"I am staying out of this one."

[Queen Michael]

What's EN?

EternalNothingness, our resident brony thread-maker who has a fame for whining about ponies or Mass Effect. Somebody made a gif about it and it's very popular around, but I don't seem to find it anywhere just now. Also I hope I'm not offending the mods by thus replying, but after seeing that gif so many times go un-modded I just assume we've all agreed on this description about EN for a while now.

What's EN?

Short for EternalNothingness, a username on here.

Oh, that guy. Yeah, I know him.

And if we're talking specific Escapists, then I try to avoid anything that lacktheknack has posted in. I don't mind his posts, his opinions are intelligent enough. But his avatar is creepy as hell.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Three times a week doesn't really seem quite like it to be honest...

Past month or so I've gone up to about three times a day.

That's more like it.

I try to avoid anything that involves:
Religion
Politics
Mass Effect 3
Anita something
Feminism
Sexuality
Who would you save?
Half Life 2
Valve
Bioware
EA
Activision
and topics whose titles seem to scream "conversation will devolve into mindless stupidity here"

 

[EvilRoy]

What's EN?

EternalNothingness, our resident brony thread-maker who has a fame for whining about ponies or Mass Effect. Somebody made a gif about it and it's very popular around, but I don't seem to find it anywhere just now. Also I hope I'm not offending the mods by thus replying, but after seeing that gif so many times go un-modded I just assume we've all agreed on this description about EN for a while now.

What's EN?

Short for EternalNothingness, a username on here.

Oh, that guy. Yeah, I know him.

And if we're talking specific Escapists, then I try to avoid anything that lacktheknack has posted in. I don't mind his posts, his opinions are intelligent enough. But his avatar is creepy as hell.

Whatever you do.... DON'T. LOOK. UP.

 

[Queen Michael]

What's EN?

EternalNothingness, our resident brony thread-maker who has a fame for whining about ponies or Mass Effect. Somebody made a gif about it and it's very popular around, but I don't seem to find it anywhere just now. Also I hope I'm not offending the mods by thus replying, but after seeing that gif so many times go un-modded I just assume we've all agreed on this description about EN for a while now.

What's EN?

Short for EternalNothingness, a username on here.

Oh, that guy. Yeah, I know him.

And if we're talking specific Escapists, then I try to avoid anything that lacktheknack has posted in. I don't mind his posts, his opinions are intelligent enough. But his avatar is creepy as hell.

Whatever you do.... DON'T. LOOK. UP.

*looks up*
Aaaagh! Why did I decide on this foolish course of action when a fellow member wisely adviced me to avoid doing so!?

 

[Something Amyss]

Oh can you do a column that would be damn useful ^^

Hmmmm.... "The cynic's guide to The Escapist."

At this point?

Pick a thread; any thread.

Pretty much any thread that involves gender and/or sexuality issues, and politics. I stay the hell away from those threads now because, quite honestly, I'm really fucking tired of being quoted to hell and back for typing something that might upset someone.

Because opinions, am I right?

I am offended! I demand an apology!

...Hey, I just thought of something. Is the gamer equivalent of "I demand satisfaction!" "1V1 me, bro!"

 

[crimsonshrouds]

I avoid the femminist, transgender, and rape threads. I'm sick of people with persecution complexes attacking people who are not the ones persecuting them and acting like the injured party.

I like the religious threads those are fun.

 

[JemothSkarii]

Not really; I'll go into threads about food or favorite music or whatever but nothing really to do with sexism/feminism/Anita/LGBT etc. etc. Lots and lots of arguing on the forums lately which seems to be perpetuated by the journalists of the internet and various other places.

 

[crimsonshrouds]

snip

This is really off topic but where did you get that avatar? The kitty with the tie is really cute and its one of my favorite colors.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

Generally speaking I don't take notice of things that don't interest me. On rare occasions I'll come into a thread imagining I'll make some comment on the OP, and discover it's become so toxic that I beat a hasty retreat so as not to get sucked into the circle of hate. Usually the calm posts outnumber the nasty posts at least 3-1 though. Even in the more controversy-baiting threads.

If I had a complaint, it wouldn't be "People are discussing things I don't like" or "People are having a controversial discussion, stop them". It would be "I see six posts on the same controversial subject on page one. We should maybe combine those into a single thread".

If you're the sort of person who sees there are already huge threads on a subject and start your own in order to harvest views and comments, then you are a bad person, and bad things should happen to you. Like, say, you go to the store and buy some 1% milk, and then get home and discover it's actually skim.

Things like that.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/08/susan-sarandon-says-she-s-not-a-feminist-why-she-dumped-the-label.html

Good article, thanks for that.

I still cannot wrap my head around dumping a word just because a group of stubborn idiots continue to misuse and misunderstand it, but I understand her reasoning.

I don't know why other people do it, but I tend to be sent down a certain line of thinking by a thread, then decide I want to talk about that in a more focussed environment that I can easily keep track of and debate/discuss with people in. Thus I start my own thread related to, but not the same as the subject already being discussed. My best example of this is probably my "objectification" thread. I could care less for views, imaginary internet points and badges don't matter too much.

