can any grievance be brought to MetaTalk? March 13, 2003 3:28 AM   Subscribe

So, can any grievance be brought to MetaTalk? [More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso to Etiquette/Policy at 3:28 AM (66 comments total)

There seems to be a new trend where anyone unhappy about a thread is automatically told to bring it here.

Lately, the whining (which, whenever it's personal and not policy-testing, is annoying at the best of times) has tended to be precious, thin-skinned, petty and boringly about personal slights. Witness the most recent three threads.

If any objection, however silly or fruitless, is legitimate, I'd like to have a whine about the whiners and the whining. Perhaps MetaTalk needs some limits of its own and it's not enough to be vaguely upset by some fellow member's comment to justify a whole new thread. It would help separate the wheat from the chaff, for starters.

N.B. I've been healthily abused ever since I became a member and rarely responded to it; never mind start a MeTa thread about it - though, granted, my judgement did often fail in other thread-starting respects. So I feel I'm entitled to complain. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:32 AM on March 13, 2003


apparantly. ;)
posted by dabitch at 3:56 AM on March 13, 2003


*ambles over, looks around, scratches head, wanders off*
posted by y2karl at 4:03 AM on March 13, 2003


narsarks und bubbule mit frast au quoobies.
posted by quonsar at 4:41 AM on March 13, 2003


So, can any grievance be brought to MetaTalk?

I certainly hope so, because I would like a forum to complain about my loud, lame-ass neighbor who was blasting Sir Mix-a-Lot through our shared brick wall last night.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:04 AM on March 13, 2003


Man, his shit is DOA wack. What kind of fool would dropping those dead beats on you?
posted by y2karl at 5:17 AM on March 13, 2003


So you're complaining about the complaining? I'd like to complain about you complaining about the complaining.

Know what's worse than supposed precious, thin-skinned complaining? All of the dogpiling and personal attacks made on the people who start the threads. Yesterday's deleted Newsfilter post by The Jesse Helms was a perfect example. There are several people here who can't seem to engage others in conversation without resorting to petty insults, nonsensical comments, and name calling. Agree to disagree, but do it with some shred of civility.
posted by iconomy at 5:25 AM on March 13, 2003


stop touching me, quonsar.
posted by angry modem at 5:33 AM on March 13, 2003


this civility - it vibrates?
posted by quonsar at 5:36 AM on March 13, 2003


"So, can any grievance be brought to MetaTalk?"

Sure. But if your grievance is stupid (and they usually are) you'll just get more abuse over here.

Few things are more fun in this forum than watching idiots have their ass handed to them when they come over here calling for justice over something they deserved in the first place.
posted by y6y6y6 at 5:36 AM on March 13, 2003


f you want to take this to MetaTalk, go ahead and I'll debate with you more there.. This sort of thing is really common. No thanks, I've already made my point. Seems like promotion to Metatalk is something sought by many. Do Metatalk threads ever get canned? Perhaps if they did people might think first.
posted by grahamwell at 5:38 AM on March 13, 2003


MetaFilter: watching idiots have their ass handed to them when they come over here calling for justice over something they deserved in the first place.

will that fit on the FP?
posted by quonsar at 5:38 AM on March 13, 2003


Okay....... That didn't sound right and it's not what I meant.

I meant that most grievance posts are stupid, not that Mr Cardoso's grievances are.

In fact Mr Cardoso takes his lumps better than most here, and should be the model for MetaFilter lump taking.

Okay....... That didn't sound right either. I give up.
posted by y6y6y6 at 5:42 AM on March 13, 2003


Do Metatalk threads ever get canned?
does george bush ever get ridiculed?
does the pope shit in the woods?
do catholic bears wear funny hats?
posted by quonsar at 5:44 AM on March 13, 2003


Citizens of MetaFilter, please unclench your buttcheeks slowly and let the giant insect overlords depart from your collective rectums.
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:54 AM on March 13, 2003


I guess what I'm saying is that the attraction and charm of MetaFilter, at least for me, is you've got all these wildly diverse individuals who are allowed to be themselves in whatever way they choose and - this is the often forgotten part - make an effort to be interesting and entertaining, even if this means being written off as frivolous, snarky or difficult. In any case, the main virtue is honesty. Or, at least (I'd say "even better"), wit. Right wing? Left wing? Snarky? Jovial? Difficult? Easy? Who should care?

