Thread "hall monitors" are tiresome.

Don't you think?

Are you going to tell the principal on me?

:shrug:

500 threads on Topic X.

500 more holier-than-thou threads bemoaning the Topic X threads.

yes - there are as many complaint threads in the lounge as there are topic-related threads. weird.

It's 286 of one, maybe 30 of the other.

So...mayhap the 30 have a point.

Mayhap they sound a little like Delay "I know best for everybody."

Because I don't appreciate the 290 TS threads - yes, it is 290 now - I have tonight been compared to Tom DeLay, called a hall monitor, been told I am an insensitive, egotistical censor.

290 threads. 290 chances to speak your mind. 290 chances to get waaaay up on the high horse and compare other people to Tom Delay.

290 is a magic number.

People want to talk about it right now, let 'em talk about it. What's the big deal? It's a messageboard.

What's in the newspapers and on tv news drives what people want to talk about. I hate to see people chastised for starting another thread about what is clearly topical. It just feels wrong on a board as big as DU is.

Will, I don't really think you're like Tom Delay--I was being an ass. I admire you very much, but I just feel like people are being slapped for wanting to talk about the Schiavo case. They see things on TV, hear things on the radio, have conversations with family members. It's what people are talking about right now. And so they start a thread.

Week before last people wanted to talk incessantly about Gannon/Guckert and other people were bitching about that. Now you can't really find a thread about it.

The thing about Delay was uncalled for--you are right about that.

Lex

First of all, I'm a little wound up because I have been called all those names tonight. Thanks for your apology, by the way; it was that DeLay quip that really set my teeth on edge.

So let me be clear: If there were 296 current threads on *anything*, I'd be asking wtf is going on. I just happened to get wild about the 296 dead girl threads.

The reason: I live and die on information. I need to know all I can about 50 given things at any given time. That's part of my job; the other part is making it clear on paper. DU is, above all other places I've seen in the last four years, the best place on the planet to stay on top of what is happening.

So when 296 threads on one topic blow up all over the board, it makes my job harder, so I get a little annoyed. When I try to suggest that maybe 41 threads titled OMG, FRIST!!!11 or LOL, DeLAY!!!11 or GRRRRR getting posted in 20 minutes, thus blowing the protest news, World Bank news, Iraq news and all other subjects into left field, when that happens 296 times, I feel irk.

Great, great irk.

Someday I won't be an alternative journalist, and I won't have to be the best I can be at it because that's how we're going to shred the mainstreamers. These days, I have to care about it, I get paid to care about it, so being good at it is the only option.

DU makes that possible, except when 296...well, you get the idea.

:)

On edit: I don't think I am the only one who uses DU the way I do, not by a long shot. If you check the ATA forum, I am very much not alone. So it begs the question: Are people like me being unfair to those who post all these TS threads, or are they being unfair to us?

Yes, those drive me crazy too and I can't stand them.

And too, I see your point that some who read & post here make their living from getting accurate information quickly and much information does exist here at DU.

On the other hand, good information can be buried 200 posts down in a thread too, which would be quite hard to see as well.

There is no easy answer, but I do see your points.

Yikes it's 2am!

Peace.

Lex

don't depend on the threads here to do their job. Sorry it affects your job, but.....just wait, anything like this dies down after a while.

Meanwhile there's always LBN and GD: Politics doesn't seem as Terri-ridden.

I figure there are two reasons the Repubs are pushing this topic in such an over-the-top way:

1. Distraction, distraction, distraction ! And if we have that many threads on this Florida family tragedy sopping up the oxygen here at DU, imagine what is in the daily discourse elsewhere. Anti-Iraq war protests? The wonderful new policy that pre-emptive invasions are now officially OK? Bolton being sent to undermine the UN? All those other vitally important bits of REAL news? Nope! I'm sure the Rethugs are congratulating themselves on Mission Accomplished for real on this one. Wonder what the next distraction will be? They've been real soul-uplifting so far -- The Michael Jackson trial, the baseball steroids furore, and now this pitched screaming over a private family matter. Bread and circuses.

2. Sneaking something into TS case-boosted legislation to undermine abortion rights -- What these guys are about is feeding their RW fundie allies with anti-abortion legislation. We need to look very carefully at anything they try to rush into law, because like the Patriot Act, we can bet they will be trying to pass a bill which will include, buried deep so it takes a while to find it, some precedent-setting legal language they can use to argue against a right to abortion. This is my opinion, but doesn't it make sense? Just listen to them ranting about "right to life" and "innocent life" and all that. Those are favorite buzzwords, and they aren't for poor, dead Terry Schiavo. After all, how many cases like that are there? No, they are after bigger game and just whipping up emotion on this case so they can sneak through rushed legislation on what they REALLY want. Watch for it. Sooner or later it will come.

I'm with WIll on this.

Besides, with so many TS threads already going, why do so many people want to post their OWN new thread? Why not join one of the 300 ongoing discussions on the same topic? There is a very great deal of pointless duplication on that topic, in my opinion. Flame away if you want, but that's what I think.