I hate that thing people do

[Julian Karswell]

I hate that thing people do on message boards:

"Discuss."

You know what I mean, when someone assumes the role of unelected teacher, and instead of thoughtfully offering up a topic for debate or comment, they sit back in smug self-satisfaction after issuing the somewhat arrogant instruction:

"Discuss."

No, I won't "discuss", on a point of principle (the principle being that I dislike being patronised). The speaker should woo and entice me to respond by posting something amusing, interesting or provocative. It should be a delicate courtship based upon courtesy and humility, not some hectoring demand.

What do other people think?

Discuss, damn it!

JK

[Judge Holden]

I hate it too. All that it accomplishes is insuring that I won't discuss. It's been my experience that the person who assumes such airs of didactic authority is all too often an idiot.

[Caligari]

Perhaps it serves as compensation for material that the poster somehow knows is insufficient on its own. Smacks of posting just for the sake getting their post count up.

I have now found myself going back over my posts (though they are few) to see if I've done the same...

It would seem, then, that this mistake could be made with the best of intentions...I didn't mean to, honest!

[Judge Holden]

Caligari, I'm a newcomer here, and I've yet to see this sort of behaviour. I believe (hope) Mr. Karswell was talking about other forums and other places. I know a few where I've ran into precisely what he's talking about. Again, I've not seen that here at Ligotti Online.

[Odalisque]

What do other people think?

Discuss, damn it!

JK

No, I won't discuss it! Be off with you! :mad:

[Odalisque]

Actually, I think this thread is the first I've seen that asked me to discuss anything. Mind, I've only (ever) visited about a dozen Internet forums -- most of them but fleetingly. On only four (at least one of those now defunct) have I been a regular poster. Perhaps the ever-amiable Mr Karswell visits too many forums.

That does not constitute discussing this matter, something I will never do.

[Julian Karswell]

Caligari, I'm a newcomer here, and I've yet to see this sort of behaviour. I believe (hope) Mr. Karswell was talking about other forums and other places. I know a few where I've ran into precisely what he's talking about. Again, I've not seen that here at Ligotti Online.

You're quite right. The TLO appears to have thusfar escaped this pernicious internet arrogance.

JK

[mishima head]

I think Ive done what you describe. Thread starting can become addictive, if one is allowed to do it. But Im way outclassed intellectually on this board, so I'll just adopt the position of always just responding.

Give me an example, so I know what exactly you're talking about?

(my first post here was going to be in the spider thread, but oh well!)

[G. S. Carnivals]

I hate that thing people do
This thread might be expanded or diverted to deal with the annoying things that people do in general. In fact, that's what I expected before I read it. Change-jingling and public whistling always do me in. Both seem to occur when I'm stuck in a line somewhere. You may or may not discuss this. :p

[Julian Karswell]

Mobile phones. I hate it when you're in a queue or trying to have a discussion with someone and a third party is yakking loudly on the phone. I've even seen someone put a whole load of shopping through the till, expecting the cashier to also bag it up for them, and then just walk out afterwards without stopping talking or thanking the employee.

Another annoyance is lane-jumpers - people who keep switching lanes in queues on the motorway in the hope of gaining a few seconds off their journey time.

Policeman who lie in wait behind bushes with speed camera guns. When they jump out to zap your speed you could easily panic and swerve.

Arrogant egocentrics who sneer at you because you're walking around with noisy children, the sort of people who also grumble that "their" taxes pay for the education of "our" children. They seem to forget that they were children once, costing society an equivalent amount of money, and that "our" children will be changing "their" bedpans when they are old and infirm and have nobody to look after them.

People who do favours for you then loudly trumpet the fact to the world. They can be very annoying.

Oh, and people who sneeze loudly in public, and then study the contents of their tissue. I abhor the sound of someone expelling gluey mucus through their nose but some people who do it seem to think that it's perfectly acceptable to make as much noise as possible.

Larry David: Will you please stop with the ####ing loud sneezing?

X: How dare you swear at me!

LD: How dare you make such a big display of emptying all of that gloopy snotty mucus gunk out of your great big nose when I'm trying to eat my ####ing dinner? You think we enjoy listening to it?

