Randomness

[CX]

$3.14 or better in North Dakota.

[evcake]

$3.24 at the Texaco on my corner.

[Distracted]

I haven't seen anyone do the latter. I certainly haven't and that's what I get accused of.

Maybe the key is objectivity. Try to channel your inner Vulcan.

That usually works for me. On the other hand, if I get mad or let my feelings get hurt, then that's when I generally get into trouble.

Gas prices? Jeez. That's random. Ummm... I'm not sure. All I know is that it costs about 60$ for me to fill up.

[Bether6074]

Bummer. Photobucket is doing maintenance.

Well, I'm thinking group hug thoughts. If that helps any...

Yes, evcake, most definitely.

Looks like the gas price varies quite a bit. Interesting.

*group hug* *group hug* *group hug*

[blacknblue]

You know, the only thing that really bothered me about the gun control thread, or any other political thread on this site, was somewhat similar to what happened to CX on HoT.

On HoT, CX was arguing with a few people on the BBS. Granted, there were some pointed remarks being made (by both sides) but then suddenly and without warning one of the mods lost her temper and abruptly banned him without warning. No warning, no "stop this or you are outta here". No, "that's enough". She just flew off the handle and banned him.

CX was rude, I admit that. In my honest opinion he deserved to be suspended for a couple of days, right along with everyone else involved in the dispute. They were all behaving badly. They needed a time out to cool off. They ALL deserved a time out.

Whatever CX may have said or done to provoke the dispute (and please note, he was outnumbered badly, and the other side was certainly not being bashful about pounding on him with language that I certainly do not consider polite or restrained) the plain fact remains that he was ultimately banned for the crime of disagreeing with one of the mods.

That bothers me. It bothers me very much. That is the basic reason that I no longer frequent HoT. For a while I debated asking HoT to remove my fics but eventually I decided not to. Bucky didn't do anything wrong, and I owe her a lot for getting me started. But I don't approve of setting up a BBS where ostensibly a person is supposed to be able to discuss things freely, and then smack a person off just because a mod happens to agree with one side of an ongoing dispute.

It is something that I see a lot on TrekBBS, and one of the primary reasons that I never bothered to join TrekBBS and never will.

I didn't see what Rigil posted that was declared to be deliberately trolling and immediately deleted. I can say that Rigil is a man of plain language (much like myself) and I don't doubt that whatever he may have posted was probably provocative. Perhaps even provocative in the extreme. But jumping on it instantly and deleting it reminds me in an uncomfortable way of what happened at HoT. It disturbs me. I am sorry, but it does. I can't help wondering what is going to happen the next time I post something that one of the mods here disagree with?

Rigil is still posting online if anyone wants to read his work. He is posting on his own sites. I just hope he comes back.

[evcake]

I hope the reluctant author will join us. We're harmless. Well, I am, anyway. Honestly. Really.

Re: Rigil - me too.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I think there's a difference, KTR, between saying, "I don't like the actions of this character in this episode because of X, Y, and Z. I think he was written like an incompetent boob," and a blanket statement of "I hate this asshole. He's the worst character ever because...well... just because I hate him and he's an asshole." The first example is a pertinent discussion of poor characterization by the writers. The second is character bashing.

Those are two extreme examples where it's quite clear what the difference is. Most of the times the lines aren't so clear. And I don't like the fact that I might get censured for expressing my opinion.

Sometimes the difference is in how much effort the person puts into analyzing the reasons for their dislike of the character or the character's actions, and that depends on both their maturity level and their analytical skills. Not everyone is capable of the type of detailed character and plot analyses that you do so skillfully, but my view is that if someone posts a negative comment they should at least attempt to explain the reasoning behind it. These characters aren't real people (obviously). A script was written and the actors interpreted that script. We should therefore be able to offer objective critiques of both the writing and the actors' performances without getting overly emotional about it. Unfortunately, some people take all of this MUCH too seriously and start ranting about how much they "hate" a character. How can you "hate" a character? They don't exist. You might dislike the script or the way the actor has portrayed it, but people that take the issue personally and get emotionally overinvested in a character are not behaving rationally, IMO. In the words of William Shatner, they need to "Get a life!"

One can easily say the same to those that get upset over negative comments on fictional characters. They don't exist!

As for posting reasons... well, I know for a fact that some tend to get upset anyway.

As fr as "bashing" goes, I wonder if some aren't a bit too sensative on that. What I might consider stating the reasons why I don't like Archer or any other character, or an episode, or whatever, someone is going to consider bashing because they disagree to that point.

That's what I mean.

I'd also like to add that it's not a disaster if someone disagress with you, wheather it's about Archer, or Twilight, or gun control, or whatever. there is no need for either side to engage in an over-heated debate when they find that they can't convince the other side. These discussions aren't ideally for convincing anyone, but if all sides behave, one might learn something of the opposing view point.

