The Big Picture: Words for Nerds

goliath6711

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May 3, 2010
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EverythingIncredible said:
TheEnglishman said:
EverythingIncredible said:
I hate to say it, but you're doing it wrong.

I get that this is kind of your job right now. But you need to stop taking the internet culture so seriously. It's not meant to be taken seriously. Everything here is in good fun. Even if it can appear mean spirited to certain groups of people.
Yeah, in good fun, or as we call it in our house, banter. Like yesterday when my one house mate pile drived a friend onto the sofa and caused him to tear a shoulder muscle, than later set his other arm on fire (he is hairy) He's in constant pain at the moment and had to spend a lot on medicine, but he just didn't appreciate it all being in good fun.
Wow, came back from my relatives to find 12 messages in my folder. And this is the only one that interests me.

You can't compare it to physical injuries because people on the internet cannot inflict physical injuries upon you.

This is the exact kind of attitude that contributes to the myth of the bullying issue. Which wouldn't be an issue if kids today weren't so wimpy and actually understood that they have it a LOT better than most people in the world. And it is actually kind of insulting to the people who have real issues to complain about things like name called.

Famine? Disease? Totalitarian dictators? Having every worldly possession taken away? Worrying that your family will be murdered every day? No. CLEARLY the real issues are the kids who are getting NAME CALLED.

How did our generation grow up to be such sissies anyway? I'm going to be crass and say "get over it." You can ignore name calling.
Y'know, I'm finding it quite disturbing the number of people that defend their bullying under the "I'm not going to stop doing it, so you better learn to live with it" defense. Now, I'm also one who tends to think that parents tend to baby their children too much these days, but there's a difference between a general post on a forum directed to like-minded people all over the world and a particular post directed to a specific person who is being mentioned by name.

And bringing up how there are people in the world that are worse off seems to smell of a last desperate attempt to validate your argument. Because I can guarantee that as bad as any person's life is at any moment, somewhere there is someone whose life they'll believe is worse. The person suffering from a disease? They could say that at least they don't have to worry about their family being murdered. The people having their possessions taken away? They can say that they still have their health. Now I'm not trying to make light of anyone's misfortunes, just trying to point out how things could always be worse. Besides, kids are only going to worry about the threats that they come in contact with on a regular basis. So unless they live in or personally know someone that lives in that type of situation, why should they worry about it? Do you really think that if your child comes up to you crying about the bully that verbally embarrassed them in a lunchroom full of students, the proper response would be, "Well at least you're not being raped."
 

thelittleman66

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Nov 15, 2011
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bringer of illumination said:
thelittleman66 said:
I was agreeing with him, until he said that spamming pony pictures on forums was okay. Forcing your meme of choice into anything unrelated is totally unacceptable. Some people have to accept the fact that some people DON'T CARE about whatever obsession you might have.
So?

"OH THE HORROR! SOMEONE POSTED AN IMAGE MACRO OF SOMETHING I DON'T LIKE!!!!"

Would you look at what you're saying? Of course it's okay to post pony pictures, it's no different from any other kind of image macro.

And if you don't care you could always, you know, scroll past the image?
Wouldn't it get annoying to see the same in-joke being spammed in everything? What if I stated spamming variations of a picture of George Washington holding a flag that says "FREE JOHNNY"? What if a whole bunch of people started doing that in unrelated topics? Wouldn't that irritate you?

I did look at what I said and I never stated that it wasn't okay to spam things other than ponies. In fact I stated the opposite. "Some people have to accept the fact that some people DON'T CARE about whatever obsession you might have." is applicable to anything.

TL;DR: Don't jump to conclusions because someone stated something that can be applicable to yourself.
 

JordanXlord

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Mar 29, 2010
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DVS BSTrD said:
I would have thought that there was an inherent acceptance of self depreciation when it came to memes. Glad to know that posting Ponies is still cool.

And Sorry Bob but Zoidberg just ain't bad enough
But I know someone who is!
http://i.imgur.com/YCbam.png
Zoidberg is 100x more Bad than that Griffin thing


ALL HAIL ZOIDBERG
 

XMark

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Jan 25, 2010
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Oh man I love this video. I think the world would be a better place in general if people (all of us) took time to look at our actions and think "Hey, wait a minute. Am I the bad guy here?"
 

ms_sunlight

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Jun 6, 2011
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Internet bullies:

Why would you say something on the net you wouldn't say to your friends in a pub, or at work, or to your family over dinner? Are you really that much of a two-faced coward hiding behind your screen that you don't realise that "it's only a joke" doesn't cut it? If it's not okay to say something, it's not okay, simple as.

Also, people you do care about might be looking at you and thinking less of you. Thanks to the magic of the internet, they may be doing this in several years' time. This includes future employers, university admissions tutors, romantic partners, voters, customers etc. Yes, people who can have a real impact on your life.

