DiscussMormonism.com

Greetings,

I have been doing the internet message board thing for about 7 years now. (For the most part, I have really, really enjoyed the thoughts shared, information offered, banter, etc)

My question is this:

It seems to me that there are many, many threads (The great majority in my opinion) that get so off track, from the OP, that it has caused me to ponder why that seems to be so common.

I realize that a single post/question (within an ongoing discussion) can/does impact the course of dialouge, but........................it seems that there is more to it than that.(Most of the time)

Exhibit 1:

Thread topic- "Why do you suppose most Mormon men drive green cars?"

If someone finds that topic interesting and decides to click on the thread, they are forced to weed through countless posts that have nothing at all to do with the OP.
(One is forced to read countless posts about the definition of the word "pumpkin", personal posts that complain about the pumpkin, posts that think the pumpkin is really a Zebra, posts that go in great depth judging all pumpkins on the planet, posts that make the entire thread about their own pumpkin, posts that imply a Zebra and a pumpkin are the same thing, etc, etc)

So many off topic comments
So many diversions
So many stop signs placed in the way
So many changes of direction

In short, I find it enormously frustrating, entirely mind-bending, and very exhausting. (Many times I find it to be bizarre)

This experience has caused me to wonder a few things.

Is this just the price we all must pay when trying to communicate on these boards?
Is this on purpose?
Are these tactics (with intent) to stop/limit/direct/change the dialouge?
Is the seeming diversion by design?
What, if anything, does it say about us human beings?

Just my take.

What say you?

Peace,
Ceeboo

I have no idea, but here's the thing... you should have seen the zebra I saw devouring a green pumpkin last weekend. Unreal!

OK, I can't do that to you... well, and not at least respond seriously (well, as serious as I ever get).

I find people's desire to keep the thread limited to the OP strange, to say the least. A discussion goes where it's taken. That's what makes them interesting. People who try to police their own threads to keep them on topic seem uptight and a little controlling to me. Nothing makes me want to distract a thread more.

I don't consider it the "price" of online discussion. It's the beauty of them.

(ETA: goddammit, Shades, I hate some of your posting validations. Changing 'Al-right' (without the hyphen) to 'all right' is not correct in all cases.)

Ceeboo wrote:Greetings,

I have been doing the internet message board thing for about 7 years now. (For the most part, I have really, really enjoyed the thoughts shared, information offered, banter, etc)

My question is this:

It seems to me that there are many, many threads (The great majority in my opinion) that get so off track, from the OP, that it has caused me to ponder why that seems to be so common.

I realize that a single post/question (within an ongoing discussion) can/does impact the course of dialouge, but........................it seems that there is more to it than that.(Most of the time)

Exhibit 1:

Thread topic- "Why do you suppose most Mormon men drive green cars?"

If someone finds that topic interesting and decides to click on the thread, they are forced to weed through countless posts that have nothing at all to do with the OP.
(One is forced to read countless posts about the definition of the word "pumpkin", personal posts that complain about the pumpkin, posts that think the pumpkin is really a Zebra, posts that go in great depth judging all pumpkins on the planet, posts that make the entire thread about their own pumpkin, posts that imply a Zebra and a pumpkin are the same thing, etc, etc)

So many off topic comments
So many diversions
So many stop signs placed in the way
So many changes of direction

In short, I find it enormously frustrating, entirely mind-bending, and very exhausting. (Many times I find it to be bizarre)

This experience has caused me to wonder a few things.

Is this just the price we all must pay when trying to communicate on these boards?
Is this on purpose?
Are these tactics (with intent) to stop/limit/direct/change the dialouge?
Is the seeming diversion by design?
What, if anything, does it say about us human beings?

Just my take.

What say you?

Peace,
Ceeboo

I could say, "Ceeboo only eats pasta after he smooshes it in his armpit and soaks it in rhinocersous spit".

And a response tends to be something like, "he doesn't smoosh it so much as tenderize it, and for tat you are an illiterate idiot who believes the most harmful crap imaginable."

That's just how it goes when there is the type of anymosity and hostility that defines the atmosphere here.

I honestly think if the more reasonable posters like Ceeboo and others would say something when these gang-attacks occur then we'd all be better off.

Would it be considered facile to observe that nothing is a thing unto itself, and that, everything is connected, somehow, to everything else in the universe.

