post here often enough...there are some entertaining threads

6/22/2010 3:43:26 PM

So Optimum gets his ass handed to him and after months of engaging in the most petty attacks he suddenly decides its time to "get polite" in soapbox?

For some reason I am thinking that any time Optimum gets served by a conservative he's gonna come cry in this thread.

6/22/2010 3:47:18 PM

[old]

6/22/2010 3:47:25 PM

I'll confess that I will call an idiot an idiot when the idiot in question is being a complete fucking idiot even in the face of calm presentation of cold facts and logic demonstrating his idiocy.

I really try not to rip into people like that up until the point that it's clear that they deserve it. I won't claim to have a perfect track record, of course.

6/22/2010 3:47:54 PM

The blank posts agree, Optimum rocks!

6/22/2010 3:48:26 PM

I agree.
I was simply asking questions (non-loaded) and admitted that I might be wrong, and quagmire02 fucking jumps all over me like some asshole. What did his post contribute? Nothing. Nothing.

Quote :

"Hey everyone! You wanna know why everyone in the Soap Box is so partisan and sure of themselves? It's because any honorable disclosure of not knowing something ("I could be wrong") is responded to by asshole trolls saying shit like, "you are...in just about everything". So next time, I'll be discouraged to ask innocent non-loaded questions. That way, only the know-it-all jerks will post. You can all thank quagmire02 for this."

and to be clear:

Quote :

"I certainly know that I've been guilty of it more than a few times"

applies to me, as well.

6/22/2010 3:51:56 PM

Civil discourse has no place in TSB.

Two man enter, one man leave.

6/22/2010 3:53:51 PM

and we like it that way

6/22/2010 3:55:29 PM

I agree with the OP honestly

This section was better before trolling became the norm.

6/22/2010 4:00:01 PM

Some of the spilled-acid level responses in this thread already kinda prove the need for its existence.

6/22/2010 4:00:40 PM

Quote :

"This section was better before trolling became the norm."

when was that, 2001?

6/22/2010 4:00:41 PM

Decent posts continued probably until about 2004 or 2005, iirc

6/22/2010 4:03:30 PM

wasn't that about the same time salisburyboy stopped posting? maybe we just need more edomite threads

6/22/2010 4:05:06 PM

LOL at the fact that this thread had to be made

6/22/2010 4:08:20 PM

just more of the same: butt hurt liberals whining

6/22/2010 4:13:06 PM

Quote :

"I was simply asking questions (non-loaded) and admitted that I might be wrong, and quagmire02 fucking jumps all over me like some asshole."

waaaaah! WAAAAAAAAH!

in case you're confused, this is a statement, not a question: "One of the most patriotic things one can do is to criticize your superiors." i think it's pathetic that you never learned the difference, but when you ask a QUESTION, you are looking for an ANSWER...when you make a STATEMENT, you are NOT looking for an answer, you're voicing your opinion or stating a fact

your statement is retarded, but it's no different than the other drivel you dish out in your attempt to get someone to side with you in the fight against the big bad evil american gubment...i called you out for making a statement steeped in ignorance you and you started to cry...boo hoo, get a clue, would you?

Quote :

"What did his post contribute? Nothing. Nothing."

kind of ironic that you would post this...i guess you've been there often enough to feel you can spot it?

6/22/2010 4:13:10 PM

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:13 PM. Reason : bad tww, bad!]

6/22/2010 4:13:11 PM

6/22/2010 4:15:40 PM

Its a college political message board.

Its full of people who think they know far more than they actually know and they will type about that until they are blue in the fingers.

Move along.

6/22/2010 4:17:17 PM

oh, look, i can google image search, too!



or does Solinari prefer



[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:18 PM. Reason : yet another TSB thread gone to crap]

6/22/2010 4:17:20 PM

I like that quagmire agreed with the intent of this thread and then went off and attacked someone right in the damn thread.

6/22/2010 4:19:38 PM

Goddamn, quagmire02 is an idiot.

Quote :

"stop making it personal"

(whoops)

6/22/2010 4:20:10 PM

Hey, guys? Go back and read my original post. Are any of you interested in agreeing with my proposal, and putting it into practice?

6/22/2010 4:22:47 PM

I am.

6/22/2010 4:23:26 PM

^,^^fuck both of you idiots

seriously though, i posted "[old]" in my first post ITT, because this has been suggested many times over the years, and surprise, has never worked

6/22/2010 4:33:01 PM

TSB as it stands is just a vitriol party I don't see the point

nobody really learns anything here

6/22/2010 4:35:07 PM

I agree. For the most part I don't take things personal and I hope I don't come off as trying to ever personally attack anyone.

6/22/2010 4:35:55 PM

Cool we've got both leftists and conservatives in on this now. Hopefully this will snowball a little and we can have two soap boxes -- one for argumentative babies and one for discussion.

6/22/2010 4:36:36 PM

^^^^ But that's the problem. Toss an insult and make a comment. The only part that was useful was the comment.

