"Discuss..." is annoying and useless.

October 11, 2001 1:26 PM

MetaFilterians don't need to be instructed to converse. Discuss...
posted by NortonDC to Etiquette/Policy at 1:26 PM (18 comments total)

I agree wholeheartedly. As someone who has been stigmatized as an "annoying professor" here at MeFi - and registered the blow - I hate the lazy, authoritarian "discuss" tag.
But Kottke used it recently, to great effect. So I suppose it all depends on what you're asking people to talk about...

posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:37 PM on October 11, 2001

Or who's doing the asking.
posted by luser at 1:49 PM on October 11, 2001

Miguel, I think you mean "annoying android professor. I wonder what others think. Has anyone ever called you an annoying android professor? What demeaning nicknames have you used to describe others? How did they react? Discuss...
posted by jpoulos at 2:00 PM on October 11, 2001

OK, jpoulos, just because I love you: annoying, android prolific, rhetorical, verbose, ingratiating, reactionary wop bastard was in fact my abbreviated description. But this still doesn't mean you have to discuss it...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:37 PM on October 11, 2001

I don't know about other people, but I posted a link with "Read. Discuss..." at the end. I did it for one reason; so people did not think I was stating any opinion about the article. So many times on MetaFilter someone will post something with their position shown obvious by the post itself, which tends to stifle discussion, or least invite a bunch of piling on of "me too's."
posted by internal at 2:42 PM on October 11, 2001

Ooh ooh don't forget 'flowery', Miguel!

*grin
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:46 PM on October 11, 2001

C'mon. Don't getcher panties all in a bucnh.

Doesn't anyone remember "Coffee Talk"?
posted by fooljay at 5:29 PM on October 11, 2001

The French Revolution was neither French nor a revolution. Talk amongst yourselves.
posted by gleuschk at 6:40 PM on October 11, 2001

How about "For the love of God, talk to me!"? Or "Discuss or die, puny earth vermin!"?
posted by rodii at 6:56 PM on October 11, 2001

Apres le what kind of robot are you, I'm Roy Batty, so I guess I'm android, too. How you like yer eggs, Miguel, hard or soft boiled?
posted by y2karl at 7:13 PM on October 11, 2001

Discuss before Zod!
posted by NortonDC at 8:18 PM on October 11, 2001

Selon, not apres.....

selon=according to

apres=after

No offense, karl. Just spreading the bon mot.
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:18 PM on October 11, 2001

This is a discussion board. Seeing "discuss" in every second thread (/random exaggeration) is annoying. It was ok when it was just now and then, but now it's too pervasive. Over-used as it is now, it's didactic and a tad pretentious, although I realise that isn't the intent, and I do agree that it worked in the Kottke thread.

Get the spell check onto it. If the spell check turns "discuss" into "dismiss" then people will stop using it. Or at least, that's the theory.
posted by lucien at 2:50 AM on October 12, 2001

I like Olympic sports that involve large metal frisbees. Discus.
posted by rory at 3:02 AM on October 12, 2001

D'après, mon professeur!
posted by xiffix at 6:13 AM on October 12, 2001

Kakfaesque: Well, quel duh!

I stand corrected.
posted by y2karl at 9:22 AM on October 12, 2001

so do I

*chagrin*
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:49 AM on October 12, 2001

Ralph Wiggums: My kitty has a webpage.

Actually, Kafkaesque, I didn't know--so I really do stand corrected.


posted by y2karl at 10:25 AM on October 12, 2001