This thread sucks and here's why....

January 2, 2002 6:30 PM

This thread sucks. Just say no to .advocacy rants. At least abortion and gun control could possibly matter.
posted by NortonDC to Etiquette/Policy at 6:30 PM (26 comments total)

And it's not the fpp, that's well-crafted. It's the absolute crap filling up the discussion inside.
posted by NortonDC at 6:32 PM on January 2, 2002

That's because the evangelistas can't post anything to help overcome all this pattern misinformation. Seriously though, computers are tools. Buy the right one for the right job, and don't drink the Steve Jobs Kool-Aid.
posted by machaus at 6:50 PM on January 2, 2002

But it's pretty indigo kool-aid!
posted by Kafkaesque at 6:57 PM on January 2, 2002

Apple is dead, it has been dead ever since windows 95 came out.

There's your culprit. Stupidest post ever.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:41 PM on January 2, 2002

I think the whole debate of Apple v. PC is just an updating of the old Ford v. Chevy debates of the 50s and 60s. The world, to coin a phrase, runs on binaries. The definition of ourselves by what we're not.

Uh oh. Got to stay away from that Gingko Biloba. I was waxing there.
posted by Kafkaesque at 8:14 PM on January 2, 2002

I would just like to note that, despite the comment linked at the start of this MetaTalk thread, it was the PC partisans who started it.
posted by jjg at 8:34 PM on January 2, 2002

We would have killed (sorry, Dreama) if it hadn't been for that disabled post button thing. I smell a conspiracy.
posted by rodii at 8:44 PM on January 2, 2002

There's your culprit. Stupidest post ever.

Yup, right up there with "'If it wasn't for that horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college.'"
posted by machaus at 9:28 PM on January 2, 2002

Actually, mathowie, I place the blame here, on jjg. Up until that point the harshest criticism had been that Apple hardware is too expensive. Now jjg is slamming PC's as "butt ugly" and headache inducing.

Pure inflammatory opinion with no objective measures available. That's the culprit.
posted by NortonDC at 4:33 AM on January 3, 2002

I've found the best way to reduce one's irritation with individual threads is to not participate in them.

I had to learn that the hard way :)

It is shameful to see a good thread bounced, but you can take some measure of comfort in that fact that someone will eventually post the exact same link in the future :D
posted by UncleFes at 6:47 AM on January 3, 2002

Whoah, I managed to miss that the original shit-stirrer was in here blaming the others. Way to go, jjg.

Yeah, I am talking to you.
posted by NortonDC at 7:39 AM on January 3, 2002

Norton: owillis posted a stupid troll in a thread that never had to become a Mac/Win holy war. jjg fell for it, but owillis started it.

Wow, now you posted a stupid meta-troll, and I meta-fell for it! Us Mac users sure are dumb.
posted by nicwolff at 9:18 AM on January 3, 2002

owillis said it would be cool and expensive and out soon afterward as a cheaper version for the PC. Which part of that was a troll?
posted by NortonDC at 9:29 AM on January 3, 2002

Whoah, I managed to miss that the original shit-stirrer was in here blaming the others. Way to go, jjg.

Yeah, I am talking to you.

Um. Very nice, norton. Since you have a problem with him, have you tried contacting jesse directly?
posted by Avogadro at 9:42 AM on January 3, 2002

This is why I stick to my trusty Commodore 64.
posted by Skot at 9:54 AM on January 3, 2002

Avogadro - jjg has not seen fit to grace us with an email address in his profile.
posted by NortonDC at 10:04 AM on January 3, 2002

True, but he has a mailto: link on his listed web page.
posted by Skot at 10:08 AM on January 3, 2002

There is an e-mail address in my profile, but for some reason it isn't displaying. (Matt?)

I will freely admit that the aforementioned comment of mine only exacerbated the situation, but I do think the thread had been derailed before I jumped in.

I am not sure what remedy you're seeking, NortonDC. Should we ban discussion of the relative merits of computer products?
posted by jjg at 11:16 AM on January 3, 2002

We would be none the poorer for a complete absence of platform advocacy. If it was on topic, facts (including comparisons) would be welcomed, but advocacy would not.
posted by NortonDC at 11:29 AM on January 3, 2002

so are you suggesting that this topic be banned because these debates raise your blood pressure?

or are you objecting because you feel that the advocacy debate derailed a discussion which you found to be interesting? it does seem like the people who were actually interested in discussing the new product offering continued to speculate, and that those who wanted to debate the relative merits of apple vs windows went on with that. thank God there were no Linux-fanatics on the board that day.

I don't read anything in the entire discussion that seems particularly inflammatory at all, but then I am completely platform agnostic.
posted by rebeccablood at 11:52 AM on January 3, 2002

First of all, my hope would be that people would just refrain from platform advocacy because it's useless, infantile, time-wasting for readers, distracting, and a lightning rod for personal abuse and unsupported attacks on people's judgement and values.

Most of all BECAUSE IT NEVER ENDS.

The only hard part is that someone who has never been through it before may not see the mobius/infinity nature of the endeavor ahead of time, and if it gets tolerated around here then everyone else has to watch perfectly good discussions get polluted with that crap each time someone ignorant of the nature of platform advocacy gets sucked in.

Like I said before, it simultaneously represents usenet at it's worst and most boring. The thought of that combination becoming a fixture on MeFi does raise my blood pressure.
posted by NortonDC at 12:32 PM on January 3, 2002

owillis said it would be cool and expensive and out soon afterward as a cheaper version for the PC. Which part of that was a troll? — NortonDC

All of it, in the original form which — gosh! — you haven't quoted. He said it would be "way too expensive" and out "a month and a half" later for the PC at "half the price." (Which would at least be clever if there were now a $200 iPod for PCs, but never mind.)

In a thread already full of Apple users, that's a classic easy troll. But you knew that.
posted by nicwolff at 3:18 PM on January 3, 2002

If you think "way too expensive," the sole criticism of Apple gear, qualifies as a troll, congratulations on having a net.history much more gentle than mine. May we all succeed in keeping MeFi the kind of place that will never dissuade you from that charming notion.
posted by NortonDC at 6:58 PM on January 3, 2002

This thread sucks. I'm talking to all of you. Mouhahahaha...
posted by qbert72 at 11:44 PM on January 3, 2002

Clever. And by that I mean not clever.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:17 AM on January 4, 2002

OK, sorry if I offended anyone. Actually, I agree with NortonDC original point: platform advocacy sucks, and I'm tired of it. It just felt to me like this thread had itself turned into some kind of advocacy.advocacy rant. I'll try to be less clever, and more intelligent next time...
posted by qbert72 at 2:31 PM on January 4, 2002