Can people be "serious" on After Hours?

stepbar · 02-06-2009 10:02PM #1

After the shameful posts on the Air France thread, I think there's an argument for keeping threads like that off After Hours. I hate to use the word serious per se, as I believe After Hours should be a place where matters of the day should be discussed in a less serious way. But posters should practice some restraint and cop on. I mean some of the posts were just shameful. It seems to me no matter the discussion, some muppets will always try to take things down a level in order to create hatred and bad feeling. I'm all for people expressing an opinion and all that goes along with same, but there's a fine line. I just wish some people would cop the fcuk on.

dlofnep · 02-06-2009 10:03PM

It's generally accepted that nothing is taken seriously here.. Anything of a serious nature is discussed in politics or humanties or something like that.

phasers · 02-06-2009 10:03PM

...No?

Overheal · 02-06-2009 10:05PM

Before this goes off to feedback where I dare not tread: yes. They just frequently choose not to.

RATM · 02-06-2009 10:06PM

You make take our lives but you'll never take our freedom of speech

/has no coat on such a warm evening

like clockwork! · 02-06-2009 10:06PM

Who cares, its just the internet.

shenanigans1982 · 02-06-2009 10:08PM

stepbar wrote: »

After the shameful posts on the Air France thread

Either everything is ok to make fun of or nothing is.

Overblood · 02-06-2009 10:09PM

I agree. That Air France thread was plane idiotic...

Gran Hermano · 02-06-2009 10:09PM

AH is akin to reading graffiti on a toilet cubicle wall.

Ah-Watch · 02-06-2009 10:11PM

I love this forum as it does give me a laugh but have to agree with the OP, peoples attitude to the air france flight was disgraceful, i don't mind a banter but when someone asked for a bit of sensitivity they were told to go discuss it in the aviation forum if they wanted to be serious. I'm from the same town as one of them, maybe you'd call it biased-though i never knew her i do think its bad form. However yes as overheal said people said they can be serious but often choose not to.

galwayrush · 02-06-2009 10:12PM

With a thread title like that, not a fecking hope.;)

02-06-2009 10:13PM

What's with all this serious business in AH lately?

mirwillbeback · 02-06-2009 10:17PM

shenanigans1982 wrote: »

Either everything is ok to make fun of or nothing is.

Next time someone you care about dies, send me a PM.

I reckon I'll make up something to make ya laugh.;)

Overheal · 02-06-2009 10:20PM

shenanigans1982 wrote: »

Either everything is ok to make fun of or nothing is.

Theres a line, with everything. The lolocaust has a line. The Thunderdome ffs has a line. And AH also has a line. Making ridicule of the tragically deceased is typically one of those lines in AH.

Sharpshooter · 02-06-2009 10:21PM

Ah-Watch wrote: »

I love this forum as it does give me a laugh but have to agree with the OP, peoples attitude to the air france flight was disgraceful, i don't mind a banter but when someone asked for a bit of sensitivity they were told to go discuss it in the aviation forum if they wanted to be serious. I'm from the same town as one of them, maybe you'd call it biased-though i never knew her i do think its bad form. However yes as overheal said people said they can be serious but often choose not to.

AHs generally rips the piss out of everything and posters have the choice to post here or not as the case may be.

Now if I had known any of the unfortunate people who were on that plane I know which forum I would be posting in and it wouldn't be here.

Why?
Because I would want to discuss it with like minded people and the Avation Forum would be the one I would head over to.

02-06-2009 10:24PM

OP a troll??

lol

bleg · 02-06-2009 10:25PM

Random wrote: »

What's with all this serious business in AH lately?

did you not get the lolcat memo?

the internets is now serious business

Krieg · 02-06-2009 10:28PM

As an occasional reader of AH, I don't think anything should be changed.

Any thread in here I generally treat it as a humour thread. Although I have attempted to sway a thread in a more serious direction, if I have an interest in the subject matter.

It is interesting though, a thread about 300 dead people gets lol's (And ill admit that i did laugh at some of the posts), while a thread about hundreds of kids being buggered by priests, gains a very serious tone with bans being thrown out liberally (not attacking the AH modders or starting a debate about which tragedy is worse).

Id say the line is too fine to draw here. Let the threads take their course

Terry · 02-06-2009 10:28PM

On certain things, yes.
Take the current abortion thread for instance.
That's a quite serious discussion and I haven't seen any lame puns or memes thrown in there.

The air France thread.
Well...
There are disasters every day and people become immune to them.
You rarely see a thread about the latest sucide bombing in the Middle East or the latest U.S. drone (read Pussy) attack in Pakistan, but these things are happening.

