No that a few days have passed and the dust has settled on this week's tragic thread (you all know the one to which I am referring), I wanted say a few things to the BBI Community.
Threads like the one that happened this week are not a laughing matter. I see folks making jokes about it. The internet community as a whole has a problem of mob bullying. Singling out a poster for ridicule. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the individual poster in question behaved well, but for sure the BBI community piled on, ridiculed and didn't let it go. We are all bonded by a common love for our football team. I would hope that we can take the high road in these situations. To some extent, I know how the target poster felt, I have been the target poster on some threads for posts I would to this day defend if I cared to. I don't think I said anything wrong. Part of the problem with the internet is that we can't see body language, intonation and various other subtle forms of communication. It leaves our posts open to interpretation at times.
I for one will not engage in a mob pile-up on a poster. Its a tragic situation. How would some of you feel if you later found out that the poster truly had psychological issues and committed suicide shortly after a tragic thread. Nothing good comes out of those threads. Now this does not mean I won't fire back at somebody that trolls me, or call bullshit on another post. But if the mob kicks in, I'm out.
I have seen numerous posts this week calling that thread an all time classic. Its not an all time classic. Its an all time embarrassment. I would like to think we are better than that.
I hope that the vast majority of posters here are mature enough to help avoid adding fuel to the fire on these tragic threads. Anybody else willing to make the same statement as I have about not ganging up and bullying posters, even when they have said something stupid. Just let it go and walk away.
It's 🆒
Weeks? It was more than a year. He was pulling the same garbage last year leading up to the draft too, except that his "predictions" (which were really more just preferences that the Giants remain loyal to Eli at all cost) didn't blow up in his face last year, so he got to keep the asshat title that he clearly craved.
This year that changed - not only did the Giants not abide by his personal wishes for Eli when they selected Jones at #6, it also represented a major ding against his asshat cred (in his own perception at least, which made him extra defensive).
That's what triggered that thread and the meltdown that followed, IMO. He was so emotionally invested in not only being seen as an asshat here, but also in the Giants believing in Eli in perpetuity, that when both of those two things evaporated simultaneously, he seemed genuinely distraught.
I feel bad about a lot of the things I posted in that thread - I can't claim innocence here because I felt like he was having a meltdown and I kept poking the bear. I'm not proud of that despite the fact that I didn't think there was anything wrong with pointing out that he was not nearly the credible source that so many believed he was.
If he was in fact experiencing some sort of emotional breakdown, I do hope he gets whatever help he needs.
In my OP I stated that I would not participate in the mob culture of ganging up on some posters. I also asked who else was willing to say the same.
I want to make it clear that the behavior of the poster who was ganged up on is in no way acceptable or easily forgiven. It was reprehensible. He has been here a long time and never behaved that way before. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter, because what matters is that each of us should examine our own behavior and decide if that behavior is that behavior a point or pride or not? How are others perceiving that behavior and is that perception desirable? What are the impacts of that behavior, and are those impacts desirable?
I am not forcing anybody to change their behavior. I am not pointing a finger at anybody, passing judgement, being presumptuous, or as one poster said being a pussy.
It is about taking responsibility for myself, my actions, and working (emphasis on the working) to be a better version of myself than I was the day before. And doing that every day of my life. When I started this thread, I knew that I would get flamed by some. And I make this post knowing that I will get flamed again. Taking responsibility for myself is not presumptuous, it is not passing judgement, it is not preachy. That said, I have the courage of my convictions, to speak up for what I believe in. I leave it to individuals to decide for themselves if they agree or not. But speaking up when you know that some will excoriate you for doing so, is the exact opposite of being a pussy.
And let me be clear on this, it’s not about just BBI. BBI is just a microcosm of the rest of Society. Personal responsibility, honor, and real service to making our society better has never been at a lower point than it is now. The evidence is everywhere. We have a mass shooting once a week, including the one that happened yesterday. Road rage violence. Out of control corporate and personal greed. We have divisive politics threatening our democracy. Suicide rates are at all-time highs, especially amongst children. Hate crimes on the rise. Nuclear proliferation and climate change that present us with serious existential threats. We didn't just suddenly arrive here. As a Society, bit by bit, we have allowed our souls to be eaten, our honor to be eroded, and our personal responsibility abdicated. We all want to get ahead and have a better life, and I am by no mean saying it should not be that way, but it should come with responsibility.