Even if you're careful about using pseudonyms and anonymous logins, get into the habit and you will likely slip up. You'll get drunk or something take your 4chan manners to Facebook. So, don't be a dickhead. Enlightened self-interest, if nothing else.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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Long posts occur because when your dealing with complicated issues, especially ones where you represent an extreme minority position, you need to try and cover everything (oftentimes more than once), justify it, and also in many cases head off criticisms and counter comments you know are going to be coming from experience to avoid re-hashing the same conversations you might have had 50 times before.

Likewise, so many links and such get imbedded into posts because of the whole "lol, prove it" thing. Truthfully I prefer to take the approach that the truth is out there and figure anyone with half a brain is going to look up what I tell them, but that rarely happens, so in many cases I wind up having to basically do the research for people even when it comes to well known, common sense.

As a writer of long posts, I felt the need to comment there.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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To break this up into smaller posts given the subject, I will now respond to the bit about bullying.

One thing to understand is that a lot of what your seeing on the internet is the result of an invasion into nerd culture. Your seeing the science fiction, fantasy, and video-game people aiming at an increasingly mainstream audience to make more money, and bringing in those ordinary people as casuals. This would be fine if it was turning these people into nerds and generally making them more accepting and like "us", but it's not. We largely see nerd media being changed and adapted to suit that mainstream audience. Right now we've literally got those "Bros" and "Frat boys" running around in our video games and being catered to more than we are in our video games and areas of escapism. As time goes on there is less and less in nerd culture directed at the nerds because like always we are heavily outnumbered by our very nature.

A lot of the racism, sexism, and other things you see is actually simply backlash to things being changed to be made more politically correct. The idea of a look of geek media was to let one's hair down and escape society and all that BS. Right now though as much effort is being put into making everything as generally appealing and inoffensive to everyone as possible, it's turning into the media that this was a counterpoint to. When things that were just intended to be fun, like say scantily clad women, start to come more and more under attack for the sake of the mainstream, that starts to slot people off. If people had just accepted nerd culture as it was, there wouldn't be this issue.

Complaints about things like the "noob tube" (due to the sign) are because they exist to make it so any casual player can sit down and score some kills in a FPS game, rather than having to master to nuiances of the game. when you see things like that appearing in the games to level a playing field, as opposed to demanding players rise to the challenge, it breeds resentment. After all why did someone spend years developing FPS skills if someone
can simply choose the right weapon and be competitive with you due to the code?

As time goes on you see less stuff being directed at the nerds and those outside of mainstream society, it isn't even a balanced thing where everyone can be happy, and anyone with half a brain sees it. While the incredibly liberal might see some individual aspects of this thing positively on their own, overall you have to understand your dealing with an invasion into a minority subculture that isn't being received well as they lose. Casuals playing video games and such has turned into a sort of intellectual equivilent of Isreal's takeover of The Gaza Strip. With the bitter resistance in an otherwise losing battle.

To be honest Bob, to some extent speaking out against nerd culture like you are, you sound very much like a sell out, since really with them changing everything there is little reason to be nice to the casual players who are basically pushing us out of our own intellectual playground the way it's happened in the real world. Your ultimatly defending that Jock Letterman Frat-Boy type, because the point is that he's now online, and him and his buddies are taking over our games while the companies we supported all this years turn on their fans and take their money (since there is more of it) figuring they can do without the nerd revenues that kept them alive if push comes to shove.
 

RedEyesBlackGamer

The Killjoy Detective returns!
Jan 23, 2011
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canadamus_prime said:
Ah, isn't hypocrisy fun?
Watch the Scream 4 review and then this back to back. It is really funny. That said, why can't internet discussions be proper debates?
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
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RedEyesBlackGamer said:
canadamus_prime said:
Ah, isn't hypocrisy fun?
Watch the Scream 4 review and then this back to back. It is really funny. That said, why can't internet discussions be proper debates?
I blame the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.
 

kingmob

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Jan 20, 2010
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Zenron said:
I think you're under a complete misunderstanding of geek culture here Bob. Just because you were bullied in high school doesn't mean that all nerds have been subjected to the same kind of punishment. It may be a reason for some, but it's definitely not the root cause. The real reason is probably the fact that some people are just dicks, and given the anonymity of peoples actions on the internet and the resultant ability to avoid consequences, people are going to abuse this.

