Message Boards as Rites of Passage.

I'm only young (17) and female (like 50%) of the population. I haven't been visiting message boards that long, about a year at the most. I have noticed though that a lot of the questions on them are often the same. I have also noticed that a lot of these questions are unanswerable and by their very nature highly subjective. Examples you will all recognise Homosexuality, Right or Wrong? Abortion, Right or Wrong? The Death Penalty, Right or Wrong. Should Pedophiles be castrated? Some form of "Do drunk girls lie about rape?" etc. Then you have a variety of people my age usually talk about what they think or the have "heard". Often you get someone who does a bit of research or the weird "older" internet member of say 30 to 40 who wants to show how much he/she can "pwn" a teen in a heated discussion. In all debates about the church you will get the anti church liberals and the pro religion "fundies", these debates soon degenerate into flame fests. Then of course in homosexual debates you will have the conservative homophobe (always accused of being a closet homosexual by the "online psychology students) and the "online" gay often two "boyfriends" who are in a loving relationship and don't agree with promiscuous "queens". In political debates you get the internet "liberal", "George Bush bad", "Patriotism bad" and the internet Conservative, "War on Terror good", "Kill all Muslims, Gays etc.". Then there are the forum "know it alls" who have a "reputation" to live up to on the forum with 2000000 posts who tend just to run round flamig people in an attempt to show how "clever" they are and increase there reputation amonst the other "regulars", all six of them. Then you have the internet "Scientist" with wiki and his search engine at the ready usually an undergraduate, he provides in his words "proof".

A lot of the time one of these individuals will claim to have won a debate but often the subject being debated is unwinable as it is so subjective in my opinion. So I ask you for the rest of us is reading these missives and meeting these "characters" online "some kind of rite of passage" a way for us to be either be indoctrinated with hearsay from the "internet experts" or a way for us to make up our own minds having heard a huge variety of opinions and conflicting ideas?

Is that why the same arguments appear on notice board and some people argue the same point without ever reaching a conclusion?

On am I wrong on all counts?

On am I wrong on all counts?

I'm only young and female

answered your own question really

just kidding...

the reason these things are discussed predominantly compared with subjects that have definitive answers is because things with answers set in stone dont really need discussions on a forum because the person asking the question obviously has internet access and thus would be able to find the answer to something concrete without needing to ask in the first place

hence everything that gets discussed is subjective...

if you want really pointless subjective discussion that is a little different from the norm i suggest you go to the philosophy thread...or worse still...any of the idiotic "this" versus "that" threads which infest these boards

just seems like an overgeneralised diatribe against the gdf.
no offense, but how can it be taken any other way? hey, there's
alot of silly people here. however the purpose of this particular subdirectory is to debate. in order to debate, you need a debatable topic...or as you dismally put, 'unanswerable' question.

there are people who make a mockery of a debate and like flies at a picnic they are shoo'd away or even swatted if they become too bothersome and disruptive...in a debate one doesnt have to troll to do this. all they can do is spam an opinion or taint the discussion with false evidence and mis/half truths. so it may seem cruel and unnecessary to the passerby. keep in mind though, without debate the gdf forum has no purpose.

speaking for the weird old people, i have to say that sometimes (too often at times) the only way to continue a discussion is to convince some random overimpulsive hormone drenched teenager looking for attention that he'd be better off shutting up for a bit.

...and the occasional law student

Originally posted by PVS
just seems like an overgeneralised diatribe against the gdf.
no offense, but how can it be taken any other way? hey, there's
alot of silly people here. however the purpose of this particular subdirectory is to debate. in order to debate, you need a debatable topic...or as you dismally put, 'unanswerable' question.

there are people who make a mockery of a debate and like flies at a picnic they are shoo'd away or even swatted if they become too bothersome and disruptive...in a debate one doesnt have to troll to do this. all they can do is spam an opinion or taint the discussion with false evidence and mis/half truths. so it may seem cruel and unnecessary to the passerby. keep in mind though, without debate the gdf forum has no purpose.

speaking for the weird old people, i have to say that sometimes (too often at times) the only way to continue a discussion is to convince some random overimpulsive hormone drenched teenager looking for attention that he's be better off shutting up for a bit.

...and the occasional law student

May I ask how old you are?

68

Originally posted by PVS
68

Probably true.

now if i may ask, to be fair, who is this account a sock of?

people dont normally jump to the gdf from the comic forums in 4 days after registering, having an obvious chip on their shoulder, without being a sock of a banned troll.

