Post Carefully!

My latest few replies here at ATS have reminded me WHY I didn't post that often to begin with...

My sig says "Opinions are like a*ssholes, everyone has one." I'm a firm believer in this. I specifically started posting here again to express my opinions, no matter how convoluted or unsubstantiated they were. That's the best part of an opinion! It's your own personal belief on a matter and it doesn't have to have solutions, it's just supposed to make you think! (And feel better of course). I've noticed that every time I post, if I don’t have 50 links to pictures, articles, news-links, or famous revolutionary quotes, my posts get questioned. It's kind of frustrating. If something sucks, can I not just say "this really sucks?" without someone saying "Why does it suck? Substantiate your claim of it sucking with photographic evidence and pictures of famous dictators!! It's the NWO and you dont know what you are talking about!" This is frustrating to me and I’ve been a long time member. I can only imagine how frustrating this is to new members. Am I going to never post again? NO! I love this place and will continue to express my opinions...but GOOD GOD there are some SERIOUS people on here that demand evidence for anything you may say! I feel better now, Rant over.

Cheers

reply to post by drink2forget


Picture's or it didn't happen!
2nd line

do you have any evidence to back your story up

Originally posted by audio assasin
do you have any evidence to back your story up

*Scrambles to post pictures of Ben Franklin or a link for a crappy Rage against the machine song*
So far this thread has actually made me laugh out loud. (LOL, if you will).

What are you talking about? Are you mad? What are your factual reasons for your opinion? Where are your stats?
How very dare you have an opinion!

For example-

Post: "The Weather in Minneapolis is really cold.."

Reply: "No it's not. Prove it. Our founding fathers never intended on Minneapolis being really cold. This is in direct corelation with the Reptilians from the planet Dooshnozel!"

Post: "Perhaps it's just a really cold city."

"PROVE THAT IT'S NOT THE DOOSHTILIANS!"

reply to post by drink2forget


Dooshtilians would not like your tone.....May I suggest editing your post?
They are a touchy group.

u mad or sumthin?

Just kidding, i feel ya though, its just the nature of some people here. Some people are just Star and Flag whores, i mean, every big thread has an opener, then another post, discussing their opinions, which i find is just straight attention whoring, so they get double the stars, how #ing stupid is that?

Originally posted by doom27
u mad or sumthin?

Just kidding, i feel ya though, its just the nature of some people here. Some people are just Star and Flag whores, i mean, every big thread has an opener, then another post, discussing their opinions, which i find is just straight attention whoring, so they get double the stars, how #ing stupid is that?

I am far from mad. I'm just remembering why I didn't post all that much when I joined years ago. It's only a matter of time before one of our more...pretentious members... has to turn an idea into a battle. This is one of the most entertaining forums on the internet. But it's a very hard forum to post too because of all the ideas and people STRONG opinions on having to be right, no matter what. From here on out, these members will only be refered too as a... Dooshtillian.

My opinion D2F is that proof is for those who want to believe. This or that or whatever, the desire to believe sends us down a street lined with hawkers and barkers, salesmen and con-men,hustlers and preachers, all offering their wares for a price. Our minds.

At times I feel that belief is nothing more than falling in love with ones own opinions. Guilty as accused.
I prefer opinions. In opinions there is freedom, in beliefs, chains, wrapped in the pretty paper of illusion.

But then again, that is just my opinion.

reply to post by TerryMcGuire


Couldn't have said it better myself! Great post there stud!

You say opinions are like assholes- everybody has one... The influence is that having a opinion is a negative thing...
Okay, opinions are like brains, everybody has one! The influence now changes that anyone with a single coherent free thought can give an opinion...
"I never post carefully. I speak my mind and while some may disagree with me at least they can rest assured that I mean what I say and stand by it with all my being..."

I love it when people post a well thought out opinion, especially when they provide their reasoning behind it. I guess I like to know people's philosophies because it helps me to gauge and expand on my own.