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:36 PM. Reason : +2]

6/22/2010 4:36:37 PM

Quote :

"I like that quagmire agreed with the intent of this thread and then went off and attacked someone right in the damn thread."

hmmm...Ernie just happened to miss the point at which indy brought it into this thread first...but no surprise there, when he sees me post he can't help but try to swing from my nutsack

i say "try" because Ernie doesn't seem to realize that he's so far beneath me that i wouldn't deign to piss on him if he were on fire

6/22/2010 4:38:05 PM

^ This is an example of the problem.

6/22/2010 4:39:31 PM

Quote :

"Its a college political message board. Its full of people who think they know far more than they actually know and they will type about that until they are blue in the fingers. Move along."

ftr, i dont disagree with the point of this thread, i just think its laughably impossible to implement, especially when the purpose of this forum is to "discuss" some of the most divisive subjects there are (ie, politics, religion, etc)

so yeah, i'm not gonna hold my breath

6/22/2010 4:41:24 PM

^^ inorite! some users just feel they have to stick their noses in others' business for no other reason than to be a douchebag...Ernie is notorious for this, but i cut him some slack because i realize it's the best he's got to offer

indy shouldn't have been dumb to begin with, but just like i wouldn't blame a puppy for pooping on the floor, i can't blame him for dropping turds everywhere he goes...it's not his fault, he can't help being stupid

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:41 PM. Reason : .]

6/22/2010 4:41:45 PM

Oh, I've learned plenty here. I've even changed my mind on a few things. Most people are just playing the game of "how can I never admit that I'm wrong," though. They don't have any intention of getting at the truth, there's only the desire to take shots at "the other side," while becoming further and further entrenched in their beliefs. There's plenty of misdirection going on too, rather than substantive debate.

Overall, TSB is pretty awful in terms of content, but it might actually be better than a lot of other political forums on the internet.

6/22/2010 4:42:53 PM

Quote :

"Oh, I've learned plenty here. I've even changed my mind on a few things. Most people are just playing the game of "how can I never admit that I'm wrong," though."

this

6/22/2010 4:44:36 PM

^^^^ All it takes are a few players agreeing to be a bit more reserved. Pretty simple.

^^^ Another example.

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:45 PM. Reason : +1]

6/22/2010 4:45:41 PM

hmmm...i have the feeling you're not agreeing with me, but more using me for an example...

6/22/2010 4:47:45 PM

You just happen to be providing them right now. I wasn't watching tdub earlier, when they were directed at me personally.

6/22/2010 4:50:19 PM

^^^^
Could you provide a link to one of your posts where you admit to being wrong?.. or even admit you may be wrong?
(I'm waiting...)

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:50 PM. Reason : ]

6/22/2010 4:50:21 PM

nm

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:53 PM. Reason : .]

6/22/2010 4:52:48 PM

^^ you'll keep waiting, too...that should get your panties good and gritty

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 4:53 PM. Reason : carats]

6/22/2010 4:53:19 PM

Quote :

"All it takes are a few players agreeing to be a bit more reserved. Pretty simple."

IOW, conservatives shut up. Only liberals are allowed to be smug.

6/22/2010 4:54:24 PM

^ Can I ask why you are assuming that?

6/22/2010 4:56:55 PM

Quote :

"it's becoming clear that this forum is more uncivil than even Chit Chat"

imagine TSB is made up of politicans and CC is made up of average citizens

so basically, politicians are bigger assholes than average citizens

for real though, people need thicker skin

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 5:01 PM. Reason : .]

6/22/2010 4:58:51 PM

Quote :

"Its a college political message board."

Just to be clear, these days this is a message board mostly for adults, so we don't get to write off bad behavior as youth/college antics.

6/22/2010 5:05:52 PM

Quote :

""Its a college political message board. Its full of people who think they know far more than they actually know and they will type about that until they are blue in the fingers. Move along.""

I wish. Soap Box stopped being this several years ago. Now it's just veteran lurkers who have graduated. They're too jaded to engage in constructive discussion, so they just hang around, hoping to find an easy opening for a snarky, epeen-stroking rebuttal. Fresh ideas are treated with contempt, and new users are flogged with [old] until they too join the collective apathy.

6/22/2010 5:07:23 PM

Quote :

""Oh, I've learned plenty here. I've even changed my mind on a few things. Most people are just playing the game of "how can I never admit that I'm wrong," though.""

This. I was a hell of a lot more on the republican wing of the political spectrum when I started here. It's embarrassing to read some of my older posts, but I guess that's all part of learning and growing. That said, usually the most interesting (and I think the most informative) are the ones that have the least to do with federal politics. When it gets to federal level politics, laws that congress is passing and stupid shit the president is doing, it seems everyone grabs the nearest political talking points and hits each other over the head with them ad nausium.

6/22/2010 7:28:10 PM

If you make it a point to focus on the issue instead of the person you're arguing with, and not get flustered, you will always come across as the better man.

6/22/2010 7:34:25 PM

There seem to be several that say they agree with my proposal, so that's a positive start. Next question... will you put it into practice for yourself?

6/22/2010 9:02:28 PM