hello

[LMNO]

Not to poke you too sharply Nigel, but saying, "we've seen this before, and it usually doesn't end well" for four pages is "shrieking" to you?

Sure, page 5 saw the first indication it was going downhill, but this has to be the most civil "dogpiling" I've ever seen.

I didn't even respond when he called me ignorant right off the bat:

it is nice to have an indication of the exact variety of ignorance i am encountering

You've seen how bad it can get.  Why are you comparing that to this?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Holist- a word of advice. Being antagonistic to roger is the last thing you want to do. I suggest you drop it immediately. Especially if you want to be taken credibly here. Your digging yourself in again.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

But I'm not his lab rat.  Or maybe I am, you know, with this reaction...Maybe I'm that one rat that bites all the other rats and foams at the fucking mouth and sprays my horribly infected semen through the bars of the cage or whatnot.  But I don't believe in treating people like test subjects without their permission, and I won't stand for it myself.

So he waltzes in, a tiny bit annoying, and then announces his "cultural experiment", which - aside from the implied insult - is simply bad science, as it influences the reactions of we poor rodents, as can be seen from a half-dozen pages of bile.

get a grip, man

i don't know about your primal fantasies and all that, but you were most definitely not a 'test subject', and i was not even using the word 'experiment' in your anally retentive scientistic sense

poor rodent indeed

giving the whole order a bad name!

Now you're just being a dick.

Maybe you should stop screeching back.

[Phox]

dear Doktor Phoxero,

first of all, let me thank you for putting me straight and for taking the time to compose your supremely elucidatory missives

after the first reading i was going to argue a little more just to ensure that i lose every last shred of dignity, but upon reading your kind lines once more, i thought the better of it... i take my hat off to you, madam

so let's not go into the details of the validity or otherwise of analogies between offline and online social experiences (though it is a deeply interesting subject), and let's not wonder how your japanese hosts may react were you to whip out a brand new pair of shoes, in original packaging, etc., and let's not dwell on the many questions that i am burning to ask about the group of friends and acquaintances you mention, let's not even agree to disagree about Joyce, one of my favourite authors, and Ulysses, certainly in the top three comic novels ever written as far as i am concerned (and a book which was largely written for the purpose of evoking hysterical twittering among highly literate gentlemen with an admittedly perverse sense of humour), let's not even clear up what i really meant when i mentioned a cultural experiment and thereby unwittingly stirred up unpleasant memories, let me not even voice my surprise that long-standing active posters still derive enjoyment value out of poking

the long and short of it is this: you are correct, mutual ignoring would not be a desirable outcome, but i would be somewhat baffled if i was to be rejected here purely on account of this

call me atrociously arrogant again, but it is a sort of acid test, for my benefit

show magnanimity, please?

you see, i have been an academic and i am a professional

i get more than my fair share of practice at socially/professionally/academically acceptable writing

ah, and i am self-employed,

and i am afraid the sort of self-censorship you are proposing ("it is in your own very best interest to act within the bounds of the rules you offered, as thez are offered"), and of which i have extensive experience (the seventies and eighties in .hu) is ultimately self-defeating

i shall endeavour to be careful

some locals it is an honour to be thrown out of, though this place shows little indication so far of being one of those

my heartfelt sympathies to the management

To be perfectly honest, what you actually mean by "cultural experiment" is not at all relevant. As I said, it is going to be interpreted in a particular, negative way, because of the past experience with similar statements.

As for the rest of it, I really have no concern for your typographic inclinations, but you should certainly be aware that others might, and have already in some cases, deemed it beyond their notice.

But I'm not his lab rat.  Or maybe I am, you know, with this reaction...Maybe I'm that one rat that bites all the other rats and foams at the fucking mouth and sprays my horribly infected semen through the bars of the cage or whatnot.  But I don't believe in treating people like test subjects without their permission, and I won't stand for it myself.

