From time to time over the years those of us who have enjoyed the benefits of MFO and predecessor FundAlarm have been subjected to conduct from participants which has been divisive, uncivil, and just plain rude.
The current exemplar of such conduct now sees fit to caustically criticize the grammatical construction of David Snowball's monthly commentary. Despite the fact that this poster has amply demonstrated that he is incapable of constructing a post without a misspelling, grammatical error, or typographical error, he now sets himself as the arbiter of Professor Snowball's commentary.
This poster is not entirely without merit. He has occasionally posted interesting and relevant comments, and as long no one dares to disagree with him, he can be reasonably civil. His style is unfortunately similar in many respects to that of someone currently campaigning to be our next president.
This deliberate obnoxiousness evidently appeals to some MFO participants: one, at least, feels that he "add[s] a lot of spice to the proceedings." That may be so, but if the price for such "spice" is a barrage of aggressive incivility and rudeness, it's not worth the cost. In the latest example of such cost, note the current forced closure of Ted's innocuous post announcing David Snowball's monthly commentary. I would suggest that if participation by such a poster is causative of a significant number of such closures, as is the case in this instance, the poster's value to the community is at best questionable.
I recommend that anyone sharing these feelings simply ignore this particular poster, and let him talk to himself. Since he has informed us numerous times that he is superior in every way, that should be no problem for him.
Old Joe
Comments
Apparently the powers that be decided to remove Dex's offensive commentary from, and reopen, Ted's original thread: David Snowball's March Commentary Is Now Available. As Catch 22 points out, the alternative is to punish the general community by closing a thread, rather than dealing with the initiator of the offensive comments.
We may surmise that even David's patience may be wearing a little thin with all of this unnecessary incivility and rudeness. An old saying about "biting the hand that feeds" comes to mind.
Sorry about the piecemeal response. I'm the chair of my academic department and needed to deal with two grade complaints against faculty today, so I had little time for finesse. Once home, I was able to tidy up the original thread.
In addition, I've set Dex's posts to be moderated. At base, that means that they go into a sort of holding pen until one of the three of us is able to review and release or delete them. I welcome, now as always, all civil contributions - on-topic or off, serious or playful. If anyone sees something ... uhhh, Trumpian, just flag it and we'll get there as quickly as we can.
As ever,
David
President Xi shakes hands with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“On a personal note, this was the first time I’ve ever spoken with a world leader entirely in a foreign language,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, which is banned in China. “
Unsurprisingly, President Xi touched on cybersecurity, a topic that’s caused tension between the U.S. and Chinese governments as of late with tech-related policies and technology protectionism.
“China advocates the building of a peaceful, secure, open, and cooperative cyberspace and believes that countries should formulate Internet-related public policies in line with their respective national realities,” he said.
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/photos-tim-cook-satya-nadella-jeff-bezos-mark-zuckerberg-others-meet-china-president-at-microsoft/
TECH / CHINA CIRCUIT By LI YUAN
[email protected]
March 2, 2016 1:26 p.m. ET
Amid Apple-FBI Fight, China Looms
Battle on iPhone could reverberate if company faces similar demands abroad
Increasingly, Beijing is trying to regulate Western tech companies in a similar fashion. A new Internet regulation, effective next week, bars foreign companies from publishing online content in China without prior approval. A draft Cyber Security Law, under review, would require Internet network operators to provide authorities with technological support and assistance for national security and criminal investigations—which Amnesty International, a rights group, says could make it easier to involve companies in censorship and surveillance.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/amid-apple-fbi-fight-china-looms-1456943214?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f
Thanks again for your comments.
Take care- OJ
Now here's Hamlet: "Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them."
The trolls here could be considered "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
Thanks Old Joe for starting the ball rolling. And thanks to Dr. Snowball as always.
With a history on this board traced back way before FundAlarm to UseNetNews and mutualfundinvesting.misc (unmoderated) . . .
DON'T FEED THE TROLLS
Not implying that this is the case here, but trolls historically have been negative energy sinks in that they thrive on creating negative thoughts and responses by people they come in contact with. The negative emotional responses are what keep them alive.
It's that sort of wallow in the glass half full of wasted dreams craps we're seeing in the Trump campaign.
Just ignore it,
and so it goes,
peace,
rono
I caught a little bit of the post from 'the poster who shall not be named' and responses to that poster. I am going to give 'the poster who shall not be named' a little bit of the benefit of the doubt here and present another point of view. Yes, I do often come to the aid of the needy and defend the defenseless.
Some of the posts responding to 'the poster who shall not be named' were inflammatory, accusatory (just call 'the poster who shall not be named' a troll) and judgmental. Yet, 'the poster who shall not be named' did not engage many of those posters; they were ignored. That is not the signature of a troll.
As to the grammar and content issues, well, it was more interesting to me then the normal postings when Mr. Snowball issues his monthly newsletter. The usual posts are "Thank You", "Another great letter" etc. Sometimes there might be one to two questions or observations about the content.
No one was willing to engage 'the poster who shall not be named' as to the validity of the grammar and content except one poster. In my humble opinion that would have been an more interesting discussion then the usual "Thank You" posts. Also, if the other posters had not sidetracked the discussion we, including Mr. Snowball, may have learned something. All the other posters immediately attacked 'the poster who shall not be named' as a troll or other ad hominem attacks.
