People who annoy me....

[Kopio]

I just thought I'd start a semi-flaming thread about people who bug me!

The first and foremost on this list are people who become members here at Textkit, merely to post about political/religious reasons and have no desire to learn, and (presumably) no capacity for Greek or Latin.....People who merely want to take the opportunity to try and "indoctrinate" us with their profound wisdom and insight. Which leads me to my second type of people that bug the heck out of me.....it's these types of people that aren't even intelligent or honest enough to come up with their own opinion or information, they merely cut and paste from some web-site, and make it look as if they have written a minor novel.....give me a break!! Any 3 year old can be taught to cut and paste!! I really DON'T mind if you have a different opinion than I do about anything, what I do mind is that you are simply too lazy to honestly debate/discuss the issues at hand, so you simply go to the web for you "ammo" and let someone else do the work (i.e. THINKING) for you!!!

You all know the kind of people I am talking about, they are the people that join the textkit community, and then post 3 or 4 times about their pet persuasion, and then we never hear from them again. I think we should have a special kind of virtual "whack-stick" that we can smack them with, so that when they join and post their propaganda, we can just whack 'em

Whadda y'all think?? Am I off my rocker? Do these types of people bug you too?? If they don't, what kind of people DO bug you?

Let the flaming begin

[PeterD]

Why art thou so peeved, O Kopio: art thou disquieted with me?

-PeterD

[annis]

I think we should have a special kind of virtual "whack-stick" that we can smack them with, so that when they join and post their propaganda, we can just whack 'em

Um.

Some places have "karma" scores, so that people can score posts. You then use those scores to set a threshold, so that you never have to see consistent low-scorers ever again (one system says "3 posts beneath your threshold" - I've often wanted to tweak that to say "3 posts beneath contempt"). Unfortunately all such systems are prone to hijacking, or become popularity contests. Not useful here.

Whadda y'all think?? Am I off my rocker?

Be calm! Breathe.

My normal advice to ranting people is to "count from 10 to 1 in Hebrew," which usually derails the conversation into something else. A different derailing suggestion may be needed here.

Do these types of people bug you too??

They don't last long. I recite Epictetus to myself - especially Ench. 28 - to stay calm when they appear.

If they don't, what kind of people DO bug you?

People who come to us demanding translations. Polite requests are fine as exercises, but some in the past have been pushy about it.

[Emma_85]

Uh... you don't have to read 'their' posts... or you could pm them. I don't really think we want

the flaming

to begin .
If you want to discuss political ideas, not just current events (although they can of course be used as examples), then just start a thread in the Academy.

[Bert]

People that bug me are the ones who lose their decency when confronted with another opinion.
It has been said here that discussions on politics or religion should be avoided because they will not sway anyones opinion and they cause flaring tempers.
I think that these discussions can be beneficial if for no other reason than to broaden ones knowledge and to become clearer on one's own position.
However, I hesitate to interact with these discussions because tempers do flare and decency does tend to go by the way side.
That bugs me.

[Jefferson Cicero]

The main reason why I haven't been participating in any discussions here is because I have been following a scholar's discussion of Aristotle on another website. I will get more into these discussions when I start studying Moreland and Fleischer' s Latin Intensive course, whenever I get the time to to so.

I admit to having gotten involved in political discussions here, but the first one wasn't political when I got involved, and I didn't make it political. It just got that way, and then I quit that thread. The other was already political when I put my two cents worth in, but I dont intend to get involved in another like that. I didn't intend to get involved with that one at first, but temptation took over my feeble little petty soul. Besides, my posting was intended simply as a little information to those already involved in that thread. I didn't intend for it to go further, but you know how that can turn out. I have already stated my intention to say no more on that line of discussion.

I really dont like it when things get mean and petty, but I will say that that is not common here on this website. I have no problem with any of the discussions here, even when they get political, whether I get involved in them or not. I dont mind strong opinions or strong disagreements, and the calibre of discussion here is better than a lot of other websites even when it is as it's worst.

Even so, I agree that we should all lay off the politics, or follow emma_85's advice. A discussion of how Aristotle or Plato would inform us about current affairs would be most interesting. Or how about a comparison of today's wars to those of the Roman republic? Such things would be fascinating if they didn't get bogged down in mud slinging.

[Keesa]

People who flame annoy me.

Seriously, though, I find name-calling, foul language, vulgarity, gossip and backbiting most annoying in a forum, and I keep coming back to Textkit because the atmosphere is, for the most part, free of things like that.

Yes, people annoy me when they come to a language site and show little or no interest in language. But political or religious threads, as long as they're conducted calmly and civilly (and therein lies the unhappy catch), are quite fascinating to me, although I try not to post in them these days because I find my own posts becoming more and more emphatic when I do.

Try taking several slow, deep breaths. Think "calm" to yourself with each breath, and imagine cool colors; blue, green, silver, etc. It always works wonders for me.

[Kopio]

Why art thou so peeved, O Kopio: art thou disquieted with me?

-PeterD

Not at all PeterD....like I said the other day, I usually chuckle when I read your e-mails. Kind of my "here he goes again" laugh

Like I said before, I don't mind opinions other than mine....but you all know the type, they only post 3 or 4 times and then we never (thankfully) hear from them again. I really feel that all of the "regulars" here bring something to the table, I might differ with them, BUT THAT's FINE. Also, most of the regulars (if not all) have some intrest in Greek or Latin.

And I agree with Keesa, name calling, foul language, etc REALLY annoy me. I have always said that "profanity is the refuge of the simple minded", that's why I won't listen to music laced with profanity....give me a break, write some lyrics with meaning!

Ok.....I'd better stop, I'm starting to touch upon MORE things that annoy me

BTW, none of this really bugs me THAT much, I don't loose sleep or anything over it. But I will say....I'm gonna find me a nice image of a bat or a club or something, and next time we get one of those people who annoy me.....I'll post it and "whack 'em"

[PeterD]

Why art thou so peeved, O Kopio: art thou disquieted with me?

-PeterD

Not at all PeterD....like I said the other day, I usually chuckle when I read your e-mails. Kind of my "here he goes again" laugh

φεῦ! Thank you, Kopio.

[Amy]

basically my only pet peeve: when people have things I want but take them for granted for a reason OTHER THAN they're used to having them, so these people don't annoy me. (everyone on the forums is a textkit member!) I don't read political/religious discussions anyway since my head would explode so I suppose if I hung out in that forum more I'd become annoyed.