[Jedikatie]

^
As far as what CX is talking about with the 'shades of gray' in the bashing, the particular incident I'm thinking of on this board went over the line. The other poster was made to feel as if they were being personally attacked for having that view. And the one doing the attacking wouldn't stop even when it was pointed out in the thread to knock it off, and instead started going after me for daring to tell them (and everyone else in the thread) to cool it.

The person being attacked was not "overly sensitive." They'd been defending their POV for something like a day and half or two days from the other person before they even brought it up to the mods and asked for something to be done. Hardly sounds like someone who's "sensitive." They finally gave up on this board, leaving for a period of several months, because they got tired of having to deal with this person.

As for the incident at HoT--yes, I agree that it was wrong what they did to CX. He shouldn't have been banned entirely from the site, perhaps for a few days, but not entirely. But honestly, CX, you need to learn that not everything needs to be argued to death. You might like to argue, but not everyone does. And not everyone understands that about you. I'm pretty sure that the mod who banned you over there didn't know that about you, and I'm sure that she simply got tired of the constant arguing you seem to engage in whenever you're devoted to some POV. Sometimes it's better to just let things go (that's just a bit of advice, take it or leave it).

I'd also like to add that it's not a disaster if someone disagress with you, wheather it's about Archer, or Twilight, or gun control, or whatever. there is no need for either side to engage in an over-heated debate when they find that they can't convince the other side. These discussions aren't ideally for convincing anyone, but if all sides behave, one might learn something of the opposing view point.

KTR, yes, that was what I was trying to tell the people several months ago in that thread (before Elessar instituted the rules on the board), that it would be nice to actually listen to the other side and maybe learn why they see an event in an episode that particular way instead of the way you interpret it.

In regards to the rules for this board--as I said before, Elessar wrote 'em. You'll have to talk to him about what exactly he meant by it, I had no input into them.

[TSara]

Rigil is still posting online if anyone wants to read his work. He is posting on his own sites. I just hope he comes back.

He is?

I just checked the Endevour site....I didn't see an update.

[Jedikatie]

As far as gas goes, it was $2.58 at the station near my house earlier today (and it's not usually the cheapest one around here), I don't know if it went up or not, though, today after I brought Mom home from the grocery.

I haven't seen Rigil post anything online since the middle of last week, when I last talked to him on wwbj.

[TSara]

^ Ok.

Hope he comes back, and soon.


His posts are always interesting to me.

[dark_rain]

Uh, expensive?!?

here it's about 95.0 pence per litre, so 1 gallon is 3.7854118 litres, therefore our price (£'s per gallon) (0.95*3.7854118) is £3.60 and £3.60 is...

$7.40. Per Gallon

So we pay way more than you do.

[TSara]

Uh, expensive?!?

here it's about 95.0 pence per litre, so 1 gallon is 3.7854118 litres, therefore our price (£'s per gallon) (0.95*3.7854118) is £3.60 and £3.60 is...

$7.40. Per Gallon

So we pay way more than you do.

Well think of it this way.....the reason we American's think gas is so expensive is because for a long time we got used to only paying a $2 or less for gas, while the rest of the world paid much much more. I can remember my senior year in high school paying 90 cents for gas....and that was back in 1999. In Scotland, that same year I remember paying A LOT more to fill my rental's tank.

After Katrina gas prices in this country JUMPED to $3.00 almost overnight....going from around a modest $2 to $3.50 here in Baltimore.....quite the sticker shock.

So for Americans who got used to paying less for gas than the rest of the world...yes gas is expensive to us now a days.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

^
As far as what CX is talking about with the 'shades of gray' in the bashing, the particular incident I'm thinking of on this board went over the line.

Well, I have no idea about this particular incident since I cannot recall having read those posts. I'm merely trying to make sense of the fall out.

Arguing your point is one thing. Arguing in such a manner as to make the other party feel stupid for holding an opposing view is another and I can see the difference.

*****

About gas prices, you shouldn't really complain. What you pay for gas is nothing compared to what we pay here in Europe.

I'm sorry if I cannot say how much we pay. That's because we use different currecies and liters, not gallons, and my mathematical skills aren't up to the conversion tasks. But for those that might want to take a crack at it I can say that in Sweden we pay approx. 11-12 Swedish crowns (SEK) per liter gasoline. 1 SEK is about $6.60

[blacknblue]

Rigil is still posting online if anyone wants to read his work. He is posting on his own sites. I just hope he comes back.

He is?

I just checked the Endevour site....I didn't see an update.

Rigil has started two new fics on his livejournal page at http://rigil-kent.livejournal.com/. Right now the site is down due to a power failure. But both of them are great fics, IMO. The second one is particularly good I think. He is experimenting on the second one with doing it the way I, and some others, do it by not working with an outline. On that fic he is just making it up as he goes. Which for Rigil is a real leap of faith. The result is something remarkable. It really pulses with life.