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#23518 03/20/01 09:26 AM
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Whoa - I always wondered what Shanks did for a living. Costermongrel!

It is interesting how no serious discussion of religion has begun on the Board since I joined, and it's one of the blessings which I am always grateful for. Politics is also only lightly touched upon (except for the occasional heavier footfall) and even then it's generally treated with humour and understanding of peoples' differences and respect for their divergent opinions.

And I think we'd all agree that those are the subjects which are most likely to set off acrimonious debate of the kind that ends in tears and virtual auto-da-fes in the Forum.

Let's not let our own pet peeves about other people's actions on the Board (including starting YARTs, mirror threads and excessive use of colour) become the object of being on the Board. I think I've said before that I've followed other fora which descend into general slagging matches. Let's NOT become one of those, eh?





The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#23519 03/20/01 09:33 AM
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Shanksy, I might have misunderstood you, but it seems your saying 'All our posts of admonishment are in jest'. If this is so, does it mean that any who misunderstand that 'humour', and in future worry before posting about whether a topic is fresh enough, are essentially in the wrong place? Maybe then the motto here could be:
Laugh or get out.

> ..it can often mean that the posters wish to acknowledge the existence of the thread ..

This indeed holds some truth. It is, nevertheless disconcerting for a new member to post a request/question/note, and after 20-30 posts to have only a bunch of 'insider' jokes and personalised banter to decipher. Taking this into account, members shouldn't be so surprised that a meager few of the ca. 2300 actually make posts.


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Belligerentyouth

I'm not sure if I mean that admonishments are in jest. Yours, for instance, didn't seem to be that way. What I meant was, I think, that I hope we do not take admonishments personally, nor mean them that way (on the rare occasions that we make them). Being serious is fine - and sometimes necessary - but one can be serious without being grave, or touchy.

As for the other issue, you may be right - perhaps the insider jokes are intimidating to some. Perhaps on most threads most responses are less than germane. But what would you have us do? To 'control' our postings, even if only through acts of self-control, would also seem to undermine the spirit of this board. Notice that, apart from the flatulential yells of YART from time to time , newcomers aren't rebuked for posting (no matter how obvious the question may seem), are usually welcomed for joining in, and usually also find at least one or two serious responses to their queries. I'd suggest this is already a great deal better than almost any other internet forum I've seen. To try to make it even more newbie-friendly, as it were, would, IMO, be twisting the tourniquet of etiquette too tight - we have, I suspect, lost some marvellous contributors to objections of this sort before, and I would be loath to see it happen again.

Yours & c
The Dishonourable Warrior for Sunshine


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I certainly do not want to force some silly etiquette upon those here, but ask that those already comfortable practise the slightest bit of caution in e.g. indicating a YART. I don't think many would be desperately offended if the caution isn't taken but it may prevent a dampener being put on otherwise fun subjects.

Aside: Shanks, you're not one of the 'reckless posters' anyway. I think you just like to debate. If I'd held the opposite stance, would you have defended the contra? You're a real moderator though. Perhaps you should be a diplomat!


#23522 03/20/01 11:37 AM
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Aside: Shanks, you're not one of the 'reckless posters' anyway.

Dang. And poot. And here I was trying to uphold my reputation for being a 'lethal weapon'...

I think you just like to debate.

Ya got me. Shot through the heart for being a natural contrarian!!

If I'd held the opposite stance, would you have defended the contra?

Eeep. You're not my mother by any chance are you? How do you know me so well?

You're a real moderator though. Perhaps you should be a diplomat!

I was. They called me Dr Strangelove!

But seriously. On the YART issue - a possible solution for you. Take the pee out of any post that says YART. I might even go so far, to be polite, to call it excessive ylatulence in public, and start an off-topic game. Do to them Yartists-formerly-know-as-prince what they do to you. Get your retaliation in first and fear not the Chinese missile treat - it will not rot your teeth.

cheer

the sunshine (tact? Who you calling tactful? You lookin' at me? You lookin' at me?) warrior




#23523 03/20/01 12:02 PM
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You pretty much said it all, shanksy! T'other thing that occurs is that when someone calls a yart alert, it may often be simply to say "hey, look, there's some other stuff already on this area of chat that may be relevant" - it's not automatically dismissive of any other discussion. After all, otherwise we all risk turning into absent-minded bloody goldfish by the time we've hung out here for two trips round the bowl


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B-youth, you wrote that you...ask that those already comfortable practise the slightest bit of caution in e.g. indicating a YART.

