WTF is it with SB.com?

[The Romulan Republic]

And since the far right wing is vastly more popular in America, it spouts the majority of the uninformed bullshit there

Isn't the right in general more aggressively vocal as well?

[Ubiquitous]

And since the far right wing is vastly more popular in America, it spouts the majority of the uninformed bullshit there

Isn't the right in general more aggressively vocal as well?

Singularly, yes. And these influential people on the right tend to get more airtime in the long term due to their longevity [O' Reilly]. However, they cannot hope to match the combined strength of the lefts ability to unite in massive numbers at one-off rallies and protest marches, as witnessed by recent anti-war protests and Obama speeches.

[Academia Nut]

I think the differences can sort of be summed up as being like the differences between Canada and the US, with SDN being Canada and SB being the US. Both groups have similar cultures in the broad strokes, and there is a lot of cross talk and chatter amongst them, but there are also a lot of specific cultural details that they are only partly miscible with each other, and is fact why neither group has been absorbed by the other, and likely never will as things stand now. The expected behaviours on each board are very different despite the fact that both groups like to talk about sci-fi and fantasy conflicts and the like, and each group has a different 'foundation mythology', if you will.

Also, if you really want to look at the US/Canada parallels then you could possibly consider ASVS as Great Britian, with SB emerging before SDN by a few years too, and demographics wise the relative population statistics have SB as being about 10 times more populous than SDN. So its an analogy that goes further into details than such rough things normally do, but more by accident than anything else.

[TC Pilot]

As far as I can tell, it's SD.net that's fucked up. I can access SB.com without trouble, but I have to use AOL (instead of Internet Explorer) to even access these forums.

[General Zod]

As far as I can tell, it's SD.net that's fucked up. I can access SB.com without trouble, but I have to use AOL (instead of Internet Explorer) to even access these forums.

AOL

I think that might be part of your problem right there.

[TC Pilot]

Yeah, something's definately wrong when AOL works better. Maybe I should be worried

[Garlak]

Man, I must've had it easy: I only really stick to the Creative Writing Forum, and occasionally venture out to something like Space battles or debates.. I browse those so rarely I'm not even sure of their names.

The worst I've seen is people posting crappy stories, making stupid remarks, starting minor flame wars, and making unnecessary posts or threads. Granted I'm not always around, nor have I browsed it for very long time for extended duration, but I haven't seen anything I'd really call a decent (read: horrible) flamewar.

My biggest gripe with it is that it goes down a lot... and worse, the search function sucks in ways that I cannot describe. Other than saying "it's a piece of shit; now an NONEXISTING feature" and leaving it at that.

I still prefer it to Fanfiction.Net because, when it loads, it's not slow as hell.. and the stories are usually of better quality and easier to find. In FFN I either have to wade through a LOT of bullshit, or just hit F5 while watching my profile. Honestly, I stick to TheFanfictionForum, SpaceBattles, and StarDestroyer.Net for finding stories and discussing them, and FFN for reading them without interruptions.... and lately I've just started reading stories entirely on the latter three, and only reading stories on my alert list on FFN...

BTW, I think SB.com is down right now... Ugh. Shame. I really liked RAAB and had found several fun threads in the non-story forums. -_-

[Dark Hellion]

Frankly, I have given up on the board. After Aleyska got canned an Skyzeta became mod the board went to shit. His inconsistant nanny moderation set the ton for the board, and the fact that they even allow known trolls like Mith and Oraghn to post their long winded tripe is enough for me to walk away from the board. I enjoy vs. debates very much, but I would rather read the one good one that is posted every other month here than have to slug through the pitiful amount of utter shit that board has.

Additionally, their politics forum is a joke of the highest magnitude and I am glad I got banned for finally calling CrossOver what he is, a homophobic, racist piece of shit crypto-fascist with delusions of being part of the mindless middle when he is a kneejerk right wing blowhard idiot who in a fair and just society would be taken behind a barn and shot like the rabid cur he is. Same goes for the rest of his far right brigade. The thoughtless venial greed, heartless bastardry and basic inhumanity of their positions is so repulsively sickening to me (who this board knows is quite cruel in regards to value of life etc.) that I find them sickening in the same way I would regard the Japanese policy of comfort girls or the holocaust. They are the kind of mindless fanatics that allow genocide to happen and the fact that they aren't slapped down hard and fast by the administration for the pseudo-racist shit they float out shows that sb.nets politics is a total lost cause. Sorry Thanatos, I like your moderation on other sections, but whatever is tying your hands in politics reflects very badly on you, and the continuous allowance of Senmut, Crossover, and Pax to post shows that the board has an unhealthy right wing bias. And this is coming from someone who would prefer to have reasonable Republicans to vote for.

[ray245]

Frankly, I have given up on the board. After Aleyska got canned an Skyzeta became mod the board went to shit. His inconsistant nanny moderation set the ton for the board, and the fact that they even allow known trolls like Mith and Oraghn to post their long winded tripe is enough for me to walk away from the board. I enjoy vs. debates very much, but I would rather read the one good one that is posted every other month here than have to slug through the pitiful amount of utter shit that board has.

