Update for an old thread

Natasha -

We discussed your SDMB mod application and have decided to take a pass. Thanks for sending it to us, though. -Ed

Awww, diddums.

The death of trainwreckspotting

trainwreckspotting is dead. Have a nice day.
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Update on trainwreckspotting;
We were a fully function snark journal between 4th of April and April 22. During it's short 18 day life, there were over 900 posts.
We* were thinking of setting up a message board, (since, well any blogging format kinda sucks), but I do not have the time. I do not want all of his work to be in vain. Contact Thanos if you would be interested in helping him start up a message board run snark community.

*Thanos who has been a great help.

What board on the SDMB do you avoid with a vengeance?

From the submission thread:
I rarely go in Great Debates. All too often it seems clogged up with the same old arguments. Also, even with good debates, there are rarely more than two posters yammering back and forth to each other for five pages.

MPSIMS is getting pretty retarded as well.

Spoof or for real?

From the submission thread:

I started clicking around because I felt nostalgic and came across your board(s).

This is all very amusing, altough I get the idea that I am the kind of poster who would have been broiled had these communites been around when I was a Doper. We share contempt for the board's administration and the joy of watching trains wreck, however...

Yer pal,
Satan

Did you know that Otto plays poker? No, really!

From the submission thread:
He plays online and everything. He's really good, he just loses because everyone else is stupid and lucky. Not that he loses, mind you. He wins like crazy. He's really good.

For example:
PokerRoom has lost itself a customer
Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
You know something I never need to hear again (re: poker)?
The REAL best holdem hand ever
How would you have played this hold 'em hand?

And these are just the threads he's started since March. You'll of course find him in every single thread with the word poker somewhere in it talking about whatever hand he recently won or lost.

I hope he loses all his money so he'll finally shut up already. Christ.

Star Wars Geeks

From the submission thread:
This one starts out funny as Soapbox Monkey rants against those who hate the Star Wars prequels but will see them to complain. You see, Monkey is a true die hard, he loves them, he even loves the midichlorians.

Naturally, this causes some posters to get bent out of shape. Guin comes in and rambles about shit from the novelizations. The only thing sadder than a Star Wars movie geek is one who reads novelizations of the book.

Zh'enka, who is now my new favorite poster, comes in and call her stupid.

ur8it and guests in general

ur8it, still a guest (5 a day post count, but that's growing), their threads include:

In the Workplace, by women: "It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you Blow."

Traveling abroad: I thought English is the Universal Language!
And my favourite;

People who are Easily Amused, what's their problem!
Guests; who are the good, the bad and the socky?

For those who aren't renewing...

From the submission thread:
...any plans on what you'll be doing instead of posting on the SDMB? There are some who have said they aren't renewing-- how many more aren't renewing, but didn't care to announce it, and are just going to stop posting without calling attention to it?

Umm...wherefore art thou Mockingbird?

From the submission thread:
Wasn't it Hastur? Wait! It was Mockingbird, then Hastur, then back to Mockingbird?

What? He's noticed Diane doesn't post anymore, so he can change his name back and post without having to own up to his hateful shit?

Or, I'm misremembering and y'all can laugh and point until you realize that you're reading and responding to my mistake. Fucking losers.

What do we think about this?

From the submission thread:
Allan has apparently come out of exile to ask about the anon communities. In the thread, he says he'd love to start up Hayters again but has to run it by his wife. He apparently checked the journal status and it has not yet been purged.

Let's say she gave him the okay: Would we go back there if he did? (Does anyone else doubt that he was tracking us with webbugs?) And, would it be worthwhile considering that someone seems hell-bent on having the LJ anon communities shut down anyway?

One of the reasons I'm asking is that I'm considering starting a new LJ anonymous spot myself. I want to see whether I should bother considering that an older, well-liked one might come back anyway.
-------------------

On the same theme, another Anon submission points out that Inkleberry does not approve.