Perhaps the wonder is that so many threads achieve some measure of discussion either on the stated topic or on topics that the original poster would consider to be connected in a meaningful way.

I think it says that, even if we minimise the contributions of malice and stupidity, us human beings have an incredibly rich and interconnected conceptual web, and that is part of what makes us human.

In other words, get used to it already! (;=) We're not going to change any time soon.

Ceeboo wrote:Greetings,

I have been doing the internet message board thing for about 7 years now. (For the most part, I have really, really enjoyed the thoughts shared, information offered, banter, etc)

My question is this:

It seems to me that there are many, many threads (The great majority in my opinion) that get so off track, from the OP, that it has caused me to ponder why that seems to be so common.

I realize that a single post/question (within an ongoing discussion) can/does impact the course of dialouge, but........................it seems that there is more to it than that.(Most of the time)

Exhibit 1:

Thread topic- "Why do you suppose most Mormon men drive green cars?"

If someone finds that topic interesting and decides to click on the thread, they are forced to weed through countless posts that have nothing at all to do with the OP.
(One is forced to read countless posts about the definition of the word "pumpkin", personal posts that complain about the pumpkin, posts that think the pumpkin is really a Zebra, posts that go in great depth judging all pumpkins on the planet, posts that make the entire thread about their own pumpkin, posts that imply a Zebra and a pumpkin are the same thing, etc, etc)

So many off topic comments
So many diversions
So many stop signs placed in the way
So many changes of direction

In short, I find it enormously frustrating, entirely mind-bending, and very exhausting. (Many times I find it to be bizarre)

This experience has caused me to wonder a few things.

Is this just the price we all must pay when trying to communicate on these boards?
Is this on purpose?
Are these tactics (with intent) to stop/limit/direct/change the dialouge?
Is the seeming diversion by design?
What, if anything, does it say about us human beings?

Just my take.

What say you?

Peace,
Ceeboo

I don't see any board resembling a real life situation that would facilitate "staying on topic" they are not "school" or "work" where one expects people to stick to the subject being taught or the topic the company is concerned about. Even in these type of controlled conversations people wander off topic and have to brought back to the business at hand. Boards are more of a social gathering and in those situations conversation among the group rarely stays on one subject, it wanders, makes hard turns and, leaps from subject to subject.

The tale of woe about ones daily commute brought to a stand still due to an accident will bring up related personal tales. This can lead to a countless number of discussions of say, railroad crossing safety leading into suicide by train, (twice in the last 10 years by me) cell phones while driving leading to discussion of all the rude cell phone people one has run into, or putting on make up while driving leading to discussion of the importance of looks in our society. food, smoking, air bags, helmet for motorcyclists, idiot drivers. Every point in every conversation has potential to go off in as many directions as there are people involved combined with all the experiences they've had.

It seems to me that on boards it is actually easier to stick to the subject, one can identify those that are interested in holding that conversation and stick to their posts while skimming the post of others.

café crema wrote:It seems to me that on boards it is actually easier to stick to the subject, one can identify those that are interested in holding that conversation and stick to their posts while skimming the post of others.

My thoughts as well.

Critics can use such tactics when they are losing their arguments. I have seen this many times. Usually, they start out by attacking the LDS poster. The LDS poster reponds to the personal attack and suddenly the thread strays off course. Sad. But such are the tactics of the critics at times. Now of course, not all critics do this. But it only takes one.

Ceeboo, I agree that very few threads stay exactly on tract. Those that do are usually prompted by a binary algorithm. The majority do not simply because we are human. At least that is my excuse.

by the way, the topic of Mormons and their green cars would be a great one and that part about pumpkins would indeed make little or no sense outside of Halloween.

.

Some Schmo wrote:(Changing 'Al-right' (without the hyphen) to 'all right' is not correct in all cases.)

Yes it is.

malkie wrote:Would it be considered facile to observe that nothing is a thing unto itself, and that, everything is connected, somehow, to everything else in the universe.

Yes, it would be.

Perhaps the wonder is that so many threads achieve some measure of discussion either on the stated topic or on topics that the original poster would consider to be connected in a meaningful way.

That's just it: Ceeboo is observing that the original poster does NOT consider it to be connected in a meaningful way.