a major problem

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Posted By: barrysloate

Thanks Frank. Got it.

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Posted By: Cobby33

If ANY conversation (oral or written) lacked ANY OT, it wouldn't last more than a minute. NO conversation or discussion remains a conversation or discussion without a flow of ideas, thoughts, etc., that naturally transgress into other topics - to the point where at the end of the conversation, it's often difficult to recall where it started.

Compare this, of course, to a conversation about, say, the recent book "The Card," where a random comment is made, "my cat's name is Mittens." Unless that conversation gets back on track quickly, true, that comment degenerated it. But, if a post that one deems to be "OT" is merely a by-product of the prior post(s), this is what we call conversation. So, for example, if a Seinfeld post interjected here and there is, arguably, related to the topic/prior post, what's the big deal? A little levity (and reality checks) never hurt.

Of course, there is a line between natural transgressions and posts interjected for a self-serving purpose or for the simple purpose of starting an argument. I agree that those should be monitored, but how?

If the topic doesn't get back on track, there's probably nothing more to be said about it. I think that the majority of "on topic" threads which degenrate, do so because there's simply nothing more to be said on that EXACT topic.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

The signature in Jay's initial post was off topic.

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Posted By: Joe Pelaez

The lack of:

This message has been edited by drc1 on May 27, 2007 3:37 PM
This message has been edited by drc1 on May 27, 2007 3:35 PM

Proves that you might be a FRAUD.

Damn it, you are DC.

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

Get a life, it's a minor problem. A major problem is finding out that your food stamps won't pay for that cigar you wanted.

Peter

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Be careful, Peter, as there was an episode where Kramer imported some Cuban cigar rollers (though they turned out to be Dominican).

My feeling on the issue, and as an off topic poster, is that board members should be respectful of serious posts, in particular when someone is asking for hobby advice. And, for me, there is a difference between an aside and hijacking. An aside often does not hijack a topic.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Peter, everything is relative. In context of this board, I feel this is a major problem. In context of life in general, this is a non-issue. Almost all the problems are this board are insignificant in the big scheme of things, but they are important in context of this board. Comments like yours are just as overblown as you feel my thinking this topic is a major problem.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

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Posted By: peter chao

Jay,

I like David's comment above about distinguishing between "aside" and "hijacking." There should be high tolerance for asides and a lower tolerance for hijacking.

Peter

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Posted By: jay behrens

Asides are fine, it's the follow ups to the asides that I have no tolerance for because they have nothing to do with the topic of the thread. If you want to continue talking about an episode of Seinfeld, or whatever, start a new thread.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

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Posted By: Bill Stone

Are asides like being a sideler? I oppose both highjacking and sidling.

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Posted By: barrysloate

The sidler was given tic-tacs to prevent his sidling

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Posted By: Anson Lytle

The main reason I don't post anymore and simply lurk is that this stuff seems to go on all the time. Just scroll down the pages of posts and count the spats.

Like many folks, I like to read and discuss Prewar cards. But, I get tired of the high school bullying, arguing, whining, and finger pointing. That's the kind of crap I would expect on a video game or muscle car forum.

Not that anyone cares, but that's my two cents.

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Where does a "digression" (Barry's term, I think) fall in the tolerance spectrum?

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Posted By: peter chao

Anson,

Your pretty accurate, I've always thought of Net54 as a schoolyard with adults acting like kids and enjoying themselves. The things you see as negatives I see in a positive light.

Heck, we're discussing cards, not trying to cure cancer. We've already cut down the number of O/T posts, is it necessary to become even more restrictive.

Peter

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Posted By: barrysloate

I think any time you discuss something that is not related to the question originally posed on the thread, it is a digression. My point is it's a natural consequence of people interacting with one another on a chatboard. Obviously, some disagree with this. It's not meant to be disrespectful, but opinions do vary.