Instead of just coexisting and realizing that putting up with criticism (specially of the unfair and uncalled for kind) is a small price to pay for the enjoyment of such diversity of viewpoints and moods, a growing number of members have (no doubt unwittingly) taken to censure, pc strictures and, worst of all, a pretence that we can all be "civil" and "respect" each other in the way we write. When, all that is necessary is that people learn to coexist - which definitely includes growing some skin and allowing others to be themselves. Hence, the burring, awful effect of whining for its own sake.*

What's depressing to me, because anti-human and infertile to boot, is how many complaints on MeTa fit perfectly into a childish matrix of "Mommy, So-and-So said Thing-A-Ma-Jig and It Made Me Cry! Hit It Mommy! And tell him/her not to do it again!" And then a lot of people join in - some coddling; some fortifying; but all contributing to the mollycoddling.

It's stifling; it's a waste of time and collective inteligence and it's too damn distracting for words.

*Iconomy: "So you're complaining about the complaining? I'd like to complain about you complaining about the complaining.
Know what's worse than supposed precious, thin-skinned complaining? All of the dogpiling and personal attacks made on the people who start the threads. Yesterday's deleted Newsfilter post by The Jesse Helms was a perfect example. There are several people here who can't seem to engage others in conversation without resorting to petty insults, nonsensical comments, and name calling. Agree to disagree, but do it with some shred of civility.
"

*I'm sorry, iconomy, but, despite my appreciation of you, you're part of the schoolmarmish tendency here, albeit in a friendly fashion. Why should your anxiety for civility stop you from making your own judgements about people, same as we make about you? Surely you can distinguish between complaining that too many people complain and trying to suggest there should be limits, so that we can get on with MetaFilter, and complaining about that complaint? I'm sorry, but that's just prissy - specially when you're so clearly irked by the healthy spectacle of people being themselves and expressing themselves as such? The little complaint you add, so banal it makes itself redundant, is little more than a Victorian clarion call to hypocrisy: sure, go ahead and hate, but be civil about it. Or just shut up; it's better that way. I disagree - and I don't think I'm any less "civil" than you are. I hope you take this criticism in the gentle spirit it's offered.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:42 AM on March 13, 2003


What's depressing to me, because anti-human and infertile to boot, is how many complaints on MeTa fit perfectly into a childish matrix of "Mommy, So-and-So said Thing-A-Ma-Jig and It Made Me Cry!

What I'm hearing here is that Miguel wants to have children but is barren(?)

Like many MeTa threads, this was not a total loss because it spawned so doggone many keepers!:

*ambles over, looks around, scratches head, wanders off*
posted by y2karl at 4:03 AM PST on March 13

narsarks und bubbule mit frast au quoobies.
posted by quonsar at 4:41 AM PST on March 13

this civility - it vibrates?
posted by quonsar at 5:36 AM PST on March 13

Citizens of MetaFilter, please unclench your buttcheeks slowly and let the giant insect overlords depart from your collective rectums.
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:54 AM PST on March 13

posted by Shane at 7:00 AM on March 13, 2003


Oh, good lord.

Between the Pamela Smart thread and now this, I'm very close to wondering why the hell I still come here.
posted by jonmc at 7:00 AM on March 13, 2003


Miguel

These wildly diverse individuals who are allowed to be themselves in whatever way they choose? The many complaints on MeTa that fit perfectly into some childish matrix? While it's depressing to you, it's a small price to pay for the enjoyment of such diversity of viewpoints and moods.
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:04 AM on March 13, 2003


That's true, y6y6y6 - I forgot for a moment there. I wonder what came over me? ;) Thanks.