So he waltzes in, a tiny bit annoying, and then announces his "cultural experiment", which - aside from the implied insult - is simply bad science, as it influences the reactions of we poor rodents, as can be seen from a half-dozen pages of bile.

get a grip, man

i don't know about your primal fantasies and all that, but you were most definitely not a 'test subject', and i was not even using the word 'experiment' in your anally retentive scientistic sense

poor rodent indeed

giving the whole order a bad name!

I would strongly advise against making responses like this. It comes off as antagonistic, and regardless of whether or not that is you intention, it will garner negative reactions all-around.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Holist- a word of advice. Being antagonistic to roger is the last thing you want to do.

Naw, fuck it.  He's shown what he's here for, so I'm not gonna bother with the usual shit.  I'm willing to talk about the situation, but he himself is just background noise right now.  Kind of like a gnat that keeps trying to fly into your ear.

[LMNO]

thanks, folks, point taken

Not a problem.  You might not believe this, but we're only trying to help.


Well, most of us.  Some of us.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

thanks, folks, point taken

Not a problem.  You might not believe this, but we're only trying to help.


Well, most of us.  Some of us.

I'm here to help the situation.  For I am a Holy Man™, and that's what we do.  Help it right into a fucking crater, with bits all over the place and the stench of win-win shoved up your nostrils like one of those Egyptian embalming hooks.

[LMNO]

While you're still receptive to advice, I promise this is a good one:

Start a new thread about something you're interested in, and make no mention of this thread.  Take the conversation where you want it to go, and ignore the people you think are poking at you.

[Phox]

To be perfectly honest, what you actually mean by "cultural experiment" is not at all relevant. As I said, it is going to be interpreted in a particular, negative way, because of the past experience with similar statements.

for you: sound inductive reasoning based on extensive experience

for me: preposterous, unwarranted prejudice in action

what a depressingly frequent state of affairs!

and how to get around it? 

Oh, it is most certainly unfair to you, but that, alas, is the problem with interacting with people, isn't it?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

While you're still receptive to advice, I promise this is a good one:

Start a new thread about something you're interested in, and make no mention of this thread.  Take the conversation where you want it to go, and ignore the people you think are poking at you.

I second this advice!

Besides, I'd like to know more about you and your interests. I'm a mother of three myself, incidentally, and also self-employed. What are you moving to the UK for? Are you from there originally? Your English is perfect.

[Phox]

Oh, it is most certainly unfair to you, but that, alas, is the problem with interacting with people, isn't it?

oh no, i wouldn't call it unfair, i, as anyone else, do turn up with some regularity on both ends of that stick, and do have utter freedom in deciding what i do with being there

natural is what i'd call it

No one ever said that "natural" isn't "unfair". 

While you're still receptive to advice, I promise this is a good one:

Start a new thread about something you're interested in, and make no mention of this thread.  Take the conversation where you want it to go, and ignore the people you think are poking at you.

I second this advice!

Besides, I'd like to know more about you and your interests. I'm a mother of three myself, incidentally, and also self-employed. What are you moving to the UK for? Are you from there originally? Your English is perfect.

I will third this advice as well.

I am interested in learning more about this homeopathy circus, so that would be a good topic starter.

[Cain]

Everything I know about Hungary, I learnt from the film Kontroll

[Cain]

I don't know, Fidesz's coup has something of a slapstick comedy about it.  Like the Great Dictator, set to the Benny Hill theme music.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

but it's much harder to see the funny side from the inside

they are enacting laws which they will then be entitled to enforce coercively

one such law, passed late in the evening on the 31st of december was this:

"If, as a result of rulings of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, the European Courts of Law or other international judiciary organs, the Hungarian government should incur payment obligations the treasury is unable to finance, a contribution is to be levied. The contribution shall be payable by all citizens."

not funny, really

Rule #3:  Everything is funny when it happens to someone else.

Rule #4:  It's still funny when it happens to you.

Get out of there.  England has its own problems, but that sounds fucked up.

[Cain]

The thing is, that there is no need for a law like that in Britain tells you a lot about the state of play here.

We've probably got a (somewhat) more stable economy than Hungary and (somewhat) better prospects for employment though, so on the balance, you're probably better away from it all.