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Agreed, Barry. My posting was meant to be humorous, however I still don't know how to do a smiley face. The postings are a reflection of how an in-person conversation would go. What friendly conversations remain monotopical (is that a word?)? And being that we are grown men collecting baseball cards, how high a level of maturity can we be expected to maintain (imagine smiley face here)?




edited by leon to add smiley face....Bob- you make a colon : and a ) and it becomes a smiley face, viola

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Posted By: Rich Klein

: followed by )

Do that without the verbiage, and you have

Regards
Rich

see how cooperative everyone can be -- at least four responses how to do a smiley face and thanks for the hint on the winking face, I never knew that before

Rich

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Posted By: JK

Bob,

Type a colon ":" followed immediately (without space) by an end parenthesis ")" without the quotation marks. If you do so, when you post, it will result in a smiley face


edited to add - thanks Rich for doing in two words what took me an entire sentence - a sure sign of a good editor.

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Posted By: Steve Murray

; followed by ) and you have a "winking" smiley face

: followed by ( and you have a frowning face

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Leon, Rich, Josh, Steve, thanks. I'll try to restrain myself from excessive use

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Posted By: Steve Murray

Yes Bob, restrain yourself. Too many would be "a major problem".

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Posted By: barrysloate

See, now I only knew the smiley face but not the other two. But Steve just taught me how to do it.

So, if we digress but still learn something new, would everybody agree that is acceptable?

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Posted By: peter chao

So I assume that we are going to treat a digression the same way we would an aside, both are acceptable, but hijacking will not be tolerated.

Peter

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Posted By: Joe Pelaez

Barry, thank you for explaining the hyjack of black ball players from the 1880's - 1890's topic.

You and Ted got into an ongoing SNL diversion right in the middle of it.

That was disrespectful to the author of the thread, and anyone else that might have been interested in the topic.

Be honest, and just own up to your Hyjacking weakness, and stop trying to justify it.

We'll forgive you.

Joe P.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Hi Joe- it's amazing you remember the actual post that was started all the way back when, but for the record the SNL dialogue was between me and Hal. Ted was not a party.

That said, not only do I not hide behind the fact that I hijack threads, I am the first to admit I am the King of Hijackers. I am forever digressing off topic. The question is why do I do it.

For one, I have a short attention span and a thread has to be pretty compelling to hold my interest from start to finish. Second, I just enjoy talking about different things. It brings up the same question: Am I being disrespectful by doing it? Some say I am, some feel it's perfectly fine. So what's the right answer?

Is there anybody else on the board who only answers the original question posted and never strays off topic? Are there others who like to shoot the breeze about Seinfeld or some other inane topic? I think so.

But please don't say I don't own up to my hijacks, In fact, I am anointing myself "King of the Hijackers." Does that make everyone happy?

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Posted By: E, Daniel

In these days of FBI/CIA/NSA taps, your constant mention of the word 'hijack' is going to have this board under constant federal monitoring....I wouldn't be calling myself the self proclaimed 'king' of the hijackers if I were you!


Daniel

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Posted By: barrysloate

You're right. If the F.B.I. googles "hijack" my name will come up. Quick, somebody help me...I need a new name. How about T-Bone!

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Posted By: peter chao

Okay Barry,

Let's say your King of the Digressers, your Seinfeld comments are fine, but do you have to lecture us on grammar. Because when you do that...there's quite a number of lawyers that frequent this Board that want to show you that they also know what's correct grammar. When that happens the thread becomes essentially hijacked.

Peter

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Posted By: barrysloate

I shouldn't lecture on grammar; however, your first "your" should be spelled "you're."

I know what a pain I am, but seeing poorly written sentences for me is like hearing chalk screeching across a blackboard. What can I tell you? If everyone would like me to stop I will stop.

