Redundant terminology

[Archon_Wing]

Well, after being at the Lurker Lounge for a while, I realized that mindless posts aren't really acceptable here. After all, most people do that to be annoying. :)

But what about the other extreme? I feel that people who have an obsession with jargon and write a ten page thesis which of course could be summarized up in three sentences are equally annoying :P

"The circumstances of the situation prevented us from processing the required task at complete capacity due to the relative motion of the celestial sphere that revolves around our current native planentary body as galatic matter was entangled into the event horizon of the singularity."

or maybe, "I am a lazy bum who doesn't want to try. But I think it had to do with the moon and that black hole over there"

Yes, I do suppose that if you are a professional that works in a highly respected field, such complex language would be necessary, but it's not necessary to talk like that to regular people like that! In some ways, it reminds me of a highly advanced version of "l33t speak"

But even worse are those that use complex language or wording but do not know what they are talking about. I just nod my head in these cases and chuckle. Usually they are making an excuse. Of course a chicken wearing a tuxedo is still a chicken.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

[WarBlade]

Well you can either learn to read and understand or you can avoid threads that come up with some crap about time travel (or wherever it was got quoted from) and other similar "we don't really get it, but we love to speculate" threads. Sometimes they can be fun. Oh, and avoid polls too, seeing as they are even worse.

To wit:

Do I believe in time travel?

Yes.

Every Time I see a another idiot post a pointless poll I wish Bolty would Travel to the control panel and disable the poll feature.



This has been another snipe proudly brought to you by the ever-critical WarBlade B)

[--Pete]

Hi,

Especially stupid are posts that gripe about some general thing (like excessive verbiage) while not giving a single concrete example.

--Pete

[Archon_Wing]

Very well, I'll concede that my post was somewhat pointless. Especialy the failure of including concrete ideas. Yes, very vague. ;)

There are certain examples such as picking out minor words. Once I was discussing with a certain person that the abusing the drone bug in Starcraft was cheating. He told me that it wasn't a "bug," it was a glitch, trying to take advantage of my lack of knowledge of computer teminology to justify as such.

Excessive language can be found in many EULA's. Reading the Microsoft one can reveal much.

Finally, in one argument debating the whether marijuana should be legalized, one fellow spent most of his time deciding that my premise was obviously infantile and wrote a long, long response that contained plenty of terms that my brain cannot remember. Unforunately, for him, the dictionary was to equalizing factor, as he spent way too much time condemning my inferior writings while failing to make his point. True, I didn't really make a strong argument, but I realized nor did he. :)

Edit:Perhaps I should change the title to "those who delibrately try to confuse others"

[--Pete]

Hi,

If you think that someone's hiding their lack of an argument behind a wall of fog, there are two good recourses. The one I usually use is to simply ignore them -- life is too short to untangle their cotton candy arguments.

The other course is to crush them. As you say, the dictionary is your friend. Take their post, paragraph by paragraph or even sentence by sentence. Do a "Reader's Digest condensed story" on it. Make it as terse as you can.

Then make fun of them for having said nothing and said it so well. Most posters will not survive the experience. They'll often go elsewhere after having been shown to be a fool.

He told me that it wasn't a "bug," it was a glitch

Hmm. A fool, indeed. In the lexicon I grew up with, a "glitch" is a short term problem, usually unreproducible. The Jargon Dictionary seems to agree. http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/g/glitch.html You had a perfect opportunity to play the "You don't even know the words, how can you understand the concepts?" trump on this "dood".

When someone tries to "baffle you with bullsh!t" think of it as an opportunity ;)

--Pete

[Quark]

So thick it's dripping ... :lol:

[Guest]

Trying to prune a jungle of circular pratter with rhetoric almost never works on a forum.

- Most words in English have multiple defintions. So unless the babbler makes a giant gaff, they can easily duck under the cover of an alternate meaning.

- The babbler probably doesnt understand what he/she wrote himself so that chances of him understanding your arguement are slim.

- The dodge. If the jungle planter does understand what hes writing, he will shift the thread by making a vague attack on your post.

-Elitist insult response. If the agruement does become untenable(gennerally this requires 2 people agreeing that hes full of scat) the original poster can declare that you are an "idiot" and there is no point in explaning his "obbvious" point again.


Of course these tactics tend to look exactly the same if the original poster is right or wrong.

Hence the saying....

Arguing on the internet, is like winng the Special Olympics.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

I thought you were actually cruising towards a good point, until:

Arguing on the internet, is like winng the Special Olympics.

I believe you've just graduated to "Level 1 asshole" with that comment.

Well done. It usually takes quite a while to achieve that standing; you've accomplished it in a matter of weeks.

*edits ignore list to include the preceeding name*

[WarBlade]

*edits ignore list to include the preceeding name*

You've been doing that too? :lol:
A pity the ignore list only covers private messages. :(

[Archon_Wing]

You have no idea of the feeling of despair I felt when i realized that terrible fact. :blink:

[Guest]

What the particular element of "Arguing on the internet, is like winng the Special Olympics". is so offensive?

1 I spelled winning wrong?

2 I offended Special Olympians by comparing them to to people on the internet.

3 Using a cliche is lame?


EDIT: Nico why do you place so much weight on who has been posting here the longest?