A reasonable request, and one that has already been done. You should see some of the ways in which we old-timers did it to each other. What's done now is quite mild, by comparison.
Maverick made an excellent point. Often, there is simply some information that we'd like to point out.
Shanks made excellent points, too, about how we try to show new people they are welcome, and about us old-timers.
Surely you have old friends with whom you share private jokes. Well, so do we. We enjoy it. Like shanks (sort of) said, I think it would be expecting too much, for us NOT to do it, so...please try to: give us a break; consider that a yart alert may not spring from negativity, and if you feel that one does--get over it! Or wite the person. Damn it.


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I've heard these sort of comments, but you can go over it again, if you like. I'm done. [sigh]

p.s. blasphemy: tut-tut.


#23526 03/20/01 01:35 PM
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Shaggy post alert...

Like shanks (sort of) said, I think it would be expecting too much, for us NOT to do it

In fact, I suspect my attitude is more one of - it would be too much to expect us to do it, and still be the same people/board.

This notion then (shades of Joyce, or was it Proust?) set me thinking about the nature of identity - thence to my favourite philosophical play, Beckett's Krapp's Last tape which, if I remember rightly (student days, alas, how long ago they now seem, although some of my hell-raising friends from that period are now meeting in Bombay and reliving the experience of the inter-lecture dash to Apoorva bar, the quick beer, and the race back to the lecture theatre...) was based upon the conceit of Krapp listening to tapes he had made earlier in his life, recounting his feelings and attitudes, and the fact that the earlier tapes seem to have been made by a different person altogether.

The question of identity, and its stability over time, is a much vexed one in philosophy, with different thinkers coming up with different notions. A smattering:

1. There ain't no such thing. Personal identity is an illusion. See the Buddha.

2. Identity is memory. As long as you can remember who you were, or being that person, you're the same person. Locke et al.

3. Identity is absolute. You are given a 'soul' and it's the same thing throughout. See any decent Christian apologist.

4. Identity is genes. Similar to the Christian view - you are given this one thing, prior to birth, and nought else is allowed. Popular amongst racists and fascists, funnilly enough.

5. Tabula rasa. You are the experiences you have had. Locke again, but more popular amongst modern social scientists who cannot stand the notion of a position of 'privilege'.

For me (circuitously leading back to the notional topic of my post, if not of this thread), the Buddha (with a touch of Locke) seems to have it about right - we seem to be an ever-shifting congeries of qualia with the possibility of tracing some causal connections between one set and a preceding one, but no guarantee of being able to do so; the point being that this might be a perfect analogy for this Board as well: AWADtalk is both an entity and a collection of independent entities, its identity depending not just upon the formal url or title or statement of intent but also upon the interaction between the various elements, their comings and goings, their shifting areas of influence, and the self-referential nature of their activities - all of which means that AWADtalk today is not what it was yesterday, nor exactly what it was a year ago when it began, and yet it seems to retain a hint, an element, a soupcon (pardon the lack of cedilla) of integrity as regards its identity that is, to regulars, something to be cherished and will ever form the basis of the dynamic tension between elements that desire variation within a particular set of constraints that appear, to them, to define the identity of this board, and those who are desirous of changing the constraints themselves.

And who is to say which group is right?

cheer

the sunshine warrior

ps. 228 words in that sentence - but was it coherent? Hmmm.... [stroking beard emoticon]


#23527 03/20/01 02:11 PM
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shanks hair: Religion makes me see red. YARTs do it for others. Intolerance for others, and acronyms for a fourth group

Don't you just hate people who drive as though you weren't the only person on the road? I know I do.


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