BrainGlutton

From the submission thread:
Does anyone else wonder why BrainGlutton is never taken to task for incessantly starting OPs in GD by just throwing out some ridiculously long quotation from The Nation or some left-wing social science book he's read? Seems like several times a week, he opens a thread like this:

Reflecting upon the recent election in Upper Slobovia last week, I recalled a pertinent passage from Walter H. Plotnick's Gold, Sex, and Democracy: Intra-Provincial Power Struggles In 19th Century Algeria (Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe, 1990):

The factors that contributed to Hassan I's abdication are many, not the least of which was the Hacksaw Worker Rebellion in 1872, which represented the confluence of multiple competing theories of compensation differentiation, itself an unholy union between the agriculturally-minded tendencies of the Old Left and the...

On and on for 3 pages.

These debates never seem to get very far, yet he keeps starting them. It's surprising people don't accuse him of not having original thoughts and just wanting to discuss books he's read, which, it appears, almost no one else is interested in.

What I really want to know is whether he types these passages in by hand. One of his recent ones is from The Nation, so he could have cut-and-pasted from their website, but most seem to be from books.
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MOD NOTE: I haven't really noticed, but a little bit of searching brings up this as a good example. These don't seem to me to be very often though, unless someone else has some prime examples?

Quality vs. Quantity, a two-fer

From the submission thread:
What things have people shared on the boards that have made you wonder whether they keep anything private at all? No mentions of Incubus, please, we already know.

---

Why haven't the other bad writing whores been slammed like Scylla? You know the people I mean, those who write long drawn out prose usually their family. You can see they are just trying to impress up with their master writing skills. >hurl<

Just to allay confusion...

Anything I (secretdubai/istara) post here is from the submission thread. It's not my own words or opinion. We mods are tightening entries up a bit and putting the URLs behind phrases, but that's about it.

I don't even know half of the people that are being snarked about here.

If I do make a personal comment, it will have a: "Mod note: " type thing preceding it, or at least be under a line. I also haven't so far left any anonymous comments nor do I plan to.

That's *your* job ;)

finn007: New member, old-school nutter

From the submission thread:
Seen the new kid on the block, finn007?

This might be a good place to start. Total old-school nut, along the lines of Justhink for readability. Just the shot in the arm that langishing board needs, says I.

The Experiment: Engine the Anti-Mod

Sunday 10 April

Last night I wandered into #straightdope chat for the first time. At first I was surprised by the lack of snark, which I have come to believe is running riot on chat. Second, I came to learn that one of the dopers on there had sent in a Mod Application after receiving one from TubaDiva, and nothing had happened. I was surprised, why SkipMagic and not this doper? I wondered, well, if they'll have SkipMagic as a mod, why not someone modding an anonymous snark community against them? So this doper forwarded me an application.

The application included such questions as:

• What is your daytime phone number?
  
• What is your address?
  
• What ISP do you use?
  And of course, the good ol':
  
• Why do you want to be a volunteer at The Straight Dope?
  My favourite:
  
• Are you now or have you been an chat host or a moderator? If yes, what area(s)?
  

I wasn't expecting a reply, or, if any, it to look something like this.

Dear Go You Big Red Fire Engine;
Get fucked.
Your Humble Tubadiva

Instead I received this no less then 6 hours after sending my application:

TUBADIVA@aol.com to me
I am in receipt of your application and I have forwarded it up the pipeline for processing.

We'll let you know as soon as you come out the other side of the vetting procedure. I'm not in charge of that, so this may take some time. Please be patient and do not take it personally; the wheels of Zotti grind slowly and exceedingly fine.

your humble TubaDiva

Which I translated to mean "get fucked". Later that same day; I receive this email from Arnold Winkelried.

