Smart Alecks on the Forums

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Welcome to the Leverguns.Com General Discussions Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here other than politics... politely.

Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
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Hobie
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Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Hobie »

Hipowers and Handguns has some thoughts on the subject. Glad to say this is one of the better places to be.
Sincerely,

Hobie

"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend." Robert Louis Stevenson
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by vancelw »

Ouch.

Reverend, you done quit preaching and went to meddling. :D
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by O.S.O.K. »

Good one Hobie - exactly what I was trying to get at with my earlier post that drew so much ire....

And this is not anything near "good natured ribbing", which is entirely different IMHO.

This excerpt was spot-on IMHO:

[Example: "I only own a XYZ caliber handgun and cannot afford another at the present time. It is my sole option for self-protection. What would be the best ammunition or load?" Some will offer different answers pertaining to specific loads in that caliber that they believe to be best in XYZ caliber and answers will probably be differ; in my view, that is fine. Hopefully, with the information presented, the original poster can read and maybe make a better decision than before. However, there will be some "genius" posting tripe like, "XYZ sucks. Get ABC caliber. 'nuff said."]

The other piont about "trolls" - those making inflamitory comments to incite a response is also very salient and the point about not responding to the BS is valid and something I should remember in the future - but it can be hard at times ;) These folk are often afraid of their own shadows you know :P Don't respond! :lol:
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by rjohns94 »

Isn't there a troll season? instead of feeding the troll, just ...... just saying! :wink:
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by vancelw »

rjohns94 wrote:Isn't there a troll season? instead of feeding the troll, just ...... just saying! :wink:

There's no guns allowed in DC. You have to wait for them to wander off the res.

Drat. Now Hobie has to move this to the politics section. :oops:
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by awp101 »

vancelw wrote:
rjohns94 wrote:Isn't there a troll season? instead of feeding the troll, just ...... just saying! :wink:

There's no guns allowed in DC. You have to wait for them to wander off the res.

Drat. Now Hobie has to move this to the politics section. :oops:
:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by 76/444 »

Yup!

BIG pet peeve of mine!!!

When a poster has a specific question and everyone come in with info every which way from sunday without touching upon the subject,.... man that tweaks me!!!

And as many times as I have been tweaked here,... my guess is this happens at least 50% of the time with such questioning posts!!!
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by JReed »

I like it. :D
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Griff »

Thanks, Hobie. Since you haven't PM'd me that I'm a culprit... I'll just say that I get most all of my "inner troll" outta my system over on the SASS Wire.

Sometimes, we just have to let go of a thing, and not get ourselves embroiled in semantics and personal points of view. Now, if only I can put that into practice.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by COSteve »

Yep, I've seen it way too often. In fact, that is the reason I stopped frequenting Glocktalk and some other sites a few years ago. I just got fed up with some of the protected members (read: paying advertisers) ganging up on the newbies who simply were trying to find out some information. It bothered me so much that I complained to Eric in a private email. His reply was to mind my own business and stop correcting the members who were rude to the newbies. That's when I packed up and left.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by stretch »

I just can't help being a little bit of a wise guy.

It's just a forum and it's all in fun.

That said, I don't put people down for the fun of it.

(Except, of course, for the folks who insist on the 30-30 in
a Marlin rifle instead of a 35 Remington..... :lol: )

That's a joke - a JOKE!! (EEEAAZZZZYYYY boys...)

Anyway, this IS a good forum. The tone is about right,
the moderators by and large do a GREAT job. The people
on this forum are a genuinely helpful bunch, whether the topic
is leverguns, marriages, vehicle woes, or a death in the family.
That's something that's not seen on every forum. Disagreements?
Sure! But the overwhelming majority of debates here are conducted
in a gentlemanly fashion.

Don't anybody take themselves too seriously. After all, no one here gets
out alive.

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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Boreman »

Hobie,
EXCELLENT article.Well said is well done.
Might I suggest making it a sticky and use it as a reminder from time to time for all of us. Thanks !!!!!!!!
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Hobie »

Well, there's the kidder and then...
Sincerely,

Hobie

"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend." Robert Louis Stevenson
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Gary »

I've seen someone's case jumped on forums for "not using the search function". "That subject has already been discussed!" ... and such.

People here a very civil and patient.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Blaine »

:wink: Unless, of course, you post political in the general section..... :|
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by awp101 »

stretch wrote:Don't anybody take themselves too seriously. After all, no one here gets out alive.
Yep, life's too short to get wrapped up in one's own self IMO.