BUT, there is a difference between opinion and fact and my biggest beef by far is that people will often state their opinion as fact which carries the risk of misleading those who want to learn something about the topic (read "creating ignorance"). This is particularly prevalent in technical discussions here. This is a recent real life example:

Someone posted "GPS devices transmit their location to the satellites so its a risk that the government can track you."
This is stated as fact but it is actually false and was posted by someone claiming to be a military communications technician. A more appropriate post could have been:

"I heard from so and so that GPS devices transmit their location to the satellites so it might be a risk that the government can track you."

The truth is that although it makes intuitive sense that GPS units transmit to the satellite constellation in order to acquire a fix they do not. In fact there are no components on board a GPS receiver that are capable of transmitting back to the satellites.

So, my opinion is that if you are stating something as fact you probably want to be able to back it up by making sure it is something factual before it is posted. This provides a higher quality of information for the readers and has the added benefit of keeping egg off of your face (because If I'm reading the thread I will call you on it). Personally I check my facts before posting because I appreciate having a reputation for posting reliable information. With today's online resources its really not difficult to find supporting material.

reply to post by drink2forget


67
If by stud, you meant me, then thanks and see you around.

1) Not everyone has an opinion. Mature minds are perfectly capable of saying "I am not qualified to judge that. I do not have enough data on the subject." For instance, I have no freakin' clue as to what is going on with UFOs other than "something weird is probably going on in the sky" and even that's as general as possible.

2) One of the worst ideas to ever gain common currency in the marketplace of ideas is that "everyone is entitled to their opinion". NO. NO THEY ARE NOT. Everyone is entitled to an _educated_ opinion, and then _only_ if they are willing to change that opinion in the face of evidence. If they aren't, they don't have an opinion, they have a... *bleh*... a belief. Which, in my opinion, should be considered a swear word.

3) If you make claims about how things are, particularly when those claims are contrary to the accepted paradigm of reality, you damned well better be providing evidence. "Proof" is a stupid concept that holds no use in these conversations, but _evidence_ is important. eg. If you're telling me that Lizardfolk have taken over human political structures, you'd better provide a more convincing argument than "Just look at "V"! And this frame full of video artifacts!".

Finally, 4) You're right in that there're just as many knee-jerk, closed-minded "skeptics" as there are knee-jerk, closed-minded "believers". In reality, they have exactly the same damned mentality: "I really really REALLY feel like this is true. Until you can land a spaceship in my back yard/duplicate every single reported UFO sighting with conventional "science" [they're always gonna put quotes around science], I'm going to call you a liar." It's bull#e however it's expressed.

Seek to have _fewer_ opinions in general and actively seek out evidence that contradicts those you have. Otherwise you're a cosmic jackass.

I am now a huge fan of the term, "cosmic jackass." Still finding an absurd amount of pretension here lately.
I find it difficult to add to any pre-existing posts unless i'm either 100% certain I know everything about the topic...Or i've spent hours researching it on the internet. Either way, it gets frustrating to me. Thus, my rant.Will it change the way I post and what I post? Probably not, it's a forum for gods sake.

I hear what you're sayin

And it's not just here, it's all over the net.

I am Old Skool, been on the net since forever, and I remember when only SMART people participated. You had to be, had to practically be a programmer to understand it.

And then it got easier. Much easier. Now, every moron in the universe is on it!

Speaking of opinions - people get WAAAAAY too bent out of shape also. A hypothetical situation: I could say - "I'm not a cat person, I am allergic."

And here comes the "dogpile" LOL

HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT??!!!111!!!!! Are you calling me a Lesbian? I am NOT some Crazy Old Cat Lady you know!!!!!

HOW DARE YOU DIS THE GLBT community and Senior Citizens with your HATRED of cats YOU MONSTER!!!! I am reporting you to the ASPCA and ACLU RIGHT NOW YOU MONSTER!!!!1111!!!!!

But hey - ignore what I said - take it personally - get all bent out of shape - and literally go into a RAGE.

I guess that's what teh innernets is all about now LOL.

I just try to laugh it off and seek out the intelligent discourse.

Hang in there Friend

reply to post by drink2forget


I'm not understanding why you would want to post something that may be false and believe that people want to read something that you only think is truthful. I don't understand how you believe that posting something false is contributing positively to a thread. Could you explain. Please understand, I'm not talking about an opinion. I'm speaking about stating things as established fact.