Sorry Linda...nothing personal, just using your thread to insert my final 2›.
In my first post to this board, I opined that S.I. management was doing you all a disservice by allowing free trial memberships. After reading the ensuing dialogue on the subject, and having felt the sting of several posters here, I'm forced to conclude that I was wrong.
I've noted how selectively values are applied here. For example, during my exchange with Alomex, I committed the terrible faux pas of being mistaken about a date (apparently a major crime), and listened to the howls of protests and calls for an apology from me (which had already been posted). Yet, not one poster objected to his use of a vulgarity on the board. I have yet to see any one of the so-called visiting "slugs" match him in that dept. Back in the real world I come from, that's called hypocrisy. In here, I suppose it's simply called selective response.
I also said in my initial post, that I appreciated the generally civil tone of this board. But I've come to believe that I was wrong about that as well...as it isn't civility at all, but a kind of stodginess born of snobbery and the inbreeding of a closed society.
S.I. Apple has come to resemble a sort of Appalachian mountain community, where everyone knows everyone else and new ideas are beaten down as "alien." Nothing new gets in, and nothing new gets out. Oh sure, until recently you have had your two token "bears" to keep you all "honest." Nevermind that they haven't offered a worthwhile or original opinion in ages. They are there and you can antagonize one or the other whenever you're feeling cocky. It must be nice to feel so smug, especially for a crummy $125 bucks--the price of a decent dinner. The British Raj would be very proud of you all.
This would be funny if it wasn't taken so seriously by most of you. I've been at this racket longer than most of you. I have done well enough in this business to have retired at the age of 45. I am in a position to afford the luxury of doing anything I wish, from anyplace on earth I wish to do it. In short, it is not money that has kept me from paying for membership on S.I., but taste.
The simple fact is, that instead of discouraging people, this board should be screaming for new blood to come in here. If ever a group needed it, this is it. Because really, is there anyone among you that don't already know what the other thinks? Be honest. In a mere three months, I can predict the response from any regular poster on this board on any given subject. And so can you.
Some of you have expressed your most royal disdain for the great unwashed of the other boards...especially it seems, the Yahoo board, for which you reserve your greatest disdain. Yes, there are far more annoying posts to read through from slugs and idiots there. But with all it's faults, there is more vitality, more free exchanges of ideas, more passion, more differing points of view, greater freedom, and more tolerance, than I have ever seen on this board. S.I. Apple has become a society of snobs. And any re-reading of the posts you allow here, will reveal that to any of you who has managed to keep even a small portion of his/her mind open
Disharmony is the price a free society pays for freedom. And Yahoo far more accurately reflects this society in general, both good and bad, then anything S.I. offers. It is at least egalitarian in its approach, and democratic in its positions.
That said, I will slither back under my unwashed rock and leave you all to your incest. As Groucho said: "I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me for a member." |