*backpedals a bit*
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:06 AM on March 13, 2003


jonmc, are you kidding? Since reading this site I've been able to stop taping "Days of Our Lives."
posted by rocketman at 7:11 AM on March 13, 2003


Miguel, I was teasing you. I don't mind you complaining, or anyone else. That's what metatalk is for, which was my point. I don't see how that makes me prissy. I need to start using smiley faces again.
posted by iconomy at 7:43 AM on March 13, 2003


:)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:44 AM on March 13, 2003


tagline

MetaFilter -- Anti-Human and Infertile to Boot
posted by matteo at 7:47 AM on March 13, 2003


And another thing! How come I can't get no Tang 'round here?
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:01 AM on March 13, 2003


Given that many people are in fact thin-skinned, and feel a need to redress their grievances somehow, it's better not to restrict MeTa, to keep it open as an outlet, even to truly petty grievances. I think.

I'm not sure MeTa was ever intended as an end in itself; the idea of "separating the wheat from the chaff" is perhaps the wrong one. In fact, even if MeTa were just a place where people could go so they can say something angry and stupid and that they'll no doubt regret later, but without derailing a thread on MeFi proper, it would still serve a useful purpose.
posted by mattpfeff at 8:05 AM on March 13, 2003


So, it seems to me that one of the points of MetaTalk is that people will bitch and complain about random things, and that giving them a forum to do so will at least keep the feuds, snarkiness and petty lawyering which seem, oddly enough, to be a necessary part of every organization, off the front page.

Also, the other point of having a random space to bitch and complain is that it's a reasonable alternative to having actual rules in an environment where the only currency is reputation.
posted by hob at 8:14 AM on March 13, 2003


So, can any grievance be brought to MetaTalk?

No, Miguel. Only the ones you personally approve of as well as the ones that do not hurt the delicate feelings of the annoying anti-war protesters.
Any thread that stands was greenlighted by the site's webmaster, so your post is actually pointless.
posted by 111 at 8:23 AM on March 13, 2003


Grievance: Matt's hair! I mean, really!?
posted by mischief at 8:51 AM on March 13, 2003


So, can any grievance be brought to MetaTalk?

I think you proved long ago that there is apparently no limit to what can be brought to MetaTalk.
posted by Skot at 8:57 AM on March 13, 2003


Perhaps MetaTalk needs some limits of its own and it's not enough to be vaguely upset by some fellow member's comment to justify a whole new thread.

THIS IS THE MOST RECURSIVE, BULLSHIT THREAD EVER. I WILL NOW START A THREAD ABOUT IT.
posted by machaus at 8:57 AM on March 13, 2003


THIS IS THE MOST RECURSIVE, BULLSHIT THREAD EVER.

Um, no, machaus. That was yesterday's (now deleted). Ya gotta keep up.
posted by soyjoy at 9:14 AM on March 13, 2003


Mommy, So-and-So said Thing-A-Ma-Jig and It Made Me Cry!

mom always liked you best, miguel.
posted by quonsar at 9:32 AM on March 13, 2003


great band/blog name #42,357: Collective Rectum
posted by quonsar at 9:37 AM on March 13, 2003


What's really gettin' on my tits are the warhawks who keep whinging on about the antiwar protesters.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:38 AM on March 13, 2003



posted by dong_resin at 9:40 AM on March 13, 2003


When you are through stirring the pot please sterilize the shit stick before making pancakes.
posted by Mack Twain at 11:00 AM on March 13, 2003


mmm. shitcakes.
posted by quonsar at 11:29 AM on March 13, 2003


and pisssssssyrup!
posted by angry modem at 11:32 AM on March 13, 2003


miguel, i would like to congratulate you on taking the whole "meta" thing seriously. your whimsical meta-complaints are silly and therefore refreshing--they remind me of the fun, communal-but-not-cliquish attitude that i discovered when i first started lurking here a couple of years ago. it took me a long time to join because i was *gasp* somewhat intimidated by the level of discourse. am i wearing rose-colored glasses?

with no new members and a precipitous drop in stimulating posts, metafilter is starting to feel like a prison camp. (yeah, i know we're free to leave--plenty of interesting folks have taken that option.) the inmates are turning on each other. gangs have formed and bully others . . . i dunno. it's stale.

so enough already with the inane, truculent political/personal attacks, the stupid high school bullshit, the trolling at all levels. how did this get to be a place where people were insulting other people based on their nationalities? WTF? i know the world is in the shitcan right now, but there's no reason this community has to follow. raise your game, people. and for those of you on vendettas, use email. stop pissing in our well.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 1:16 PM on March 13, 2003


metafilter is starting to feel like a prison camp.