Additionally, their politics forum is a joke of the highest magnitude and I am glad I got banned for finally calling CrossOver what he is, a homophobic, racist piece of shit crypto-fascist with delusions of being part of the mindless middle when he is a kneejerk right wing blowhard idiot who in a fair and just society would be taken behind a barn and shot like the rabid cur he is. Same goes for the rest of his far right brigade. The thoughtless venial greed, heartless bastardry and basic inhumanity of their positions is so repulsively sickening to me (who this board knows is quite cruel in regards to value of life etc.) that I find them sickening in the same way I would regard the Japanese policy of comfort girls or the holocaust. They are the kind of mindless fanatics that allow genocide to happen and the fact that they aren't slapped down hard and fast by the administration for the pseudo-racist shit they float out shows that sb.nets politics is a total lost cause. Sorry Thanatos, I like your moderation on other sections, but whatever is tying your hands in politics reflects very badly on you, and the continuous allowance of Senmut, Crossover, and Pax to post shows that the board has an unhealthy right wing bias. And this is coming from someone who would prefer to have reasonable Republicans to vote for.

The annoying thing is, most of the liberals left on that board, has given up in regards to debating with those idiots on that board. I mean come on, when Sarah Palin screwed herself upside down in that prank call, instead of criticizing her, they want to ignore that issue altogether?

Which reminds me, how many members on that side, have any actual responbility to care for? Such as having a proper family to care for in that manner, or a child for that matter? Even as a 13 year old in the past, I am pissed that some of them can actually reject global warming, which is a TOTAl surprise to me.

In terms of their attitude, I think they are slightly better than the people on 4chan as a whole.

[Dark Hellion]

At least 4chan is generally being facetious, as opposed to these total motherfuckers who seriously believe all this rabid bullshit. I find that far more depressing, annoying and maddening.

[thejester]

At least 4chan is generally being facetious, as opposed to these total motherfuckers who seriously believe all this rabid bullshit. I find that far more depressing, annoying and maddening.

But who gives a shit? Everytime Senmut posts some of his ridiculous bullshit about Muslims taking over Europe some dumbarses will go 'ZOMG' and sane people will go 'Mother of god Senmut, we've been through this.' Crossover et al are known to loonies, same as the likes of RocketGirl.

[Uraniun235]

I went browsing recently (as I'm inclined to do whenever someone reminds me that SB still exists) and saw a thread on "fixing American politics" or something like that. It was a bunch of centrist tripe in the OP, but I thought there was potential for me to make some good points, right up until I came across someone (not a newbie either, he'd been there when I used to be a regular at SB) claiming that "liberals want you on the dole". I was getting ready to tackle that ludicrous claim when I saw that nobody in the several posts that followed had even thought to rebut or respond to it, and I realized that I'd more or less be jumping straight into a quagmire with no exit strategy and restricted ROEs, so I just left.

[Darth Wong]

I find that on most forums, if someone talks about "fixing American politics", a group of Ron Paul fans eventually ends up dominating the discussion. It's so easy to say "I hate both sides" and then step back, refuse to commit to any political position, express general dislike of government, and then say the solution is libertarianism. The basic argumentative structure is very similar to creationism or 9/11 conspiracy theories: attack "mainstream thinking" and then present yourself as the de facto alternative, despite having made nothing remotely resembling a reasoned argument to show that your pet theory actually works.

[Jonen C]

I, personally, make it a point to try to avoid discussing politics, religion or sports on the Internet.

Sports is easiest, since I have no genuine interest in them on general (I'll cheer on my country, my countrymen, the local teams and athletes - but someone'll have to tell me when something is going on).
Religion is a private matter. I might state what I believe and why, but that is also the only thing I would be interested in knowing from someone else.
Politics I treat similarly to religion, because both have a tendency to explode in your face if not handled with care.

[Jade Falcon]

When it comes to US politics I tend not to get involved, because you'll usually get someone saying something like "You Yuropeans (intentional mistake) don't know/have no right to comment on our politics, yet some of those will be the type that will comment on other countries politics.

I'll admit that I don't really know very much about US politics bar the names of the parties, and some of their general stances, but even then, that's a generalisation.

[Thanatos]

Sorry Thanatos, I like your moderation on other sections, but whatever is tying your hands in politics reflects very badly on you, and the continuous allowance of Senmut, Crossover, and Pax to post shows that the board has an unhealthy right wing bias

Actually I banned Senmut (twice because I accidently set it to two days instead of two weeks) 7 days ago. Crossover is barely holding on, as is Pax (Who is worthless in general) and several other people. To be honest, I've been busy and haven't had time to check SB much this weekend and it was down for two days before that. The areas I moderate are approximately 37% of the boards traffic (The damn Election forum is more active than NSF and VS debates) and thats a lot of stuff to look over.