Five to one, baby
One in five
No one here gets out alive

Hobie wrote:Well, there's the kidder and then...
Guilty as charged! :mrgreen: Everyone needs a laugh now and then. I've always said I don't care if you're laughing with me or AT me, as long as you're laughing. The koala joke should be proof of that... :lol:
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by CowboyTutt »

AWP, I've been running around my school district with that Koala joke. I liked it! Thanks! :lol:

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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by bdhold »

has to be room for a little bit of that stuff - there's a little class clown in all of us, and we're here for entertainment. Not everybody is sees entertainment the same way. Don't feed the trolls is an excellent philosophy.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by L_Kilkenny »

bulldog1935 wrote:has to be room for a little bit of that stuff - there's a little class clown in all of us, and we're here for entertainment. Not everybody is sees entertainment the same way. Don't feed the trolls is an excellent philosophy.
Agreed......All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Can you imagine how boring a site would be if we all gave straight forward answers without one line wise cracks and some good natured ribbing (sometimes not so good natured too).

But generally I don't think he was refering to this site, always pretty good around here. He musta been talking about The Firing Line though!!

LK
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by bdhold »

fair enough - not familiar with it.
I've certainly been on sites where I didn't stay long because of the trolls.
The best sites I know of either don't need moderating because of the caliber of members, or are moderated by a well-organized and fairly large group who discuss everything on a private forum page before they act on it. But they do act and firmly.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Swampman »

For most people anyone who doesn't agree with the latest slick paged magazine (and them) is a troll.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by FWiedner »

While this is a religious stronghold, it is not a catholic school.

I'm in agreement that there's no reason to respond in a hostile manner to a proper question, and that there's no reason to mistreat a newbie or any other member poorly just for asking.

But what are we suggesting here? Men will have conversations, and conversations frequently take tangents and invite veins of alternative thought.

Should a man have to raise his hand to beg permission to speak and then pray that his words are fit to fall on the ears of the Holy Elders lest he be whipped?

Will we begin to filter all posts through one or two Holy "deciders" who will choose what posts are worded correctly or posted in a pure spirit and proper attitude?

:shock:
Government office attracts the power-mad, yet it's people who just want to be left alone to live life on their own terms who are considered dangerous.

History teaches that it's a small window in which people can fight back before it is too dangerous to fight back.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by bdhold »

The way I see it, I'm a guest here of whoever is paying for the site, and they make the rules.
I can't always be understood on a forum, because its not a conversation and I can't write inflections of my voice. I can add smiles, but even they may not mean the same thing to the person who's reading it as they do to the person who's writing it - me.
If I'm misunderstood and deleted, I'll decide whether it's worth going or staying, but I won't hold it against the guy who is just doing his best.
I can tell you I don't post on many forums where "post free or die" is the rule of the day.

And if I decide to leave, I'm not narcissistic enough to post about it on the board before I go.
I guess my ex wife was narcissistic enough for both of us.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by AJMD429 »

Here's a rule adapted from what we try to do in the office...

In the office, I advise our young healthy staff to try to imagine that each 'demanding' phone call or 'obnoxious' patient is in fact their own grandmother, who's just found out she had an abnormal mammogram that could be a cancer, or a husband who is dealing with his beloved wife's onset of Altzeheimer's, or parent who has a daughter who got raped after school a month ago and may have herpes. In other words - BE CONSIDERATE...!

Those people aren't going to necessarily be understanding about a $20 co-pay, or a delay in getting test results due to some insurance 'approval' process. THINK ABOUT THINGS FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE.

It's not all the much different in 'regular' life - including 'Leverguns' posts...

If someone asks a 'stupid' question, what would you say if it were your young nephew who was trying to make a 'turn' in life, and get into something positive like hunting or whatever instead of video games and drug dealing? What if it was YOUR daughter who had no 'clue' about one gun vs. another, but had finally worked up the courage to ask a question to a panel of 'forum' members...?

I'll close with an example from my practice some 20 years ago: I'd spent a horrible Friday afternoon dealing with a young girl who'd come in for "abdominal pain" and when back and alone with me, tearfully told me she'd been raped a couple weeks ago after school. She'd not told her mother, who was in the waiting room, and she was so young she'd never had a pelvic exam. SO... She needs an exam, lots of TLC, and I can't even take the "easy way out" and send her to the ER for a "Rape exam" because it's too late for evidence to be useful as far as all that stuff. Plus, she's been my patient for years, and I don't want to send her into the cold, heartless 'system' in what could be the worst time of her life. SO... I have my nusre call her mom back, and get the two of them on the same page, so the mom will understand all we have to do exam-wise and so on. This ties up my nurse, and I 'borrow' my partner's nurse, and see a couple patients while they're getting set up for this poor kid's first - and awful - introduction to 'womanhood' in terms of medical interaction.