Yes it's a problem, and I agree with you on that, I just don't agree with your reasoning. I wouldn't say that nerds as a group are particularly good people. They have good people and bad people, just like any other group. Totally agree with your other points though.
Hear hear, Bob's assumptions on these things are rather annoying. Many nerds have been bullied no doubt, but being bullied or even 'different' is hardly a universal trait. Nerd or geek culture is defined by the media they love and the way they love it, nothing else.
By Bob's definition I would be more of a 'jock' than a nerd, just because I happened to be athletic and popular in high school... These concepts hardly even existed when I was growing up :D
 

Uncompetative

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Jul 2, 2008
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kwagamon said:
About the posting a whole book thing:

When I do it, I tend to start off trying to say something simple and concise, then wind up writing something way longer than I expected to say that simple thing then can't decide what parts to trim out so I just say "screw it" and post the whole thing. I can't speak for others, but I know I'm not actively trying to post a library every time I open my mouth, it just sort of happens.
ethaninja said:
Uncompetative said:
ColdStorage said:
Uncompetative said:
ColdStorage said:
cleverlymadeup said:
wow your analogy totally fails

cars have NO need for servicing or maintenance, they NEVER EVER need repairs, they NEVER break down. also car models NEVER have an issue, they don't have to have recalls or other things.
Hahah, brilliant.

Ever heard of a PBCAK?, its an error message my friends in IT like to give out, its Mnemonic stands for "Problem Between Chair And Keyboard", ei. Its an issue with the user being too fucking thick to operate a computer.
Stop being so aggressive, you just come across as an idiot.

By the way I missed your "at least I was the bigger man and admitted fault" apology as it was in the form of a stealth edit.

Not only does your post about Heisenberg and Neils Bohr not relate to Information Technology, but it has very little to do with the post about the Movie that had Keanu Reeves in it where he hacked a virtual reality by kicking the security software agents in DA HED.
so you never heard of Heisenbergs Matrix calculation?.

Stealth edit?, it was in sight, if was was small and blended font it would be a stealth edit.
You just seem to want to argue about irrelevant stuff.

Let us look at how this started...
StarStruckStrumpets said:
Amnestic said:
Starnerf said:
They're complex machines. Every complex machine has problems. There's no way any developer could program their software to work perfectly with every possible hardware and software configuration that an end user might have.
Excuse me Sir, I have a /thread for you? Please sign here and...here, date here and initial here? Thanks very much. Enjoy your day.

Every piece of machinery breaks down at some point. That's why you repairmen and fixer people still have jobs.
I can't really expand on that much more. So instead, I'll leave you with this thought:

How the hell do you think Link managed to operate with the Matrix? Do you think that was easy? Those little green codes are hardly user friendly!

Yeah, computers are complicated.
First, I quoted the part shown in bold and made a joke about the seemingly impossible to comprehend fictional programming language used to describe the fictional Matrix reality in the movie The Matrix - a work of fiction.



If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. It combines coding with kung-fu.

Maybe this joke was too geeky for you to find funny, I didn't care. I thought that the person I quoted would maybe get a laugh out of it. APL is also proof positive that computers are complicated - it requires a special keyboard to enter the programs which lacks any lowercase - so I was making an example of a computer system that is in use today that inspires technophobia in many programmers:



See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)

You then speed-read both posts and jumped to the conclusion that I was talking about Quantum Mechanics. Even though this is a thread all about Information Technology being hard to use. Doubly ironic, given your later rant about PBKAC. At least you have made me laugh...

Even when I said it was not meant to be fact (how could it be when it is a fictional movie?), but a joke, you remained super-serious and seemed increasingly angry. I should have realised then that you just wanted a random argument (you were probably lonely and frustrated) and it would have been better if I had ignored your personal insults and bad language.

The worst I have said about you is that you are an idiot.

It seemed to be on topic for this thread as an example of someone who didn't know forum etiquette.

Finally, you revealed yourself to be quite subversive. Going back to a previous page that I wouldn't necessarily re-read to EDIT your earlier post so it looked like you had apologised before the posts I had made in response to the tone of your post 17)

No its not, Werner Heisenberg and Neils Bohr would like a fucking word with you...
...Bohr would probably still want you to step outside and demand satisfaction since you didn't mention him.
Which would be more threatening if Neils Bohr hadn't died seven years before I was born. (Yes, I am that old)

This then made it possible for you to criticise me thus:

ColdStorage said:
Uncompetative said:
Apparently, you have no sense of humour. It was a joke.
Maybe your joke was shit?.

Funny that, a huge IT geek makes a shit joke and I retort with quantum mechanics and apparently I have no humour?

Christ man, get a grip, at least I was the bigger man and admitted fault.
Here, there is more coarse language (actually, I don't mind being called a huge IT geek, it is quite flattering really), but the part I had a problem with - something I have not seen done on these forums before - is the part I emphasised in bold. Sure, people have lied in arguments / flame-wars before, but I have never seen them go back to change an earlier post so that what I had already said in response to it sounds mean and then bleat that I haven't apologised for the apparent fault of not realising that you would be speed-reading posts and that you would fail to understand that StarStruckStrumpets wasn't talking about this guy:



...or this guy:



...but this guy:



Hopefully, you will calm down, moderate your language and learn to read the posts you quote. It would save you from looking foolish.
And now I'm going to make this Mega Quote even bigger by contributing to the thing.