[WarBlade]

Belittling handicapped people by casting them in the light of 'lowest common denominator' for your ill-concieved comparison was lame. <_<

The fact that you can't even see your own error once your attention was drawn to it was equally lame. <_<

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

EDIT: Nico why do you place so much weight on who has been posting here the longest?

For the very same reasons I try to actually respect my elders. This is a foreign concept to most anyone born after 1975, apparently.

What the particular element of "Arguing on the internet, is like winng the Special Olympics". is so offensive?

Going to take your own tack from the post and deny definitives, eh? I'm sure you think you're quite clever.

Your entire post circulates around the theory that debating/arguing on a forum/internet is a fool's game. You use the term "babbler" to describe those that try. Your entire feeling in the post is that anyone caught up in the "circular pratter with rhetoric" is a complete waste of time.

THEN you make your ill-fated comparison to Special Olympians. The obvious indication is that the Special Olympics are a waste of time, and that anyone winning in them doesn't matter in the least. The parallel you draw is obvious: Arguing online is a waste of time. Participating in the Special Olympics is a waste of time.

Now that you've been called on your idiocy, not once but twice, you're following your own prescribed pattern from your previous post:

Most words in English have multiple defintions. So unless the babbler makes a giant gaff, they can easily duck under the cover of an alternate meaning.

2 I offended Special Olympians by comparing them to to people on the internet.

You did NOT compare them to people on the internet. You compared them unfavorably to people that are, in your opinion, wasting time and energy by arguing on the internet.

The babbler probably doesnt understand what he/she wrote himself so that chances of him understanding your arguement are slim.

1 I spelled winning wrong?
3 Using a cliche is lame?

Nice try. You know what you wrote. I know what you wrote. Warblade knows what you wrote. Anyone with a clue knows what you wrote.

The dodge. If the jungle planter does understand what hes writing, he will shift the thread by making a vague attack on your post.

EDIT: Nico why do you place so much weight on who has been posting here the longest?

Longevity is hardly the issue here. Your apparent joy for crass statements and trolling IS the issue.

Elitist insult response. If the agruement does become untenable(gennerally this requires 2 people agreeing that hes full of scat) the original poster can declare that you are an "idiot" and there is no point in explaning his "obbvious" point again.

This is my forecast: Because you've obviously followed your own little theory to a "T", you'll now start in on the dismissive tone. Seeing as your "gaff" was obvious, you really have no latitude to work with, otherwise.

Nice attempt at trolling, Jerk. I'll call your bluff anyway.

Strike two.

[Mithrandir]

Erm, I think you guys really, really missed something here. There is a rather infamous jpeg that has been floating around for years now and has seen a rather large amount of use in forums. It states something along the lines of:

"Arguing on the Internet is like winning the special Olympics. You may have won, but you're still a retard."

Obviously it's not an extremely "nice" message, but not all-together that demeaning to anyone. (And, if taken lightly, has a good point) Ghostiger was merely invoking this image. You guys assigned meanings to it far beyond what, I'm sure, he intended.

[Guest]

"Nice try. You know what you wrote. I know what you wrote. Warblade knows what you wrote. Anyone with a clue knows what you wrote."

Of course everyone knows what I wrote. Its still sitting there for anyone to read.



If you you are offended that I that I belittled winninng in Special Olympics, I wont denie you that perspective - its valid. My self I think The events are great for retarded people(ya I still use that word - its not an insult here), but I I think its a reasonable comparasoion here.


BTW: I think your helping prove my original point.

[Guest]

The funny part is I first heard the saying here at the LL, it never offended anyone back then.

[Griselda]

It looks like others have gone into the mechanics of *why* it's offensive. You may not personally see anything wrong with it, and there are countless other people on the internet who don't either. But, the fact that "other people on the internet" say it doesn't remove any responsibility on your part from considering the appropriateness of the comment.

I'm not going to edit your post. But, I hope you realize that other posters are going to form their opinions of you based upon what you say. If that's really how you want to be seen, then I'm sorry for you.

-Griselda

[Guest]

This used to actually be the sig of a prominate poster here. I dont remember there being any greif about it then, but maybe I have forgotten.


EDIT: I gave this some more thought.

So I am insulting retarded people by infering that being retarded is a negative trait?

It is.

It doesnt make them bad or anything like that, no matter how you look at it its a negative.

By using the above reasoning one could never make an analogy to anything bad in the world, because it would in turn insult who ever has effected.

Thats silly IMO.(BTW I never insulted any individuals so dont go there please).

[Nystul]

How is it a reasonable comparison? What exactly is the parallel being drawn here?

To me, it only works if it's a putdown. It's only funny to the extent that it's offensive. And even though I have a friend who participates in the Special Olympics, I still find it mildly funny. But as an actual comparison, I don't see how it holds any water. If you replaced "the Special Olympics" with "a minor league baseball game", would it still make sense?

And of course, the thing about offensive humor is that sooner or later someone will be offended by it.

[Guest]

I used it because its an old saying that went along with my post.

And I just because I acknowledge that being retarded is a negative - that doesnt mean I insulted retarded people.