A couple hours later, I walk in to another woman's appointment for her blood pressure or whatever, and on entering the room apologize for being so late (probably 90 minutes). She responds not with a polite "that's ok" , but with a scathing diatribe on how doctors "don't appreciate what patient's time is worth", and I politely listen, then say again, "I'm really sorry, but now that I am here for you, what can I do for you...?". She doesn't respond by getting to HER issues, but rather by another 5-minute diatribe. As I sit there and realize that I've probably sacrificed my entire day's pay by spending so much unreimbursed time with that girl, and that although I spent time which may help her deal with this trauma better and have a far better life later on, this selfish patient is so bothered by my 'running late' that she won't get home early enough or go shopping or whatever, that I decided I'd had it...

My ONLY comment to her was "Ma'am, I hope that if YOUR daughter is ever raped, and she finally gets the courage up to tell her physician, that instead of dealing with it compassionately, he blows her off so he can keep on schedule so as not to inconvenience his other patients." I then said "I think you'd be more comfortable with that kind of doctor." and walked out of the room.

I was young, and the thought of 'firing' a patient hadn't ever entered my mind, but I just knew that I couldn't be in the room much longer without choking this watch-checking and selfish woman who was so important in her own mind that waiting an hour or so to get HER needs met was too inconvenient. What a sense of relief as I just went to the next, and thankful, patient, to try to deal with whatever ailed him/her.

The reason I relate that story is because we ALL need to realize that our shallow and selfish little world isn't all that important, and that someone who brings up a 'silly' question may be someone we can help, whether or not it 'inconveniences' the rest of us.

If you can't help others, you need to 'get a life'...the world doesn't revolve around ANY of us.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Bill_Rights »

Note to Griff:

We know what you meant when you said:
I'll just say that I get most all of my "inner troll" outta my system over on the SASS Wire.
but you are not a troll, inner, outer, over at SASS or otherwise. You are a true gun lover and a regular guy.

The technical definition of a troll is someone who hides or disguises himself as a gun lover but lures or provokes others on the forum to write things that reflect poorly on gun owners. Trolls are legalistic weenies who think that, if they can get you to write something angry or anti-government or homicidal-sounding, then they can (in their wildest dreams) use that as evidence, in a court case or in a Congressional hearing or something, as to why all guns should be banned. There is little doubt that anti-gun groups, like the Brady Campaign, have part-time volunteers who read gun forums and copy-and-paste into files some of the weirder, off the wall things we write. They think they are "building a case" that amateurs are simply too crazy and immature to keep and bear arms. Only professionals paid and controlled by the government should be allowed access to guns. Least, that's what they think. They are called "trolls" in our slang, by similarity to the fairy tale trolls who hide under bridges and lure unsuspecting travelers to their death with sweet songs or woeful cries for help. Got it? YOU'RE NO TROLL, my man!
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Old Savage »

Griff was kind of kidding there. He has no conception that he is a troll.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by dr walker »

Hobie, Cool blog. Thanks or sharing that link. I think I will be ordering one of his Hi-Power books this week.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by O.S.O.K. »

Look, this is real easy IMHO. Giving someone a good natured "hard time" is entirely different than insulting them or trying to make them feel like a fool with some admonishment.

Just have a little consideration for the poster - that's what this is about. And if you screw up (like we all do at some time or another) then just admit it and applogize like a man and move on.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by O.S.O.K. »

Bill_Rights wrote:Note to Griff:

We know what you meant when you said:
I'll just say that I get most all of my "inner troll" outta my system over on the SASS Wire.
but you are not a troll, inner, outer, over at SASS or otherwise. You are a true gun lover and a regular guy.

The technical definition of a troll is someone who hides or disguises himself as a gun lover but lures or provokes others on the forum to write things that reflect poorly on gun owners. Trolls are legalistic weenies who think that, if they can get you to write something angry or anti-government or homicidal-sounding, then they can (in their wildest dreams) use that as evidence, in a court case or in a Congressional hearing or something, as to why all guns should be banned. There is little doubt that anti-gun groups, like the Brady Campaign, have part-time volunteers who read gun forums and copy-and-paste into files some of the weirder, off the wall things we write. They think they are "building a case" that amateurs are simply too crazy and immature to keep and bear arms. Only professionals paid and controlled by the government should be allowed access to guns. Least, that's what they think. They are called "trolls" in our slang, by similarity to the fairy tale trolls who hide under bridges and lure unsuspecting travelers to their death with sweet songs or woeful cries for help. Got it? YOU'RE NO TROLL, my man!
That's just one kind of troll. A particularly evil kind. Another kind is the one that types stuff designed purely to get a reaction, regardless of pro or anti gun sentiment - and it is evidenced by the lack of any kind of real attempt to back up or explain the remarks.
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Re: Smart Alecks on the Forums

Post by Charles »

My pet peeve about answers to newbe questions is the fellow that takes the opportunity to show off how much he knows on the subject and flood the newbe with information not needed or requested. The poor newbe had one question and after the answer had twenty more.
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