will someone hold Jon B in contempt, he won't swear. my next proposal is that the pinky-swear be the official "swear" technique on the board.

oh well, thanks.

I took a look back at discussiona nd I can;t find anything that was policy oriented. I'll ask tina.

#6 was not withdrawn - it was defeated.

I think this was a good and useful discussion to have, and I'm glad that it isn't coming to a vote (and also glad that the discussion is remaining open to those of us who weren't around yesterday). FWIW, I'm not real fond of the sockpuppets, and I generally side with those who find them disruptive and in-jokey. I think that establishing a community standard (or whatever we're calling it) that encourages people to identify themselves in their profile would go a long way towards alleviating my dislike of the sockpuppets, and would also--at least for me--make them easier to ignore if they were annoying me.

It was in discussion of #6 that we worked up the idea (okay, I worked it up) that you could withdraw a proposal with no consequences and no moratorium, I think. Or, sometime soon after that.

It involved tongue-waggling.

It involved tongue-waggling.

Would you care to demonstrate?

I have been on this board for I don't even know how many years, since TT for sure. I'm not the most active poster because Real Life just flat out gets in the way. But, I do lurk on a very regular basis (don't tell my boss, but it's every day!).

That being said, I sit here floored that people are upset by the in-jokeyness of sockpuppets. I can't even count the number of in-jokes on this board. Are people upset because they're not in on the sockpuppet joke? There are so many jokes on this board that go over my head that if I got upset by all of them, I'd have been gone long ago. Just because I don't get the joke doesn't mean that the joke is ultimately on me. And, that's what it seems like people are upset about. I don't mean that's the only thing they're upset about, but that seems to be the crux of the in-joke argument.

I'm also floored by the idea that we don't have to be careful about what we say on this board. Often, I don't post because I don't have the time for a carefully thought out post over the course of a busy day. And, I know that I need time to think about what I'm going to write so that I won't piss people off. Also, many of the discussions around here of late have been precisely because someone posted something that pissed off someone else.

I don't remember who posted this upthread, but it was something about not wanting posters to feel as if they had to walk on eggshells around here. I think that's precisely the culture we already have.

Frankly, I thought about this post for a good hour before writing it and am still trepidatious about actually hitting the Post message button. If I've just used up what limited social capital I have, then so be it, but this was just too much for me to ignore.

I am tired of the term "social capital," and the fact that people have to care how much they have, and how much they will lose by expressing their opinions.

ChiKat, thanks for sharing your opinion. Sorry you were trepidatious.

I am tired of cilantro. And yet, it exists.

I am tired of the term "social capital," and the fact that people have to care how much they have, and how much they will lose by expressing their opinions.

The internet didn't invent social capital. The internet didn't invent biting your tongue, or knowing you're shooting yourself socially in the foot. The internet didn't invent knowing people well enough to take things on trust. The internet didn't invent being wary of strangers.

And neither did we.

You can excise the term from your vocab if you like. Like cilantro, it'll still exist. You trade in it every day, just by being around. And sometimes by not being around.