TSM Grievances
This post is a combination of being a mini 'State of the Forum' and some personal thoughts.
1. Crimson G is an excellent poster in the economy thread. He calmly and intelligently explains his Austrian economic views. But, literally everyone who has replied to him has taken a completely dismissive tone. The underlying message of each post is, "Here's why you're wrong, Crimson G." (Although, certainly, SuperJerk is much worse than At Home.) Conversely, it is clear that Crimson G carefully reads and directly responds to exactly what the other posters write, making his underlying message, "Here's the argument that I'm presenting."
I want to mention two other positive things about Crimson G. First, SuperJerk misspelled "poured" as "poored" in one of his posts. Crimson G quietly corrected the misspelling when he quoted SuperJerk. I'm usually adamant about not changing quotations, but, in this case, it was a gracious gesture. Second, Crimson G initially said that the majority of Americans don't support the stimulus. After Smitty presented a poll, Crimson G publicly conceded that he (Crimson G) had been wrong. It was good to see that he is more concerned with adapting to the truth than being an arrogant know-it-all.
2.
I forgot nobody knows as much as you about history, snuffbox. Certainly not the dozens of historians who've written books and articles about the failed policies of the 1920s or how well documented it is that Harding was able to implement very little before his death. Heaven forbid anyone could come to a conclusion different than what the one biography of Harding you read told you to think. The fact that he was only president for 2 years doesn't seem to deter your opinion that he was able to miraculously accomplish things that no one has ever actually credited him with. I mean, what the fuck do I know? I only have a B.S. in History with a 3.6 undergrad GPA. I must have pulled it from a high school text book.
Jackass.
The boldface was added by me to the part where I laughed. There's no need for a 2009 Worst Poster Tournament. SuperJerk is your back-to-back champion.
3. I wish there were more people who shared my interest in Somalia. I appreciate that Smitty and Byron take it seriously, but there's not a lot of discussion. What really interests me about Somalia is that I think it offers a massive treasure chest of lessons to learn about politics, economics, history, law, relationships, and life in general.
4. Who added all of this Willy Aybar garbage to the Sports folder? Yes, we (eventually) found out the story behind it, but it's still stupid. Anyway, the 'Sports Page in the Business Section' thread is potentially the best one in the folder. I'm quite interested in knowing the teams that are going to have to move or contract. I foresee significant contraction in MLB and the NHL.
5. The Food folder would be more interesting if anyone were genuinely interested in nutrition. Vitamin X comes closest, but I think he's pretty much like everyone else. You're all a bunch of zombie addicts. It's funny when people 'go on a diet.' There's a 100% chance that they'll gain the weight back eventually unless they permanently change what they eat.
6. I'm happy that the Literature folder exists. We don't need more people to post there; we need the TSM intellectuals not to be 'above' posting there.
7. Graphics and Testing Grounds is a legitimate folder, but the quality there has been poor since Hotbutter Spoontoaster was banned. To reiterate, there are three purposes of that folder: (1) posting and discussion of images, (2) actual testing of message board features, and (3) parody and satire. The recent parodies have been terrible. "My best friend's grill"? Ugh.
For the TSM suggestion box:
8. I don't think that the General Chat folder has any purpose. All of those threads should be in other folders. Some don't quite fit anywhere, but they could. 'Current Events' is a bit limiting. It could be renamed 'World' or something like that in order to accommodate threads that deal with things like money, travel, or history. No Holds Barred is the meta folder in which TSM talks about itself and its posters, not General Chat.
9. Blogs aren't prominent enough. It would be better if there were a blog folder in the View at Your Own Risk section, and each thread were one poster's blog. Also, only nine people actively blog, including myself. A lot of people don't even know that there are blogs.
10. Finally, I wish there were a feature in which readers could give cumulative "+1" or "-1" ratings to each individual post. I know that this feature is possible, because I've seen it on other forums. It would help posters who are awful realize their awfulness, and good posters would be encouraged to post more because they would know that people appreciate their posts.
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