One of the things "we", and by we I am speaking only for myself, but maybe for others, is that posting links to other people's posts and commenting on them (e.g. Clown of the Day) causes them to get really pissed off and show up on the thread ready to rumble and complain to SI Administration and then people get warned and suspended and so on and so forth. Which is kind of a drag because it's really fun to talk behind people's backs, and I am not joking about that, it really is fun, even though it's not nice to admit it. What seems to work better because it is more under the radar, so to speak, is to post the link without comment and then let other people make fun of the post. It's not like this is a rule or anything, it's just a personal observation.
This thread has a lot more lurkers than most people realize, and a few of them are hostile. We have more credibility and as a result of that, more slack, because we are in a bear market. But slack is one of those things that is always subject to change.
I wish that SI would allow free speech, really. I enjoy the free clash of ideas, the constant jockeying for position, the struggle for supremacy, even when it gets vile. But the truth is that it does try to sanitize things, and there's a lot to be said for that, too. We can talk about real ideas without having to deal with morons who spout frivolities. |