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Hello, Arnold Winkelried from the SDMB here.
I see that you have sent an application to be a Straight Dope moderator. In your application you said you had experience "[m]odding various SDMB related communities." What communities were those? Could you send a link to the online communities?

moderator, Straight Dope Message Board

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I can't lie, so I tell him the truth. Yes, I modded a livejournal community namd trainwreckspotting (now defunct) and I run a blog on blogspot called trainwreckspotting. As if he didn't know already.
Suffice to say it has been a week and still no response. Damnit, why SkipMagic and not someone running a SDMB snark community?
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ADDED Engine Note: This is a joke. I don't have anything against SkipMagic, I just wanted to see what would happen if someone in my position attempted to become a mod. Of course, Tuba bullshitted to me, and Zotti's out of the loop.

Gone in 0.60 seconds aka The Mystery of the Missing Moose

From the submission thread - some curiosity as to the disappearance of LJ anonymoose:

Damn, that dope_anonymoose community didn't last long at all. From all appearances, it was deleted by its owner rather than suspended by LJ...if that makes a difference..."

and

Anonymous is gone? WHODUNNIT!?

Is wonderwench for real or just a troll?

From the submission thread:
I'm starting to suspect that she's just trolling the shit out of everyone.

Either that or she's the stupidest bitch to come down the pike since H4E.

----------------------
And we have a query from another anon: "Where did the joke about smoking a turd come from? I don't get it."

What do we think of socks and implants?

From the submission thread:
Just how good is the SDMB at finding socks?
Say, for instance, I feel like creating a sock account and I use an anonymizer or proxy bypasser, is that enough to hide my identity or would they bust my ass and throw my p2p account off the board before I could say oh shit!

Of course, this is all purely hypothetical!

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Silicon implant debate. Not a single thread on it in the entire SDMB. You would think these guys would be all over that.

Who is it?

From the submission thread:
Since we've had two submissions on it, I guess I should post this:

In this post, QuickSilver comments:

There is a popular poster on this board who's spouse seems to make a habit of philandering. The poster has made a concious decision to stay in the marriage despite the difficulties and associated depression. The poster requested advice, received various extensive replies and the thread remained alive and active.

Why is the weight issue any more abhorent than the one I just described?

So... who is it?
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Engine Note: No posting of personal information.

How long until rjung claims the government planted a device in his ass?

From the submission thread:
Delusional, paranoid, pretty much crazy... Nope! Not Dio. rjung:

"Related idle speculation: How many people have had to watch what they write on an electrionic bulletin board (such as this one) for fear that something they post -- even in jest or hyperbole -- might be construed as a "reasonable threat" by a spook somewhere in Langley and end up getting a visit from a few agents?"

I finally figured out why I still visit the place - watching lefties implode on themselves is fun. It's like standing at the zoo pointing out over the railing - 'See that son? Crazy people. If it weren't for that pit and plexiglass, we'd be in big trouble.''

ETA by snarkboy; Here's the post in question from the above linked thread

Liberal and the Pit: He's baaaaaaaaack..... Plus, Read Icculus

From the submission thread:
Yep, at the top of the third page, our old friend Liberalalalaterian decides that the lure of the Pit was just too strong. Now he's back to bestow his steaming blend of liberalterian mysticism and more-saved-than-thou Christianity. You just knew he'd be jumping in to defend anyone self-defining as a liberalterian, no matter how simplistic their arguments ("The government is stealing my cash, you morons!")

On that note...Read Icculus: Troll or what? The guy even admits to "getting into it on another online forum." Right.

When even sven gives you a coherent flaming...

From the submission thread:
You know you must be the bigger douche.
Aeschines.

sydney snarker

From the submission thread:
So...what happened to sydney snarker? Why is he or she no longer a mod here?
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Engine Note:
Sydney snarker no longer wants to be with us.

Reeder literally sickens me. Oops. Got some vomit on my chickpea salad. :(

From the submission thread:

Joe Doper asks whether it's legal to use someone's unsecured wireless connection. Reeder say's it's not legal because he doesn't like it. Then he says it 8 more times. Knowing this guy is a fat disgusting FREAK just makes his horrible stupidity even more disgusting. What a fucking annoying pig.

C K Dexter Haven is an ass. Discuss

From the submission thread:

"Non-Apology Apologies and why they don't help a goddamn thing"
"Clarification Requested on "Medical Advice""