I wrote this in a previous thread:
"I feel that the ad hominem 'attack' issue is a bit tricky. People from different parts of the country and the world have different styles of writing. What is an 'attack' for one person may be a bit of winding some up to others. There is joke about the English: How do you know when a jet full of the English has landed? The engines are off but the whining continues. That whining could be misconstrued if it were posted here. In this world we need to keep an open mind to others' cultures ways of communicating. This isn't a white male, Euro-centric dominated world any more and those values should not be always imposed on others. So, I would suggest we look in the mirror to make sure we are not part of the problem."
I would close by asking that those that have taken offence by what 'the poster who shall not be named' has written to consider their emotional reactions and the content of their posts and question if it was truly warranted. My intuition tells me some were reacting to posts in other threads and some were following the crowd in their condemnation. It is easier to follow the crowd then go against the grain.
I had no issue whatsoever with the weather imagery but would not argue the point in the other direction, or in any direction, and my and anyone else's take on it does not matter in the slightest. (If I were Snowball's line editor I would suggest a few minor things, but that's in the nature of the work.)
My chief concern was that the description was factually, grammatically inaccurate, wrong, not a matter of opinion or of anything similar. Finally, I believe the erroneous charge was doubled down upon, amusingly, but am too bored to check.
While some of us have advanced graduate degrees and/or relevant work experience, others might be what Donald Trump calls the "lesser educated" This might lead some to have grammatical errors in their postings.
I, for one, look more to the substance of what is said rather than grammatical presentation. Can't we leave the petty ridicule to the GOP presidential debates?
More to the point, he has frequently attacked numerous other posters in a style almost indistinguishable from that of the remarkable Mr. Trump. That is in fact the main issue with this individual. His insults and demagoguery have resulted in a number of threads being closed, and he has been previously cautioned by David regarding his lack of civility.
You may have no problem accepting that level of communication as the new least-common denominator for MFO, but there are many others who do not accept that standard. If Dex wishes to post here, fine. But in so doing he is obliged to accept the commonly observed standards of the forum, including respect for the opinions of those who may disagree with him.
Old Joe
I'm taking the liberty of reproducing, in full, Hank's comment on this (taken from another thread):
hank
6:51AM edited 7:00AM Flag
"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones - and I'm one of them. I'll venture to say a fine line between being a little bit of a pest and being so persistently pesty you muck-up the proceedings and hurt other people. I'm reminded of a poster on FA who was convinced during the 07-08 route that stocks were heading to zero and kept haranguing folks to sell everything. The frequency and shrillness of those posts increased to the point where it was interfering with normal discourse and so Roy, I'm sure reluctantly, banned that poster during the final few months.
It's really difficult here because, as OJ has noted before, the poster not to be named occasionally posted some darned good original content. Unfortunately, it wasn't always followed-up with fair, rational or considerate discussion on his part. I can't be the only one here who suspects those posts may not have been always composed by the same individual, but rather by two or more different persons. So different in tone and intellect could they appear. I sensed that - especially in the not to be named poster's final reply to my one (grammatical) comment (now removed)."
Regards,
Ted
Last day of Spring Break. I'm imagining a new assignment in my Propaganda in the 20th Century class. It's called "You are them." Making sense of propaganda from 1914 requires being able to think like a person from 1913. I'm trying to imagine a small-group research and presentation assignment that would lead four or five of my students to being able to talk through the mindset of folks in the age. They can't actually do it but if I could get them ... oh, 60% of the way there, they'd be much further along than they are now. Maybe some time with the college's archivists (for an archivisit?)? Hmmm ...
David
David, I'd recommend perhaps a read of The Nineteenth Century: Europe 1789-1914 (Short Oxford History of Europe) edited by T. C. W. Blanning. It's a very readable collection of short essays covering almost every social dimension of this period, and should put someone in the right frame of mind for participation in your project. A problem is that the least expensive copy that I could find was $25-ish on Amazon, and that for a soft-cover.
Good Luck!
OJ
Comparing the grammar of forum post with a published article is not appropriate. They are two very different animals.
Also, focusing in on the grammar in a post, instead of the content, is considered a form of trolling. And, if it isn't raised to the level of trolling; it is pedantic.
and if you're very serious--I haven't finished this one yet--try this:
pbs.org/speak/speech/correct/decline/
"If you're not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. Stop eating... stop global warming! I am so concerned about global warming I have become a breatharian. All I need is sunlight and breathing ... no food!" mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/73865/#Comment_73865
I think that qualifies as a "deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument." And I don't think my believing that has anything to do with Eurocentricity or tolerance of other cultures.
Regards,
Ted
However, I like you, am getting a little tired of it. Hopefully, this thread will give people a pause to think a little differently about their reactions.
Hey, I'm starting to wonder if "the Donald" wasn't secretly posting on MFO as "the Dex". Hmmm.
Silly me, I always thought that (some) people left a default signature 'Sent from my iPhone' to brag that they had an iPhone. Now that iPhones are relatively common, I don't see the default signature much anymore.