Er in fairness to Wolfram, the "400 lurkers who agree with me" thing was a joke on his part. I'm pretty sure it was a riff on a joke that started in another thread, but I can't remember which.

I can see I'm in the super-minority on this issue, (except for about 400 lurkers who secretly agree with me).

This statement pisses me off. Not because I think you're necessarilly wrong, but because it is, by definition, unprovable. "The will of the people," indeed!

Alas poor Sarcasm, I knew him well.

I can see I'm in the super-minority on this issue, (except for about 400 lurkers who secretly agree with me).

This statement pisses me off. Not because I think you're necessarilly wrong, but because it is, by definition, unprovable. "The will of the people," indeed!

FWIW, I don't think the lurkers comment was meant to be taken seriously.

Doblerize folks!

edit: The ever difficult triple x-post

So, this is the Beat Everyone To Death With Your Plan Until They Agree? Very uncool.

Okay Steph, don't think I went quite that far. It seemed more like BEAT THE ONE PERSON WHO DARED DISAGREE WITH THE GROUP UNTIL HE CRIED LIKE A LITTLE GIRL plan. Which is cool in some contexts.

Whew.

It seemed more like BEAT THE ONE PERSON WHO DARED DISAGREE WITH THE GROUP UNTIL HE CRIED LIKE A LITTLE GIRL plan.

You wanted reasons, we gave you reasons.

You wanted reasons, we gave you reasons.

Touche.

I'm sorry people got offended, it wasn't mean that way. Thanks to the people who Doblerized. However, I make no apologies for snarkiness.

Hello! This is your friendly neighborhood Valium Dispenser.

Let us all partake and go play elsewhere until we cans top using all capital letters like apoplectic children. That only needs to be, like, 20 minutes, but I know a lot of people who would like it to be a lot longer.

Moreover, let us strive to cut out the nastiness, please? It's got no place in Bureaucracy nor among the Buffistas generally.

First, I would like to say, Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Not "Shush" - just bring down the volume.

For me, and a lot of people, the best operative metaphor for the Buffistas is a large cocktail party. Sometimes you talk in the corners, but you mix and mingle, and you welcome people. You talk about serious things but if it upsets people you politely change the subject. It's witty and fun and that's the way it works best. Historically.

Voting: We used to just vote and use Mr. Poll to name the threads. So, I think voting is just like "Quick show of hands! We have to make a run to the Liquor Barn. Do we want to get Tequila or Scotch?" Still part of the cocktail party, an idea to get preferences, and most importantly all about keeping the cocktail party going.

Culturally, I don't think we want government. Even though it might solve this particular issue. This particular issue isn't so big that we want to throw out the cocktail party. The cocktail party is the point.

We only want solutions that foster the cocktail party. If everybody's yelling at each other and wants to leave the party - then something's wrong.

I just want to keep some of these ideas up front in the discussion.

Look, proposing Big Changes is always difficult. Back in the day, when a separate thread for natter was first proposed, it was met with a resounding chorus of HELL NO. I imagine the original proposer felt piled-upon. Later, it seemed like a good idea. And here we are.