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Posted By: Jason L

could be one of any number of things, such as:
world hunger
epidemic outbreaks of disease
impoverished children
seal hunting
the threat of terrorism
landmines
Paris Hilton's personal safety in prison
Determining the relative contribution of Seinfeld quotes to a conversation
Figuring out if a charity's website counts donations in realtime
Rampant Thread hijacking on a prominent baseball card message board

I suppose all things have their place in the list

Most threads just stop shortly after I post...should that concern me?
Don't nobody worry, I have no delusions of granduer regarding my relevance or importance here, so please carry on!



Jason's Tobacco Cubbie Fund - Gift Barometer: $0 of $20,000 goal

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Posted By: leon

but I am ok with being told the correct way to say, or write, something. BTW, Barry.....as we discussed about the "your welcome" phrase yesterday......what did you find out?...Is it "you're" or "your".....I think it's the latter as that's the normal way it's written....

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Posted By: peter chao

Barry,

It isn't your correction of my grammar that bothers me...it's when others point out more mistakes in my post. At that point I start thinking about going back to the classroom. And I don't want to do that because I thought we were in the schoolyard.

Peter

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Posted By: Cobby33

I tell my law students that if they use "your" incorrectly, I'll flunk them. Goes back to my HS yearbook days when everyone seemed to right "your a great guy" or "your cool." ARGH!

Also- Barry- I like "Koko the monkey" better.

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Posted By: Bill Stone

Sorry Barry --Neil Watkins from accounting is T-bone.

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Posted By: jay behrens

It's "You're welcome". Hang around "up nord". They actually say "You are welcome"

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

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Posted By: JK

"Your" refers to something that belongs or relates to another person or people in general. The proper response to "thank you" is "you are welcome" which is properly abbreviated to "you're welcome."

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Posted By: JK

Cobby, while we are on the topic - its "write" not "right".

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Posted By: peter chao

It's write not right. See what I mean, after Barry's post, people start correcting each other's grammar and the thread is essentially hijacked.

Peter

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Posted By: barrysloate

Leon- Jay and Josh are both correct and I meant to tell you: It is "you're welcome", a contraction of "you are welcome." I saw it in print in the New York Times, and is that paper ever wrong?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Bill- you even remembered Neil Watkins from accounting- I didn't!

Ah, this Seinfeld stuff will never go away. I think it's a fixture on this board, so everyone might as well get used to it.

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Posted By: peter chao

Seinfeld digressions don't bother me. It's the comments on grammar...one or two comments are fine...but other Net54 members will soon chime in and the thread becomes essentially hijacked.

Peter

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Posted By: Cobby33

OK, mea culpa, my bad, etc.- so I get the F for the day.
You are both right (correct). My "right" instead of "write" was simply a typo. Honest! Your in place of "you're" 99% are NOT typos, ergo my point

P.S. I don't care about other people's grammar, mine certainly isn't perfect. But the "your" thing does make me cringe for some reason.

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Posted By: Joe Pelaez

And without my having to dig up the archive thread in question, I believe you're right, It wasn't Ted, but Hal. .. GOOD Memory.

The Ted/Barry tennis match that stands out in my mind was about the Slow Joe Doyle error card.
Believe it or not, what I recall about that thread, had nothing to do with a hyjack.

Being that I own a real Doyle, and at one point in possession of two of Dr. Koos altered jobs, I naturally was drawn to the Ted/Barry Doyle error tennis match.
It was one of the funniest reads ever.
Allow me to explain that.
Ted was not on top of his game.
I could tell that he was not a strong believer in that card during those days, and since then, he has changed his outlook.
During the back and forth, all he could come up with were assumptions, speculations, and theories. ... Ted loves theories, they make his world go round.
During the back and forth, you were paraphrasing everything that I've ever written about the Doyle error card, good or altered.
Being that I worked many years in soap opera's, I can tell when a scene is building to a crescendo.
A crescendo of frustration on your part.
Every time you hit Ted with a Doyle fact, he came back at you with an assumption, speculation or theory.
As one would read the give and take of the thread, one could actually feel the lava building within your volcano.
It was then that I decided to present you with the Congressional
Medal of Honor for Frustration.

