Indy Star comments

[BPump33]

Am I the only that hates reading the comments on Pacers articles? It's like a car wreck on the opposite side of the interstate, I don't want to look, but I always do.

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

Should I even waste my time responding to them?

Does anyone else respond to them?

[Hicks]

Re: Indy Star comments

I haven't looked. Don't really plan to because I can already guess what's being said.

[BPump33]

Re: Indy Star comments

I haven't looked. Don't really plan to because I can already guess what's being said.

It's not just today. It's everyday. I wish I had your willpower not to look. I just can't wait until the bandwagon is full again and everyone will claim how they were behind the Pacers the whole time.

[Dr. Goldfoot]

Re: Indy Star comments

I peruse the Star boards and read the comments on certain articles. The ones with the loudest voices are usually the least informed. That goes for all topics. I mean have you tried to read the racing forums? I would venture to say at least 50% of the posts are trolls just making up stuff especially the open wheel subjects. I find it to be confusing actually. No links required and no accountability. I could start a thread over there that says "Larry Bird found dead" and it would be allowed. There would be a hundred pages of comments and many would really think he was dead. The comments on articles are even worse. Usually, it's just kids I think. There are alot of racial overtones going on over there too. All in all it's a crappy system.

[Putnam]

Re: Indy Star comments

^^^^ Yup.

Am I the only that hates reading the comments on Pacers articles? It's like a car wreck on the opposite side of the interstate, I don't want to look, but I always do.

USF. Those things bugged the heck out of me until I gave up on them. I suggest you stay here and ignore the fatheads at RATS.


It isn't just about the Pacers. There is a deeper societal problem. Since the advent of on-line forums and message boards, ordinary people have the opportunity to publicly express their opinions about issues. But many are incapable of doing this with coherence and civility.

Rhetoric, elocution and discourse are not taught in most schools. Neither is logic. Consequently, many people don't know how to express a thought, and do not know how to hear the thoughts of others. They don't know how to make a point, and they don't know when a point has been firmly established by someone else. For just one common example, many people think that one exception disproves a point. If I say, "Pit Bulls are vicious," someone else will say, "You are wrong. I have a pit bull that is docile." And they will think that their anecdote disproves my data -- which clearly shows that pit bulls (or mixed breed dogs with some American Staffordshire Terrier in them) are responsible for dozens of fatal attacks per year -- far more than their share of all American dogs.

Since the brief Roman republic and the Athenian democracy under Pericles, it didn't matter that people were, for the most part, idiots, because they seldom or never had opportunity to display their idiocy outside of their own household. The American constitution guaranteed freedom of expression, but it did not provide the means to more than half of a half of a half of one percent of the people in the country.

Then, suddenly, a dozen or so years ago, the internet made us all bloggers and daily participants in debates that can be published (at no cost to us) before thousands or millions of readers. Suddenly, the idiots have a mighty voice.

Pacers Digest is better than most other forums because the moderators enforce decent behavior and bleep profanity.

We still have plenty of people who make statements contrary to fact. The one that bugs me the most lately is, "All the Pacers do is throw up 3 pointers." People keep saying that, even after games when 3 point attempts were only a third of the Pacers' total field goal attempts. One third is not, and never will be, all. But you've got a better change of calling someone out here and getting a fair reply than you do in other forums. And if not, IGNORE 'em.

[MyFavMartin]

Re: Indy Star comments

That's why I switched to PD from the Indystar Pacers MB. The posters here tend to be more civil and more informed and more insightful. This is an overall generalization, so don't let this go to your head UB.

[McKeyFan]

Re: Indy Star comments

"Larry Bird found dead"

Wow. Now that's news.

P.S. I know lots of people with pit bulls and they've never killed anyone. They are nice dogs.

[Putnam]

Re: Indy Star comments

P.S. I know lots of people with pit bulls and they've never killed anyone. They are nice dogs.

The difference is, dear colleague, if you were other than an esteemed member of this serene and august body of great minds, you would have written back saying, "Bull****, you stupid-***ed mother****er, Why the **** don't you learn some **** facts before ******* that bull****?"

You understanding that the "lots of people" you know personally represent a small sample of all pit bull owners, and probably a sample that is not representative. So you add a comment which is also valid, without thinking that your observation disproves the larger data.

That's why we're all such a happy family here since Jermaniac quit.

[Naptown_Seth]

Re: Indy Star comments

I peruse the Star boards and read the comments on certain articles. The ones with the loudest voices are usually the least informed. That goes for all topics. I mean have you tried to read the racing forums? I would venture to say at least 50% of the posts are trolls just making up stuff especially the open wheel subjects. I find it to be confusing actually. No links required and no accountability. I could start a thread over there that says "Larry Bird found dead" and it would be allowed. There would be a hundred pages of comments and many would really think he was dead. The comments on articles are even worse. Usually, it's just kids I think. There are alot of racial overtones going on over there too. All in all it's a crappy system.

If there was an aspect that drove me away from the Star it was the OWR trolling all over the place, making any conversation on what should be a local passion completely useless, and the amount of Pats trolling that was allowed in the Colts forum.

As bad as Pistons/Miami trolls were in the Pacers area it was nothing compared to the Colts area, which is why it first got a moderator, for what that was worth.

It is the wild west still. I have a lot of good friends over there, at least via online, and others that I at least respect, but as Goldfoot says you can just do about anything.

Of course when I insulted one of these trolls a few years ago by implying (not actually stating) that they had relations with a goat I got the quick ban till the good folks asked to have me brought back. As Goldfoot says, I could have posted "Larry Bird is dead, found with goat" all day long but you don't dare insult the poster that is saying stuff like that.

Cats and dogs living together over there, you know, real Old Testiment stuff.

Oh, and no pix and avys.

[Naptown_Seth]

Re: Indy Star comments

Also, Putnum, that was brilliant.

Do you really have me on ignore? Shame if you do, I agree with you most of the time.

[Dr. Goldfoot]

Re: Indy Star comments

"Larry Bird is dead, found with goat"

Link, please!











A good percentage of the posts over there mirror this one right here.

[BPump33]

Re: Indy Star comments

Thanks to everyone for the responses. I was mainly talking about the article comments, but it looks like I will stay away from the message boards as well. I think I was just venting this morning because all of the "thug" comments on today's article.

[Bball]

Re: Indy Star comments

The article comments are far, far worse than the Star forums. Not really the same at all.

-Bball

[grace]

Re: Indy Star comments

Here's what I don't understand. For years people bit... I mean complained that the writers for The Star were too easy on the Pacers. Now they're being too hard. I don't get it.

[Bball]

Re: Indy Star comments

Here's what I don't understand. For years people bit... I mean complained that the writers for The Star were too easy on the Pacers. Now they're being too hard. I don't get it.

Just to make sure you and everyone else is clear, what is being talked about is below every online article or column posted on the Indy Star website there is a 'comments' section. This is a "Topix" forum that is not the same as the Starnews forum most are familiar.

So online Star readers can post immediate comments right under the article itself.

IIRC once you've read an article you can click a "READ COMMENTS" link which opens the TOPIX forum to that exact topic and see all the comments.

Any Pacer topic will generally have comment after comment of negative reactions from the posters. It's rare any real discussion is in the comments like on this forum or the normal Star forum. This is mostly just "These guys are a disgrace"... "The Pacers suck"... "Thugs"... ""I've given up on the Pacers" kind of quick comments not even intending for discussion. If it was at a forum like here you'd think many of these might be considered flaming even, but I have a feeling the format just leads to people venting more than anything. They aren't looking to discuss anything and don't care what someone else says/thinks... they just want to vent... IMHO...

.

-Bball