 

[Foolery]

Hah, you know. There is a user group on this site devoted to standing back and watching the flames. I try to stay the hell away from even remotely controversial topics. Especially anything regarding gender, feminism, sexism, transgender, etc. It's not worth posting. I'll look, but that's it. It's usually the same old tired arguments and ideas from the same people repeating endlessly. It is amusing when an official thread goes to hell though.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

You know the ones I'm talking about.
"Immaturity in Gaming", currently at 31 comments.

Sorry to make it sound like a broken record considering how many folks have told you this already, but you obviously didn't actually look into that thread. It's about silly immature things people do for fun in video games (i.e. my sister naming her town in Animal Crossing "My Butt" for teh lulz), not a criticism of immaturity in the gaming community.

So yeah! It's actually a cool thread. Not one of those you should run away from at all costs.

-----------

Anywho, on topic: The number of threads I seem to have to back the hell away from and not even touch these days seems to be growing at way too fast of a rate. Feminism threads, any thread about Bronies and MLP (not so much recently, although a few have popped up... for... some reason), threads about Transgendered folks, anything to do with the Mass Effect 3 ending, anything to do with some sort of controversy about businesses or developers or publishers ... the list goes on and on.

And it's not just due to me being one of those types who doesn't feel confident enough in my own opinions on a lot of subjects to try and discuss them. A lot of these threads just devolve into petty arguments or end up filled with bigoted assholes that somehow are allowed to stick around despite making genuinely despicable statements. Plus, it seems like genuinely level-minded and good-natured folks get the banhammer more often than the idiots who truly deserve being cast out of here.

... it often makes me wonder why I put up with this place to begin with sometimes. Maybe it's just due to things like Critical Miss and the Jimquisition, which are both genuinely pretty good bits of content that seem to be made by respectable individuals. But... well, they don't totally make up for the crap the forums can spew out, that's for sure.

 

[templar1138a]

Sorry to make it sound like a broken record considering how many folks have told you this already, but you obviously didn't actually look into that thread.

If you knew others had already commented on that, then why did you say it again?

 

[Miss G.]

I know how you feel OP, I didn't even know there was controversy this week as until Tueday when I got round to reading Extra Punctuation. I guess I've been so busy this week it kind of slipped me by thankfully.

The same. It was so scary to see all the toxicity that built up in that one thread and all the actions mods were forced to take since they can't lock site content threads. I hope to never run into that kinda thing again in this site but I won't hold my breath. Maybe I should start paying attention to the whole 'User Group' thing.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Pretty much anything involving trans-anything (I can't even keep track of all the various terminology now),feminism, Republicans (or what people think are Republicans) and basically any thread that starts off proclaiming that the United States needs to do something because that's the way the "rest of the 'civilized' world" does it. Oh, and 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.'

 

[Johnny Impact]

Feminism
This horse has been beaten so often, it resembles the crater where the dinosaur killer came down. Also, my opinions on gender in-/equality aren't strong enough to bother posting.

Sexual anything, identity/orientation/etc
Same stuff over and over, in the same percentages. I really don't care if Forum User A is a post-op transgender bisexual Eskimo with a foot fetish. In fact, I think I'd rather not know.

Relationship threads, especially cheating/advice
My morals (don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal; if you do those things you are a bad person) mean any statement I make is immediately jumped on by some immoral asshat who either doesn't know or doesn't care about the negative effect he has on the lives of others.

This Game/Company sucks
Take a deep breath and get over yourself. Try though you might, you cannot destroy anything merely by hating it, or by posting your rage on the Internet. Your hate makes you weak and you should be embarrassed to show it to us.

Explain your username/avatar
I've posted in about ten of these threads. I feel like I've done my share.

 

[SovietSecrets]

I come back every once in a while to look into these threads and post in the normal ones, even if they don't add anything.

/Dead place.

80% of these threads are horrid.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Generally, Middle Eastern politics threads, unless my nation is involved. Those issues are generally way out of my own experience.

 

[Psychobabble]

snip

This is really off topic but where did you get that avatar? The kitty with the tie is really cute and its one of my favorite colors.

Like everything these days I found it on the internet. I think I did a Bing image search for "cat bowtie."

I'm glad you liked the avatar. I went for the kindest, warmest, most non-threatening avatar I could think of. In these dark days it seems we must do our best to protect the feelings of others even if that means the loss of our own personal right to self expression. So I'm just trying to do my part.

 

[T3hSource]

...I'm really fucking tired of being quoted to hell and back for typing something that might upset someone.

I'm sure many avid posters on any site feel that way. I blame it on people's sensitivities.
But on the other hand, I occasionally want to play devil's advocate and shout out a provoking controversial opinion, which, while I don't agree with, brings another valid perspective to the discussion, but that's called 'trolling' now, isn't it.

Also I don't get feminism, social justice and all that stupid shouting that's going on stemming from American political agendas(when should be looking at other MORE important shit, you know, like the economy and health concerns). Europe has more than 2 countries, each one with their own issues and problems, why don't we hear about them at all? Because Americans are raised with the right to speak speak out, and since it's your right, you HAVE to use it, because liberty and freedom? Now meaningless buzzwords like political correctness, when you mean inoffensive? Offense can't given, it is only taken.

Sorry for rambling. tl;dr 'murica, shut up and let the rest speak