Re: This thread
jayrath said:
I don't mind humor -- I was on staff at The Onion -- but the goal of this post is to make fun of others on this board.
Were you on the
writing staff? Because if you were, I find it hard to believe you are this thin skinned (pun intended, of course). I mean, if just a few superficial cuts are going to make you start crying. (I couldn't resist!)
That's not wit. That's flinging boogers from the back of class.
(The following is not directed at jayrath, but to everyone.)
Look, the idea is to give us
all a healthy dose of perspective and not to take ourselves too seriously. I make fun of
myself just as much as I make fun of others, and my "status" around here usually means that the humorless or overly-sensitive are going to be able to throw quite a few rocks at me before anyone notices or cares.
And since I'm pretty easy going, I don't really care. I don't think I've ever asked anyone to be warned or a thread to be closed, despite obviously warnable behavior.
I want people to have fun here. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean others should be denied.
I just don't want to be "that guy" who goes running to Mommy because I have a different sense of humor than someone else; because I don't get orgasmic over the technical schematics of the warp drive in Star Trek II and how it differs from the warp drive in episode 72 of "Voyager;" because I don't care if T'Pol's non-existent relationship with Trip was more or less romantic than her non-existent relationship with Archer; etc.
Everybody who starts a thread here or makes a post is putting a little bit of themselves into that work. If it's not
your cup of tea, no problem. Keep looking until you do find your cup of tea. If you can't find it anywhere, make your own cup of tea and post it here. You might find out you just filled a niche that no one even realized needed to be filled.
The absolute worst thing you can do is waltz into someone else's thread and say:
This cup of tea tastes like shit. I hate this kind of tea. I am sick and tired of this kind of tea and I don't want to drink it. The guy who made this pot of tea needs to be smacked in the face for making this pot of tea, even though some of the others around me are clearly both drinking it and enjoying it. Since I don't like this kind of tea, no one else should ever like this kind of tea. In fact, they should be denied access to this kind of tea and anyone who makes this kind of tea should be encouraged to leave.
...or my "favorite"...
I started a few threads like this one and no one laughed, so I'm here to piss all over this other guy's thread because some people seem to think it is funnier than mine. [No one ever actually uses these words (or even realizes that this is what motivates their foul mood), but the intent is usually blatantly obvious]
Can't everyone see how ridiculous and petty that is? No one is going to like everything. No one put a gun to your head and asked you to read this. You chose to read it of your own free will. You got to read it for free, so if you didn't like it, you don't get to ask for a refund. You lost three seconds of your life to discover that you didn't like it. (And you waste several hours a day on much stupider shit than this. Don't act like you don't.) If you can translate those three seconds into how you have been damaged in any kind of relevant way, send me an e-mail and we can talk about it.
In short, if you don't like the humor, get the fuck out of the thread.
If you think it is warnable, hit the "Notify Moderator" button and move on. That's what the Moderators are here for. They know how to do their job. They aren't looking for advisory opinions or
amicus curiae to explain to them how to understand what is staring them right in the face. If you post your two cents on how "un-funny" the thread is, all you are going to do is: A) de-rail the poor bastard's thread; B) suck the fun right out of the thread; and C) make yourself look like a humorless ass.
Besides, some threads start out retarded, but then when subsequent posters come in and get the ball rolling, the thread really takes off. Let the ball start rolling! Don't take out a nail and punch a hole in the ball.
If all else fails, use the "Ignore the User" feature and you'll never have to be bothered by that individual again.
It's not that hard, people.
The reason we are all here is for information and for entertainment. Why else would we come here?
I personally would argue that the main reason we come here is for community. We can get the information somewhere else. There are certainly more reliable sources elsewhere. We come here to bond with one another; to bounce ideas off one another; to debate the finer points of Trek; and to blow off a little steam. Most of all, to have fun. If it's fun, we keep coming back. If it's not, we find other things to do to entertain us.
Keep in mind that if every complainer gets his wish, we'll have a forum that has maximized order and mimimized fun. That
cannot be the goal.
This is not a society where we must be forced to get along. This is a place that we voluntarily choose to come to because we enjoy it. That makes entertainent more important than absolute order. If you aren't entertained, roll up your sleeves and contribute. If that doesn't work, wait a while and then try again. If you find yourselves trying to hard to enjoy yourself, you are in the wrong place (this applies to relationships too, by the way).
The way I see it, if the community is enjoying itself, and no one is being harmed, then the board is a success.
(And I
do not define harm as someone thinking that a joke isn't funny.)
Sometimes the place gets a little spammy. So what? As long as we are spammy about Star Trek XI (and not that girl we have a crush on), then we are still in the right place.
As Howard Stern has always said to his many detractors, [paraphrasing] "If you don't like it, change the station. There are plenty of other stations to listen to. Or even better, turn the radio off and go outside."
