In their more lucid moments, they seem to claim that the lack of serious debate is the point - it's just a way of hassling people. And, of course, they do it "ironically" and with "detachment". So it's "cool".
Maybe they're afraid that if they actually engage the freaks they're poking at in rational debate, they'll "catch teh ghey lolololol"... if they do that, they certainly won't achieve their main goal of driving people's blood pressure up.
Yeah, they have the playbook, and they can't go outside of it. The playbook can work pretty well for them, but if you send their own schtick back at them, it doesn't.
The whole SA mindset is getting tiring, period. Some of it can be amusing, I'll admit, but a lot of it is just the same shit over. and over. and over. agian. IRC is currently being over run with the little lifeless bastards and I'm to the point where I want to gut them all and hang 'em out to dry. They cause problems and they -continue- to cause problems and they don't know where to draw the line, at all. It's funny at first, but after the third day of this crap, it's lost all of it's humor.
I think that's what the people who are protesting "Oh, it was so pointless, oh, it was just stooping to their tactics" aren't seeing. Of course it was pointless -- it was trivial for a bunch of their customary targets to turn around, reduce their disruptive activity to a formula, and simultaneously mock it and exploit it. I confess I did enjoy large parts of the "fight" for its own sake, but I did it in the hopes of driving the FYAD to its greatest extreme in hopes of exposing it for a waste of time. People who only saw a chauvinistic battle between the equivalent sides "people who like furry" and "people who like Something Awful" should, IMHO, go back and read a little more carefully, not that I would wish another wade through that 200+ comment cesspool upon anybody.
What the equivocators aren't taking into account is that my role in this started with a sincere opinion in the form of satire -- overreacting or not, it was a serious attempt to open actual discussion -- and the SA's started with a deliberate attempt to put an insincere opinion into discursive space to entertain themselves at other people's expense. I was adopting and deconstructing the practice of the "FYAD" in order to make it seem less appealing, and carve out a little more ground for mature discussion. I think that is a meaningful distinction from the "two indistinguishable sides having a fight over something trivial" assumption that's being made by some people who are coming into this late. You might as well say you couldn't tell the difference between the Romans and the Visigoths. :p
What it boils down to is, if my little stunt makes one person think twice before stereotyping or baiting or deliberately annoying somebody based on a superficial trait or affiliation, I'm sorry -- people can criticize it all they want, but I can't bring myself to regret a thing. We circled the wagons, we ended a fight that somebody else started, and... well, I'll entertain any argument against it that doesn't amount to rolling one's eyes and saying "Oh, that again." ;)
You can lead a goon to water, but can you really make it think?
I still think it's funny that many of them have bought into the idea that I really, truly hate everything about SA and EAF. Man, I know people on EAF. And for all the taunts, I'm totally aware that somewhere in the depths of the Forum there's probably somebody a having a really intelligent discussion there. I'm sure SA has its own elite.
They probably are, and my respect to the tiny handful of SA Goons who can actually do what they do with wit and genuine humor! Friends of mine who play devil's advocate for SA have assured me that, yes, Lowtax has been known to tear into his own Goons for displays of extreme FAGITUDE.
I've been tempted to send Lowtax a little letter informing him that his Goons are weak and in need of discipline, and their kung fu is inferior to that of our school. :)
I think you're letting your boundless optimism run away with you, dear... I really can't imagine actual conversation going on in there without constant flurries of 'tl;dr' 'omgwtf' and so on.
That's true. If you think intelligent conversation gets obscured by their ironic flak on Livejournal, just imagine what it must be like at Ground Zero. x.x
Yep. And it seems that whenever the bandwidth bill for SA gets bigger, they just ban a bunch of people from the forum, and they can only get back on by paying again.
Proof that Something Awful Makes You Stupid: Furries on SA get banned (http://www.livejournal.com/users/postvixen/487251.html?thread=5108563#t5108563) and the only way to get their account back is to pay another $9.95. AND THEY DO IT!
Script for We Want To Help You, Zack (http://www.livejournal.com/users/postvixen/487251.html?thread=5073491#t5073491)—soon to be a major motion picture. (The part of Xydexx will be played by Dana Carvey (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001022/), because I have no sense of humor and demand to be taken seriously.)
Playing Forum Goon Bingo (http://www.livejournal.com/users/postvixen/488661.html?thread=5149141#t5149141) with the totally predictable Goon responses.
I think whoever laughed at it the most won. At least in this case. Mocking is always what the forum invaders say they're doing, and mocking was Postvixen's avowed goal.
I know I laughed rather hard at some of the exchanges. And I know the put-downs I laughed at were all coming from the furry side. Admittedly, I'm biased that way, being a 27-35-year-old furry rather than a 13-18-year-old Fark Something Eviller, but...
The most quietly winningest entry in all of this, in my opinion, was when paka replied to the original point of Postvixen's entry that got trollspammed. After most of the fighting was over. Just... hey, I have something to say about the original point, screw you screeching monkeys.
Although dodging the poo flung by the monkeys and finding humor in their antics is a win, too.