You can say it’s not a big deal it’s just fan message board for a football team. But if I cannot take responsibility for the way I behave here, how is that I can say that I am taking responsibility anywhere else. Am I spending time with my son making sure he is happy, and noticing any changes? Am I teaching him the right values? Am I setting the right examples? Am I doing my best I can to leave him a world and society in which he can thrive when it’s his turn? As a parent, that I must take these responsibilities seriously. I need to set the right example for my son. I need to face him and say that not only am I not participate in the continued erosion of our Earth and society, but that I tried to make it a bit better. As a Society, how far do we need to sink before we start taking responsibility, when does it stop?
There is the aspect of BBI being a rough place, post at your own risk, and in that way, it is self-policing. I even said in my Op that if somebody trolls me, I will fire back, if somebody posts stupid, I will call bullshit. And I encourage that kind of self-policing, otherwise this place will get overwhelmed with stupid, it will lose part of the fun of the hard debate, and be plain boring. However, in this case I agree with fkap, I first opened that thread after about 2 hours. In fact, I saw when it was first created, but I knew just from the title what was going to happen. And the thread itself was exactly as I expected, it was a clear meltdown pretty much from the get go, the thread starter was getting lots of “help”, over, and over, and over again. Even when it was clear that the poster was not reacting well to the “help”, there was no shortage of more “help”. As Bill2 said, I knew I wasn’t in a position to know what the underlying issue was with the poster, and I was not in a position to provide real help. There was simply no benefit to be had by me spending time and posting on the thread.
To tie all this together with the sad and tragic news from Colorado, every time we participate in the disaffection of another human being, we inch a little bit closer to the next Columbine, Sandy Hook, or Parkland. Every time we abdicate responsibility, we allow another nibble on our collective soul, and help create an environment that enables the hate, enables loneliness, enables the corruption, enables the bullies, enables the anger, etc. Will my taking responsibility for my actions on BBI matter in Society as a whole. Probably not. You can criticize me for using the word tragic as a euphemism, but, the point is the little things in life matter, doing lots of little things right eventually adds up to something much bigger, doing them wrong eventually leads to bad results, sometimes tragic results.
I will not participate in a mob culture of hanging up on people. However, again as I and others have said I do not consider that thread a mob attack. Being a chat forum, I will post when I feel like posting saying what I want to say (which is not necessarily part of a mob because I am part of the majority opinion). If I want to try to “help” someone I disagree with I will do so without worrying about those who are on a higher moral plain than me disagreeing and passing judgment.
In my OP I stated that I would not participate in the mob culture of ganging up on some posters. I also asked who else was willing to say the same.
I'm with you. Once the crowd moves in I back away.
That wasn't always the case. In my early years of message boarding I would seek out stupid posts from stupid posters to shred them apart.
I am still a wise ass from time to time but for the most part I keep it focused on the guys who can handle it.
There should be a personal responsibility to deliver material that is worth contributing. There should be a personal responsibility to not create multiple usernames with the intention of trolling a board until banned and then repeat. Those two things alone would elevate the level of discourse
IMO, the tie to Colorado here is misguided. That shooter was a bully. He would whisper into student's ears that he was going to start shooting when pencils hit the floor and then throw pencils on the floor to scare them. He wasn't bullied to the point of snapping or disaffected by other's rebuke. Same with the shooter in Charlotte.
One can be reflective in the wake of tragic events, but let's not pretend that the actions on a thread where a poster self-destructed is a microcosm of anything.
No amount of these threads will ever change that.
No amount of these threads will ever change that.
One could say that goes for any message board. Footles.
Quote:
that being a big shot on BBI or any other site that people frequent is a very big deal to some people. It's curious but it's reality.
No amount of these threads will ever change that.
One could say that goes for any message board. Footles.
May '19. Interesting choice to weigh in on this thread.