thats why we talk through our teeth....shee.
and migs is in charge of the distillery, how else can we get Schultz drunk for that run into Hamburg.


any thread that gets dong-resin in here is Okay by me.
posted by clavdivs at 1:56 PM on March 13, 2003


:)
posted by clavdivs at 1:56 PM on March 13, 2003


btw, i have a bad case of the earnestness today.

are smiley face emoticons officially sarcastic now? or sincere? i think we should decide. maybe someone should start a thread on that.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 2:08 PM on March 13, 2003


emoticons are taboo in the world of fishfucker.

instead you must make use of onomatopoetic words to express how you feel.

HUUUUURRRGHGHHGHGHGHGHGHAHA!

anyways, that's the new math, bitch.
posted by fishfucker at 3:23 PM on March 13, 2003


HYAAAAAAAAAGH. OOK.
posted by Mid at 3:26 PM on March 13, 2003


Oh. Pardon me. Next time I'll watch where I'm going.
posted by ook at 3:40 PM on March 13, 2003


ook made a funny! ;-P
posted by mischief at 4:28 PM on March 13, 2003


HUUUUURRRGHGHHGHGHGHGHGHAHA!
HYAAAAAAAAAGH. OOK.

JamesBrownFilter

Alternatives:
  • GodfatherofSoulFilter,
  • HardestWorkingManinShowBusinessFilter,
  • or SoulBrotherNumberOneFilter

posted by kirkaracha at 4:38 PM on March 13, 2003


Someone give Miguel his medication please, he has gone berserk again.
posted by dg at 4:41 PM on March 13, 2003


Oops, forgot - :-)
posted by dg at 4:42 PM on March 13, 2003


I'm very close to wondering why the hell I still come here.

I found myself wondering the same thing yesterday, jon, in a couple of threads both here and in the Blue. I didn't post sentiments to that effect 'cause, you know, why bother? But I feel your pain, my friend.

But we keep coming back, addicts that we are.

*hits on the pipe again*
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:47 PM on March 13, 2003


MetaTalk? wassat? you mean MiguelCardosoTalk, right?
posted by kv at 5:07 PM on March 13, 2003


Pass that pipe along stavros, there are plenty more addicts over this side of the room.
posted by dg at 7:06 PM on March 13, 2003


No Miguel - nothing is off limits here. That's precisely it's purpose. MeFi proper has a pretty blue screen. When the shit really starts flyin', it would make MeFi all yucky looking.

That's why MeTa is the color it is.
posted by MidasMulligan at 7:54 PM on March 13, 2003


Faith is tougher than Buffy.
posted by Opus Dark at 1:01 AM on March 14, 2003


and in tonights show:

who was worse: hitler or stalin ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:51 AM on March 14, 2003


*hits on the pipe again*

Careful with that pipe, brutha chicken. You might get stem burn.
posted by adampsyche at 6:05 AM on March 14, 2003


mngnnnngAAANNNNGGGGHHHH
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:59 AM on March 14, 2003


Zombiefilter! dngAAAAWWWWRRR.
posted by furiousthought at 10:37 AM on March 14, 2003


Gimme the pipe, quick!

WAAAAAHGNERNARNARNHGH!
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 10:39 AM on March 14, 2003


For some reason I misread that as Zombofilter.
posted by mcwetboy at 12:27 PM on March 14, 2003


You guys need to take this to MetaMetaTalk.
posted by Pinwheel at 12:30 PM on March 14, 2003


Wouldn't it be MetaTalkTalk?
posted by DrJohnEvans at 2:36 PM on March 14, 2003


MetaTalkTalk?

I think this guy's has meta Talk Talk covered.
posted by me3dia at 3:00 PM on March 14, 2003


Metafilter: reduced to grunting and pointing.
Metafilter: Pass that pipe along, there are plenty more addicts over this side of the room.
posted by jokeefe at 4:10 PM on March 15, 2003


All you do to me is MetaTalk...

I like it!
posted by wendell at 6:12 PM on March 15, 2003


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