I set up an email account that is slaved to SB.com and set my phone to watch it. If you have a problem with someone's post, use the report post, send email, or send pm functions.. The only reason I knew about your post was someone told me about it. I can't do anything if you don't tell me that you think there's a problem. One caveat: I'm not a fat southern Sheriff, so I can't bust out their metaphorical tail lights because I don't like them. They have to have done something expressly against the rules (Hate speech is against the rules BTW, so if you actually find examples of it tell me) for me to be able to take action.

As for the bias, I've been accused of being biased to each side. When I banned him, Senmut declared that I was protecting my "pet candidate" which is deeply ironic if you know me at all.

Oh and don't throw public, petty temper tantrums and then dare me to ban you like Alyeska did. That's just stupid.

I find that on most forums, if someone talks about "fixing American politics", a group of Ron Paul fans eventually ends up dominating the discussion. It's so easy to say "I hate both sides" and then step back, refuse to commit to any political position, express general dislike of government, and then say the solution is libertarianism.

A large number of Libertarians are just Objectivists with a more populist title. If people actually knew what that philosophy entailed rather than the PR pitch they give you, they'd lose a lot of supporters.

[Thanatos]

And a perfect example of the standard for non-epitaph hate speech just fell in my lap.

http://forums.spacebattles.com/showpost ... tcount=132

It has to be that at a minimum, around that bad for it to be clear cut hate speech.

[Alyeska]

Oh and don't throw public, petty temper tantrums and then dare me to ban you like Alyeska did. That's just stupid.

I was right and you damned well know it. Your "enforcement" of the rule was bullshit. I broke no rule with what I was doing. I provided justification for my reasoning which you promptly deleted. It seems most of the other mods agreed that I should be banned for defying you rather then any specific rules violation, even if your rules enforcement was bullshit to begin with. Which means I have serious doubts about the administration at this point. Since neither side is likely to change, there is little point in my staying on Spacebattles.

I dared you to ban me to confirm my suspicions as to the status of what SB.com has become. That ended up being highly productive. Rather then wasting my time hoping for the administration to improve things, I can just leave right now. I should thank you for banning me, but I am still rather angry. Not one single Instant Message sent my direction over that incident. Didn't even bother to reply to any messages I sent you. Deliberately ignoring me wasn't going to stop my actions. On top of that you hit me with the most severe ban possible. Complete forum restriction. No viewing any thread, no access to PMs, nothing. Making communication extremely difficult.

I used to consider you a friend Thanatos, but you did a very good job changing that.

[Darth Wong]

It's a dangerous thing to start thinking that you can base on-line conduct around friendships and alliances, as if it were an episode of "Survivor". That leads to all kinds of bad places. Better to have a set of well thought-out rules to base your conduct on.

[Adrian Laguna]

Wow. Does anyone remember what a typical computer was like in 2004?

*looks at his desktop from 2003, which hasn't had a hardware upgrade since*
I do.

Same boat, my computer is from 2003, maybe even '02. It can't run anything with greater system requirements than vanilla Rome: Total War.

[Big Orange]

I've seen more of the Spacebattles.com's right wingers getting the bumb's rush (like TK99).

[Soontir C'boath]

I dared you to ban me to confirm my suspicions as to the status of what SB.com has become.

I find it funny that you did that considering how well known Wong reacts to that kind of dare himself even if done against a supposed friend.

[ArcturusMengsk]

I don't think I ever had a single productive conversation in all my years at SB.com before I left of my own will. Especially irritating was that dumbshit theocrat EmpSolo, who is the only Internet poster I can genuinely say made me want to inflict real physical violence upon. Especially insulting was the way in which he was freely permitted to insult GLBT members of that forum with impunity, without a single moderator even verbally punishing him for it. I hadn't realized just how bad a reputation it has on-line before a group of /b/tards tried (and failed) to DDos it, and this thread basically confirms my feelings. Suffice it to say I'll ward off any of my IRL friends from it in the future.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I can't recall the last thread over at SB that I really participated in. Probably one to do with Peak Oil last year, if only because all the news on here was spilling over to there from posters who perused both boards. SB.com died for me in '02, about the time most people emigrated over to SDN, myself included which also seemed to affect ASVS to an extent. I could see SB.com was becoming something of a mockery even before I left, if only because the same shit was getting discussed, there was a total lack of professionalism in the staff and I could see SDN was going to become more than just a 3D movies and versus debates site, what with the plans for N&P and SLAM and ARSE being drawn up. By that point, SB.com was really verboten to anyone who had any real cognitive ability beyond clicking the "post" button.

Like Ender mentioned, when you're explaining stuff that should be blindingly obvious to even high schoolers, then something is wrong. I would see whole threads devolve into the most petty squabbles with one side being allowed to ad hominem and be bigoted, while the other side was called on their bullshit. Anyone who's seen that conservatard antipodean Es Arkajae and the batshit insane lesbian RocketGirl go at it will know it's par for the course.

[ray245]

Another problem I find with SB.com is the male desire to act 'macho' or act tough on issues, and think themselves a manly.

The constant replies on their forum, talking about characters being emo and so on, and how they should take it like a man annoyed me at times. Other than that, the amount of people who HATES kids put me off as well.