I can't help but wish that there would be some sort of system that would gather up all geeks and gamers when their arguments reach a certain level of pointlessness - and make them fight it all out hand-to-hand in some sort of sick, battle royal.
I mean - what's the point with using actual words in this situation? And who wouldn't pay to see it? I'll be the Don-King of the nerd world...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2004-01-19 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 12:33 pm (UTC)Maybe they're afraid that if they actually engage the freaks they're poking at in rational debate, they'll "catch teh ghey lolololol"... if they do that, they certainly won't achieve their main goal of driving people's blood pressure up.
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Date: 2004-01-19 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 01:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2004-01-19 02:52 pm (UTC)Arrgrhrh, but thats a whole nother rant entirely.
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Date: 2004-01-21 11:09 am (UTC)What the equivocators aren't taking into account is that my role in this started with a sincere opinion in the form of satire -- overreacting or not, it was a serious attempt to open actual discussion -- and the SA's started with a deliberate attempt to put an insincere opinion into discursive space to entertain themselves at other people's expense. I was adopting and deconstructing the practice of the "FYAD" in order to make it seem less appealing, and carve out a little more ground for mature discussion. I think that is a meaningful distinction from the "two indistinguishable sides having a fight over something trivial" assumption that's being made by some people who are coming into this late. You might as well say you couldn't tell the difference between the Romans and the Visigoths. :p
What it boils down to is, if my little stunt makes one person think twice before stereotyping or baiting or deliberately annoying somebody based on a superficial trait or affiliation, I'm sorry -- people can criticize it all they want, but I can't bring myself to regret a thing. We circled the wagons, we ended a fight that somebody else started, and... well, I'll entertain any argument against it that doesn't amount to rolling one's eyes and saying "Oh, that again." ;)
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Date: 2004-01-19 12:20 pm (UTC)I still think it's funny that many of them have bought into the idea that I really, truly hate everything about SA and EAF. Man, I know people on EAF. And for all the taunts, I'm totally aware that somewhere in the depths of the Forum there's probably somebody a having a really intelligent discussion there. I'm sure SA has its own elite.
These people just aren't it. ^_^
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Date: 2004-01-19 12:43 pm (UTC)I'm sure they are. Any large group like this inevitably splits into cliques. Most LJ trolls are probably consider SA primates.
I wonder if I can get funding for a anthropological study.
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Date: 2004-01-19 01:00 pm (UTC)I've been tempted to send Lowtax a little letter informing him that his Goons are weak and in need of discipline, and their kung fu is inferior to that of our school. :)
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From:Master! Mistress? Uh, thing with gleaming blobby bits? Whatever. Sir!
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Date: 2004-01-19 12:45 pm (UTC)Grow up, Nick.
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Date: 2004-01-19 01:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2004-01-19 01:11 pm (UTC)I think I proved my point though, and it's finally starting to bore me. Back to PBX stuff...
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Date: 2004-01-19 12:55 pm (UTC)I keep on wanting to say something like 'pwnd'.
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Date: 2004-01-19 01:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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From:Weapons of Mass Distraction.
From:Re: Weapons of Mass Distraction.
From:no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 01:40 pm (UTC)And people PAY to be a part of this community? Never underestimate group-think, I suppose.
HARHAR I DONT DO ANYTHING THAT MIGHT MAKE SOMEONE GIGGLE BECAUSE IM SO IRONIC I CAN POST IN ALL CAPS JUST LKIE LOWTAX.
Wow... ironic humor on the net. Watch out Lenny Bruce. I wonder if they check with the forum before they take up a new hobby...
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Date: 2004-01-19 02:13 pm (UTC)And they do.
People pay to be with that.
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Date: 2004-01-19 10:21 pm (UTC)Highlights Tape
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Date: 2004-01-19 02:04 pm (UTC)The guys from that SA journal are hilarious. It's as if FYAD burst like Verix' appendix.
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Date: 2004-01-19 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 03:42 pm (UTC)I think everybody lost. You guys lost because you took the bait, they lost because they tried too hard.
Idly I wonder how many $10 subscriptions Lowtax got lately because of this.
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Date: 2004-01-19 10:31 pm (UTC)I know I laughed rather hard at some of the exchanges. And I know the put-downs I laughed at were all coming from the furry side. Admittedly, I'm biased that way, being a 27-35-year-old furry rather than a 13-18-year-old Fark Something Eviller, but...
The most quietly winningest entry in all of this, in my opinion, was when
Although dodging the poo flung by the monkeys and finding humor in their antics is a win, too.
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Date: 2004-01-20 05:52 am (UTC)Like you said: The winningest entry was the entry that didn't acknowledge the fight at all.
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Date: 2004-01-19 08:05 pm (UTC)I mean - what's the point with using actual words in this situation?
And who wouldn't pay to see it?
I'll be the Don-King of the nerd world...
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Date: 2004-01-21 05:24 pm (UTC)http://www.gooncon.com/
(And hey, it's even being held in Vegas! Don King, baby!)