X: But you said the F word!

LD: And you've put me off my dinner with your sneezing! What are you, a ####ing elephant? I'm eating here.

[Looks down at bowl of eggplant dip. Pushes it aside.]

[mishima head]

ok my complaint is.. people who do not directly answer a legitimate question posed from someone outside their comfort group. .

[Julian Karswell]

Yes, they are almost as annoying as people who only join discussion groups to start arguments and stalk people, aren't they?

JK

[trieffiewiles]

OK, this may seem like its being thrown out just to contradict other opinions, but it isn't - people who try to pull around someone on the road and wind up driving 50 mph in the passing lane of a 70 mph highway should automatically have their license revoked for a year.

Better yet, I should be granted legal imunity, on such an occasion, to throw open my suicide doors and while leaning outside of my moving car next to the perpetrator of this situation, slash his tires with my hunting knife and watch him go flying, if there is no one else around at that moment. Hey, c'mon I just got back from work.

A more serious one might be this; someone sitting next to you in a bar when you're there by yourself watching a fight or something on their large television, and the person beside you is watching as well, only they obviously hate it because they won't cease with complaining about how stupid it is, or something of the sort. So why are they even there in that bar on a dead night, watching something they hate? Old and lonely I guess, perhaps I am just looking at my future.

Also something that only seems to happen in a bar for me. You're there chatting about random nonesense with a friend, one of you mentions a book, or a movie or cartoon, or a kind of music, and whatever that mentioned something is becomes the current focal point of that conversation. Some stranger overhears what you are discussing, and - intruding into an otherwise peaceful and private exchange, he or she doesn't ask a question, but says something like - see I don't like that, or god I hate that.

When I hear that I like to initially respond with I didn't ask you, and then follow it up with some derogatory comment about them, like their nose makes their face look small - and I'll have you know that I only use that example now because I have a big nose.

I hate it when you're very preoccupied trying to find someone or something in a very crowded public place, and are quite pressed for time, and really - one's body language should give off an obvious pheromone that reads - do not bother me, but some rude vacationing couple step right out in front of you and ask you to take their picture. I am not going to say how I responded to this.

[Odalisque]

Something that annoyed me today... Emerging from Leyton station around lunchtime today, I found a group of schoolchildren walking three abreast and, in doing so, occupying the entire width of pavement. Passing them involved me in colliding with one of their number, who was not prepared to shift in order to allow people to pass in the opposite direction. The collision with the solid body of a schoolchild hurt a little, but stepping out into the busy road in order to pass was likely to hurt a whole lot more. :mad:

[trieffiewiles]

Something that annoyed me today... Emerging from Leyton station around lunchtime today, I found a group of schoolchildren walking three abreast and, in doing so, occupying the entire width of pavement. Passing them involved me in colliding with one of their number, who was not prepared to shift in order to allow people to pass in the opposite direction. The collision with the solid body of a schoolchild hurt a little, but stepping out into the busy road in order to pass was likely to hurt a whole lot more. :mad:

Funny, this makes me remember something, I have a friend who is a mail carrier, and to his defense that can be a pretty stressful job. Nevertheless, I cannot believe he did what what I am about to describe, as he is usually quite pacifistic, if one can look past him owning an AR-15, but that's an entire other monologue onto itself.

Anyway, he's driving along in his mailcar on Ingersoll, one of the busier streets in a relatively nice part of Des Moines, where he works, so there are a lot of well off people biking, running, and walking their dogs and the like. Up ahead of him he sees 4 joggers doing what you described- while jogging doing so side-by-side-so on, while approaching him as he is driving in a crowded street no less. Well, he was in the farthest lane to the right so he didn't move, in fact he started going faster as he neared them, and at the last moment they all jumped out of the road and into a group of kids.

If it weren't for the fact that his incident occurred right next to a group of kids, I would have congratulated him, but even I have principles, though I certainly wouldn't make a good parent. He thinks he'd be great, I am not so sure though.

[mishima head]

Yes, they are almost as annoying as people who only join discussion groups to start arguments and stalk people, aren't they?

JK

huh? clarification of deliberate obfuscation of facts urgently requested..thanks.