Just wondering if there is a reason why
 

LibsKillBabies or whatever hasn't been banned yet?

Maybe it's just my perception but it seems that the general tone of the cellar has become increasingly one of irritation and short fuses.

I've never felt the need to put anyone on ignore and now I have three people on ignore.

The experience of perusing the boards has become rather like walking along a beach strewn with used condoms and needles.

The usual feuds between long standing dwellars who have differing opinions is not what I'm talking about. Apart from when they are battling with their nemeses they contribute to threads and discussions.
Some of the newcomers are patently trolls who have just stormed in and started shitting all over the place.

The juvenile crap is making the cellar suck for me.

it's that time of year when families get together, and once they've finished annoying the fuck out of each other, the retreat to their rooms and remember which BBs were most fun to troll about this time last year......

Institute a mandatory 200-word application essay before people are allowed to post.

There isn't one.

So I wrote that essay for not. :(

It constantly changes, this place. I have always said, if you don't like what the Cellar is right now, post more. Then it will be like what you want.

For a very very long time, many people insisted that nobody should be banned. There are still a few people like that left.

I've thought about this for a few days UT and I think it makes about as much sense as saying if there is an obnoxious loudmouth drowning out civil conversation with noise and antics, then just shout louder and dance around more frenetically.

Understood, this is your place and if I don't like it I can start my own club with my own rules, but I do rather like the conversations here when they are available.

Doesn't work out so well.



me too

I don't know if the Cellar has changed in the last several weeks, or if I've just had my eyes opened for me. Either way it ain't good. I've really reduced my participation in threads in which I have a real opinion. I'm afraid to make my stance on anything known, for fear of stirring up a shit storm of one form or another. I guess I'll have to restrict myself to not reading anything outside of the picture threads. And the fun gets sucked right out of those pages more often, too, seems like.

No, the cellar hasn't really changed.

There are some posters who delight in ganging up on others who don't share their world view OR their bizarre sense of cyber "friendship" - these are the mutual masturbators. They say things like, "No, YOU'RE wonderful and smart and good!!" and the other says, "NO, YOU are!! You are so smart and wonderful!! I think you're really keen!!" etc. if you anger a person in this collective they will all circle round you and call you names and berate you until you are just so weary of it you start looking at the pictures and don't say anything controversial at all about anything - which means you say nothing. I've seen some mighty funny folk just wither away under this type of soul-killing banality. It's almost as if, being boring and completely without the power of creative or ironic thought, these people wear those who do have those qualities down to the nub so that they, too, only spout the Company Line and we all become shades of their vanilla.

There are also those personalities who feel they must, simply must, stand up for the perceived underdog no matter what dreck or drivel or wrong-headed mean bullshit the underdog spouts. Some dwellars feel the ONLY correct postion on any matter is the unpopular one and will die going down with the ship. This, too, is tiring, makes one weary, and contributes to a false homogenous cellar where everyone is wary, quick to apologize, and suspicious.

fun, huh?

I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes, I miss Marichiko too. (jk about the Marichiko part) I think you said it very well.

I agree. And I think Shawnee123 is the most wonderful witty and lovely shit-stirrer around and I want to have her babies. anyone got a good recipe?

Good post, Bri.

We SHOULD argue, if we feel so inclined. The Cellar is like life amplified: we can talk about things we either don't or can't talk about IRL. We can sputter and moan and laugh and joke and cry about things that we have to keep our strong selves out there for IRL.

Certainly we shouldn't feel shameful for being ourselves. I think it's wonderful when we Dwellars support each other in hard times. I think it's important when we can get things off our chest, and take the flames that might come with it. It's human vulnerability in letters made into words that form sentences and paragraphs.

That old Socrates had it right: a life unexamined is not worth living. Through these silly internet pages, I've learned more about myself than I thought possible. More than I'm often comfortable with. But I like the freedom to be that person who isn't on call to say yes and no and conform.

A wise man ;) once said that if you don't like the tone of the Cellar, contribute more and it will become what you want (and I'm paraphrasing.) I've also seen the ebbs and tides in my four short years here. I think this community will always have ebbs and tides, joy and sorrow, happiness and anger. I don't mind that. Life is a rollercoaster. Don't shut your eyes, you might miss something.

I would hate to think that people hold things back here, grav. Just say it. Cover yourself if you feel it might produce a shitstorm, but do it anyway. I'm all about honesty about who I am. If someone is offended, well I guess it's just opening up another avenue of thought.

We're trained to always be pleasant. The world doesn't want to see our dark sides, our ugliness, our passions. I rail against those ideas here, because I can. Because even if I piss people off, I know they are seeing a part of me that doesn't always get to see the light of day. If, in the end, they still think I'm a good egg, then I've found a friend. Like most of you, I imagine, there are even soft spots for our nemeses, when said nemeses are being honest and vulnerable.

You ever play pool? When I first started playing, at the hangout my old HS friend and I went to when I was home from college, I told the seasoned pool players I wanted to learn how to play. Don't LET me win. That will just piss me off. That's not a victory. I'll never learn. A kinder gentler Cellar is nice, when the rotation is on that spot. But it's not possible all the time. I'm not afraid to lose. Been there, done that. It's the getting to the loss, or even the win, that is the best part of it all.

There's kinder and gentler, there's respectful disagreement and logical argument, there's bullies who smack you every time they see you because that's what they do, there's class clowns who make truly funny observations albeit at inappropriate times and there's attention whores who blather and troll bait and stir shit for the sake of stirring shit. Sometimes they are called mixers. They encourage and foster fights between third parties while they move on to the next peaceful area they can create disharmony in.

It takes all kinds to fill the freeway.