My good intentions proved to be a mistake.
Barry, you misread it, and felt that I was attacking you again, like when I told the truth about the 1880's black ball players hyjack.

Why is it that in some circles, the truth is sometimes called an attack?

Why is it that the most sensitive, in most cases, are the perpetrators of insensitivities?

I know people with short attention span, and that can be a problem, but can be dealt with.

This point went totally over Frank Evanov's head, but it doesn't surprise me.

Let's take another approach.
Whenever you get an urge to make a chat room out of an vintage baseball thread, ... Stop and think what it would feel like to have some people call you up during the last day of an auction, with a desire to discuss Sienfeld trivia.

I'm pulling for you.

One more thing.

I still fell that you deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor for Frustration.

Joe P.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Joe- I remember that thread clearly and I recognize that I misunderstood what you were saying to me. Because we had some previous tensions, I looked at your post with a bias and clearly misread it. That was my error.

And I know you find the SNL and Seinfeld posts a distraction, and that is fair. But as you peruse the different threads on the board there are dozens of people who enjoy a Seinfeld line, piece of trivia, or a little quiz. So to win your argument you will have to convince many others that this is a distraction. I think more people enjoy talking about the show than find it annoying. I'm just one voice, albeit a loud one.

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Posted By: Mark

"I shouldn't lecture on grammar; however, your first 'your' should be spelled 'you're.'"

"P.S. I don't care about other people's grammar, mine certainly isn't perfect. But the 'your' thing does make me cringe for some reason."

Your/you're is a spelling mistake, not a grammar mistake.

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Posted By: peter chao

Mark,

Let's face it, many times when we are posting on a thread, we are in a rush to get something else done also. So we are going to make mistakes with both spelling and grammar, what we need to do is find some way to limit comments on these mistakes so that the thread is not hijacked.

Peter

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Posted By: Cobby33

Actually, it is (it's) a misuse of punctuation (contraction).

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Posted By: Joe Pelaez

"And I know you find the SNL and Seinfeld posts a distraction, and that is fair. But as you peruse the different threads on the board there are dozens of people who enjoy a Seinfeld line, piece of trivia, or a little quiz. So to win your argument you will have to convince many others that this is a distraction. I think more people enjoy talking about the show than find it annoying. I'm just one voice, albeit a loud one."

*
*

I luv Seinfeld, and SNL is a driving force.
John Beluchi and I, once had adjacent dressing rooms at 30 Rock.

I love Seinfeld lines, but I come here for whatever is left of vintage cards talk at VBC, so yes, as much as I like Seinfeld, if it undermines a vintage thread, ... IT IS a distraction.

Funny, you being a dealer, and you don't see anything wrong in undermining what you sell.

Are you saying that you feel so strongly for Seinfeld lines, that you wouldn't mind having Seinfeld aficcionados call you on the last day of your auction?

You say that there are dozens of people here that love Seinfeld lines, but do they prefer them over vintage baseball talk?

Please elaborate on the dozens of names that would prefer a Seinfeld Chat Room over a VBC Forum.

Leon, in his fair minded way is trying to minimize O/T, not create more. ... you're helping to defeat his purpose, is that what you want? ... of course not.

"So to win your argument you will have to convince many others that this is a distraction. I think more people enjoy talking about the show than find it annoying. I'm just one voice, albeit a loud one."

*
*

What argument?
You're the one that's trying to sell The Seinfeld Chat Room.
You're right, you're one voice, but you're not as loud as you think.

Joe P.

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Posted By: Zinn

I logged on to comment on Joe P.'s last post but as I sit here I really don't know what to say.

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Posted By: E, Daniel

That's what it's about for me.
Not only that but everyone who posts has their own signature style of detracting at times from the discussion at hand.
I'll take Barry's style every day over many others on this board (including my own).



Daniel