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Sat 7 Nov, 2015 05:22 am
In the beginning, this site was rather quickly taken over by political discussion, so much so that there was little else of interest going on here. There were people here who were completely unable to divorce their thinking from political polemic.
That has changed, now, though. That's not to say that there aren't political discussions, but they don't dominate the site as they once did. What we've got now are the holy rollers. Oh we've had religious nut bags almost since the beginning--but lately, they are coming to dominate the site. The worst thing about holy roller is that they are so f*cking stupid, that it never sinks in with them that they are not wanted, that they should go find some like-minded people to play with, and leave the normal folks alone.
When i was a child, it was considered good manners not to bring up politics or religion in polite conversation, precisely because they have such a great potential of provoking discord and of being divisive. While acknowledging that people come online to discuss such things, i say the holy rollers have gotten out of hand. I am reminded of Churchill's definition of a fanatic--someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. I would add--and who won't shut up.
The member of the site get the A2K that they make.
If they make topics they like, those topics will attract others for discussions, and sometimes even years later. If they don't, and just let others make topics for them, then they will be beholden to whoever is making topics, when it comes to the look and feel of the site.
E. g. if enough people make threads about baseball, the site will feel very baseball-centric and that will also reflect on searches (Google favors newer URLs, e. g. new topics, when deciding how to rank search results). Hence people looking for answers about baseball will be attracted. If they don't see the question/answer they want, they might make another topic, and the cycle is perpetuated.
This does not work too well with really obscure topics, but with more common ones, like religion, politics, baseball, cooking, relationships, child rearing, or pet care, it works like a charm.
@Setanta,
Quote: they should go find some like-minded people to play with, and leave the normal folks alone.
They aint lookin for "like-minded" people any more than you are. They persist and flourish here only because of all the Dawkinian "new atheists" who thrive on displaying their vast superiority by resort to rancorous ridicule. Maybe you are the one who should either refrain or leave, know what I'm sayin?
I avoid any topic with a "headline" that advertises a religious discussion. But it seems like any thread I go to ends up being mostly page after page of atheistic spam all the same.
We get it. Y'all are the self-proclaimed "brights." How many fuckin times do you have to tell us? A thousand? Million? Billion? Don't seem to be no end.
These fundy on fundy bitch fights aint interestin:
Quote:“Disputes between men pertinaciously obstinate in their principles are the most irksome. The same blind adherence to their own arguments is to be expected in both; the same contempt of their antagonists; and the same passionate vehemence in enforcing sophistry and falsehood….and, as reasoning is not the source from whence either disputant derives his tenets, it is in vain to expect that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principles.” (David Hume, eh?)
@jespah,
I could start 20 or 30 threads on baseball and golf movies
@jespah,
I understand that part--such as the spate of incest threads we had for a while. I think this phenomenon is driven by a surge in religious types, who have suddenly realized the potential of the interwebs, running around from site to site to post the fanatical points of view. Someone like the Squeaker is evidence that they need not be particularly bright, and even poorly educated. It's just a shame that there are, seemingly fewer places were one can get away from it.
@Setanta,
They're also seeing him here, and they're seeing that people are responding (never mind if he's being made fun of or refuted or the like - it's that there are page views and responses so it's not dead).
@layman,
Quote:as reasoning is not the source from whence either disputant derives his tenets, it is in vain to expect that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principles.”
Ironic that these Dawkins disciples actually think they are being "reasonable."
Michael Ruse (and the many others who make the same observation) is right.
Devout secular humanism is just another religion. These bitch fights are like a fundy Christian "arguing" with a radical muslim about the superiority of their God. Best bring your earplugs if you're in the vicinity and don't wanna go plumb deef, eh?
Quote:"To be positive: To be mistaken at the top of one's voice." (Ambrose Bierce)
@jespah,
I think another factor is that they don't limit their idiocy to just religious threads. When we had all the incest obsessional posters here, that was the only topic they discussed, and i suspect that another site soon arrived at the top of the search engine list, so that we were thereafter left alone. But so many of the holy rollers are anti-intellectual and anti-science, so they post in a lot of threads which have nothing to do with religion (except in their tortured minds). In fact, there don't seem to be very many of them here at any one time, nothing to match the political obsession we once had--but they're very active, and we are never without them. Most that i see here don't last long, but some of them stick around.
@jespah,
Quote:...like religion, politics, baseball, cooking, relationships, child rearing...
Much esl also. In fact as I recall one our participants recently admitted that it had been his assumption the site is devoted to it
@dalehileman,
Lots of newbies seem to think the site is solely dedicated to whatever it is they were asking about (I just had to set straight a gal looking for her dad. Same assumption).
@Setanta - yes, they branch out and that's bumping topics and their own statements (such as they are). If we got a poster coming in claiming, I don't know, something unique like the Bible says we're not supposed to eat chicken salad, then the '
It's Blasphemy to Eat Chicken Salad! Repent Now!' topic is going to come up if anybody Googles such an odd statement. Keep bumping that up and updating it, and it'll come up high in searches for related matters, in case someone claims it's blasphemy to eat shrimp salad.
#spoileralert It's not.
@jespah,
I don't recall this site ever coming up in a google search that I've done.
@layman,
I guess that's my way of saying that I don't think google searches are what "drives" the topics in this forum.
@layman,
I, on the other hand, have had lots of hits while doing specific searches on the internet.
A few Google searches. Note that you might not see A2K as the top return even if I do, as my location and search history differ from yours. But here are a few samples.
Quote:my parents smoke pot
find my biological dad free
help with lovatts
Yes, this one is second on a search on Google:
@timur,
It may depend on what you're searching for, I guess. Did you put in "page 276" as part of your search? I mean, sure, if I search for "able2know," then I would expect to find able2know.
Anyway, this is just a sidetrack. Let's get back to the real topic, whaddaya say? How in the hell are we going to drive those damn Christians out?
Quote:What we've got now are the holy rollers...it never sinks in with them that they are not wanted....
We have the ability to filter topics with tags of no interest to us. Many do it for the word games and relationship threads. Add the religion tag to the filters and then apply the religion tag to a topic to include it in the filter.
If individuals are known to be Johnny One Notes that seep into non-religious topics, using the block feature will take care of that too.
Your view of A2K will then be free of religion.
@dalehileman,
dalehileman wrote:
Much esl also. In fact as I recall one our participants recently admitted that it had been his assumption the site is devoted to it
That was and is my assumption as well. Not solely dedicated to esl topics, but definitely a part of the initial inspiration.
@Butrflynet,
Quote:Your view of A2K will then be free of religion.
Thanks for the tip, Butter. But ya know what? I don't wanna do that. I'm not sure I could get through a day if I didn't have some Christian around to call stupid. Makes me feel real smart, ya know? And my homeys tell me I'm smart when I do that too, which makes it even more better.
I can instantly get 5-6 "thumbs up" votes just by calling out one of those stupid-ass mofos!
@layman,
Quote:I don't recall this site ever coming up in a google search that I've done
I've encountered it dozens if not hundreds of times, especially if I submit exact wording
So to illustrate I made several such attempts using this very posting
... was entirely unsuccessful
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