Originally posted by PVS
now if i may ask, to be fair, who is this account a sock of?

people dont normally jump to the gdf from the comic forums in 4 days after registering, having an obvious chip on their shoulder, without being a sock of a banned troll.

Paranoid, much? It's another forum on the site for gods sake.

I am extremely confused, my question was about message boards in general and not this one. I am questioning the topics discussed and the kind of posters message boards have in general and mainly if wading through all these extreme "characters" is a reight of passage for internet forum users. The observations were general. If you are concerned please ask for a sock check.

you specifically target the gdf. yet in the comic book forums you encounter far more unanswerable questions and far more hostility. however you brush it all off and go after general discussion.

"Then of course in homosexual debates you will have the conservative homophobe (always accused of being a closet homosexual by the "online psychology students) and the "online" gay often two "boyfriends" who are in a loving relationship and don't agree with promiscuous "queens""

you specifically targeted 3 members on these forums. one of which is whob, but can be easily mistaken, since there are many like whob. yet the "boyfriends" who disliked the queen s1ut stereotype is far too coincidental.
so i must think way back...but its tough since it makes my brain whirl around and go splat.

dial up access and a proxy i.p.'s: helping internet kids feel like hackers since 1995

Originally posted by PVS
you specifically target the gdf. yet in the comic book forums you encounter far more unanswerable questions and far more hostility. however you brush it all off and go after general discussion.

"Then of course in homosexual debates you will have the conservative homophobe (always accused of being a closet homosexual by the "online psychology students) and the "online" gay often two "boyfriends" who are in a loving relationship and don't agree with promiscuous "queens""

you specifically targeted 3 members on these forums. one of which is whob, but can be easily mistaken, since there are many like whob. yet the "boyfriends" who disliked the queen s1ut stereotype is far too coincidental.
so i must think way back...but its tough since it makes my brain whirl around and go splat.

dial up access and a proxy i.p.'s: helping internet kids feel like hackers since 1995

I am not on dial up, you can ask the moderators to check and I actually did not know that this forum had people who fitted those stereotypes although you seem to fit the internet know it all. You're 68? Weird. Do you take drugs because you seem paranoid, pot I have heard can do that if you take it.

ok, whatever. its not like i care. i just get a kick out of pulling the curtain off of incognito kids with way too much time on their hands and far too much deep rooted resentment. (really, you still cant get over capt? maybe its love)

Originally posted by PVS
ok, whatever. its not like i care. i just get a kick out of pulling the curtain off of incognito kids with way too much time on their hands and far too much deep rooted resentment. (really, you still cant get over capt? maybe its love)

I am a kid and a girl who's Capt? You seem to care enough to answer and you have a lot of posts. Please don't get upset because you think you fit any stereotypes. It was a general observations of message boards, not you.

i hate gypsies

Originally posted by PVS
i hate gypsies

I'm not a gypsy, i'm blonde. Do you hate lots of people? Are you a right wing type, is that why you're angry?

ive always been mildly curious...what whirls and goes 'splat', anyway?

maybe a feces frisbee?

Originally posted by PVS
ive always been mildly curious...what whirls and goes 'splat', anyway?

maybe a feces frisbee?

You keep answering, you obviously are angry about something. I don't understand your answers if you're 68 it's a bit young but a "forum" expert once told me, people can get demetia that early or do you just not like girls having an opinion, or is it because I am new and have invaded "your" space?

I'd also guess Whirly.

But here's another one.

What if Whirly, whob and Big Evil....are all one and the same.

Originally posted by Molly Hayes
You keep answering, you obviously are angry about something. I don't understand your answers if you're 68 it's a bit young but a "forum" expert once told me, people can get demetia that early or do you just not like girls having an opinion, or is it because I am new and have invaded "your" space?

hold on, were you not condemning all these damned internet psychologists on the forums in your first post?

odd

Originally posted by PVS
hold on, were you not condemning all these damned internet psychologists on the forums in your first post?

I said I was told by someone on a forum. I didn't say they were a psychologist, I said a "forum" expert. Surely given your post count on this forum you have or perhaps are such an expert.

Originally posted by Bardock42
I'd also guess Whirly.

But here's another one.

What if Whirly, whob and Big Evil....are all one and the same.

they are not. i know its a scarey thought, but i am convinced that they are 3 seperate people. big evil obviously either smokes/trips way too much or is clinically insane. whirly is a very unhappy person who reopens grudges between internet stragers from like 2 years ago (weeeeeird) and whob.....well whob just has alot of bad ideas and needs people to force feed them too.