Dear ILE - a plea

not a week seems to go by on watercooler threads without some massive argument about what can and can't be talked about on them.

It reminds me of that Twilight Zone movie where the kid had special powers and turned his house into a cartoon world, and nobody dared say anything against him.

i *might* be exaggerating a little there tho

Sometimes I like to take a kitten in a can, chew it up, and use the resulting paste as a sandwich spread between two intact kittens in cans.

I get this with Jon too, but it's probably 50% projection (and he must surely expect it if not enjoy it).

Yeah, I forgot to say, that's brilliant.

-Football/sport
-Big Brother/reality TV shows

That's the point of them. If a person wishes to talk about those things, there are dozens of other threads on ILX on those subjects.

People may say that it's random that I picked those two specific subjects to ban, but it's not. Those are the things that people chatter about when they've got nothing else to talk about. The rest of the world - well, my bloody office, people in the pub and on the bus - I have to put up with it there, I want to just draw a line in the sand where I do not have to listen to it.

The early pre-cooler thread was an experiment to find out that if those "substitute for conversation" topics were banned, what would people talk about? Would they feel freer to talk about themselves and their own lives/concerns? What other things would people chat about? Now, obviously, it turned out to be a success, and there is a culture there which a lot of people enjoy and stay for - EVEN WHEN THEY DON'T LIKE ME. Funny, that.

As ILX has got nastier, I've got more defensive on them, yes.

And people have joined in the conversation/atmosphere who don't understand the principles of why those certain things are banned, and then go off and start massive rows when asked not to talk about sport and/or reality TV programmes. Which again, makes me defensive that the 'Cooler is getting ... *infected* with the whole culture it was trying to avoid.

Upset about locking bummers thread?

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/LokiSulk.jpg

so much so i don't even see the problem... jokes, but yeah i am a bit, but less than OTHERS I COULD NAME. i have no respect for this thread and the tired zingle i came up with was all it really deserved. note steve thought it'd be deleted, and i kinda did too.

+
other people's programming
computer games
other people having sex
etc.

basically anything that doesn't interest you right? i mean why not just admit it?

Which makes me think that all the hand-wringing about how poor LJ is a great example of the nasty dickishness of ILX not only bullshit, but insulting. It seems that he needs your hand-holding about as much as he needs serious advice on how to lead his love-life from you people. So, perhaps we can drop that trope, yes?

It's not like ILE was wall to wall threads about sport and Big Brother ever. There must be more to it than this.

It seems fair enough to want to carve out little niches for ourselves and our friends/anyone who'll play along, but when this happens I dislike the pretence that ILE has any real meaning still. It's lost a lot of it's value conceptually as a result.

isn't this what i just said re balkanization??

Suggesting that there are other threads where people could get more helpful advice on programming is not the same as shouting at people.

Computer games come under sport, as far as I'm concerned.

Shouting at other people for having sex is so clearly a joke that I wouldn't have thought even you would take it seriously, Stevem!

There are many times that I've suggested and/or "shouted" that people take a subject elsewhere, usually if I think it's going to be a long and involved conversation. I do the same thing myself if I'm on a tear about Tiffany Lamps or Am I A Hott Scot Or Not (recent threads I have started so as not to bore the 'Cooler with whatever has caught mine eye) and don't think the general regulars are interested.

basically anything that doesn't interest you right? i mean why not just admit it?

I do admite it! All the time! I've never been anything other than honest about them being threads FOR MY PLEASURE, INTEREST AND ENTERTAINMENT. It's a wonder to me that other people post to them at all sometimes.

if people don't like the atmosphere of the 'Cooler, then there is a whole interweb of other threads out there that they could be enjoying and contributing to! This is not said with nastiness or elitism or anything else, but in the original ILX spirit of DO NOT READ IF YOU HATE US. Is that really so hard?

I know that I am unlikely to like the atmosphere or spirit of the Noize Board. Guess what? I don't read it! Ditto football threads, big brother threads and threads about knitting!

And people have joined in the conversation/atmosphere who don't understand the principles of why those certain things are banned

This is in fairness a retroactive application of (a quite interesting) principle - the only reason given until now was "Kate Said No".

erm did you miss the whole googlebait episode then?

No, because for every Louis Jagger who makes a stand and fights on through all the bullshit and stays, there must be loads who read that sort of stuff and don't ever post at all. I mean, sometimes 60% of traffic is from googlers, and they aint all stayin.

This is not said with nastiness or elitism or anything else, but in the original ILX spirit of DO NOT READ IF YOU HATE US. Is that really so hard?
DO NOT HATE IF THEY READ YOU, though!

Because the coders and mods aren't man enough to fight off spammers and locked unreg users.

x-post to Stet.

Better hair and tits, but more pudge.

oh, was it? when did any of those three people say this?

xp

oh does ILX still get spam? i haven't seen any in months and months. and months. funny.