Here's a story of at least 51 people dying in a mine in South Africa, but there was absolutely no mention of it in AH.

Why?
Because it didn't involve European whites and possibly Irish people.

I do agree that some people went too far in the Air France thread and at least 4 were banned. I know I banned one myself and was close to banning another.
The thing is though, people are going to make light of these situations.

There was a case recently (two now that I think of it) which involved people I knew and death.
Crass jokes were made, but I stood back in my moderator capacity because this is what the majority of people want.

I'll let things go so far (and I am in no way speaking for the other AH mods here) and then step in and put a stop to over the top crap.

We discuss certain threads in our own little forum and see how things work out on those threads.
Whichever one of us in on at the time will flag a topical thread for discussion, but we generally allow most threads to run until they just become beyond ridiculous.

There are a lot of users who do thing AH is just a playground akin to /b/, but we do not want that and we keep a close eye on those users.
I'd just like to point put now that throwing a few quid to boards for a subscription does not give you free reign in AH.

In short, AH is a free for all with large limitations.
We currently hold 10% of all the posts on boards, so it is almost impossible for us to read every one of them.

When I started modding AH the default cut-off for threads was 10 days (see the drop downs at the top of the main AH page).
At that time we had between 7 and 9 pages of threads over a 10 day period.
If you change it from the 2 month cut-off that it is currently at to 10 days, you will see that there are now twice as many threads.
This is why we rely on reported posts from the users here.
One or two posts do slip through.
I used to be able to read all the posts when I started, but I can't do that any more. It's just not possible.
All the mods have jobs or are in college and we cannot spend our entire existence monitoring every single post.

Ok. The beer has kicked in. That's me off duty for the night.

AH is what you make it.
From my first day I said to myself that I would give the people what they wanted, but within reason.
We're currently working on a new charter which will reflect the wants of the majority here. In the mean time, I ask that you report any post that you deem unacceptable.

You have to admit that the Ben Linus one was funny though.

Terry · 02-06-2009 10:34PM

shenanigans1982 wrote: »

Either everything is ok to make fun of or nothing is.

No. That is not the case at all.
While Parker and Stone are correct on so many things, they were wrong on that one.

There is a time and a place for certain jokes.
Extremely crude jokes are not welcome anywhere on boards.
If you can't find the troll palace, PM me and I'll send you in the right direction. Just don't bring any of the their kiddie porn jokes back with you.

Also, humour is subjective and the rules on this will vary depending on the views of the moderators.

Sharpshooter · 02-06-2009 10:34PM

Terry wrote: »

On certain things, yes.
Take the current abortion thread for instance.
That's a quite serious discussion and I haven't seen any lame puns or memes thrown in there.

The air France thread.
Well...
There are disasters every day and people become immune to them.
You rarely see a thread about the latest sucide bombing in the Middle East or the latest U.S. drone (read Pussy) attack in Pakistan, but these things are happening.

Here's a story of at least 51 people dying in a mine in South Africa, but there was absolutely no mention of it in AH.

Why?
Because it didn't involve European whites and possibly Irish people.

I do agree that some people went too far in the Air France thread and at least 4 were banned. I know I banned one myself and was close to banning another.
The thing is though, people are going to make light of these situations.

There was a case recently (two now that I think of it) which involved people I knew and death.
Crass jokes were made, but I stood back in my moderator capacity because this is what the majority of people want.

I'll let things go so far (and I am in no way speaking for the other AH mods here) and then step in and put a stop to over the top crap.

We discuss certain threads in our own little forum and see how things work out on those threads.
Whichever one of us in on at the time will flag a topical thread for discussion, but we generally allow most threads to run until they just become beyond ridiculous.

There are a lot of users who do thing AH is just a playground akin to /b/, but we do not want that and we keep a close eye on those users.
I'd just like to point put now that throwing a few quid to boards for a subscription does not give you free reign in AH.

In short, AH is a free for all with large limitations.
We currently hold 10% of all the posts on boards, so it is almost impossible for us to read every one of them.

When I started modding AH the default cut-off for threads was 10 days (see the drop downs at the top of the main AH page).
At that time we had between 7 and 9 pages of threads over a 10 day period.
If you change it from the 2 month cut-off that it is currently at to 10 days, you will see that there are now twice as many threads.
This is why we rely on reported posts from the users here.
One or two posts do slip through.
I used to be able to read all the posts when I started, but I can't do that any more. It's just not possible.
All the mods have jobs or are in college and we cannot spend our entire existence monitoring every single post.

Ok. The beer has kicked in. That's me off duty for the night.

AH is what you make it.
From my first day I said to myself that I would give the people what they wanted, but within reason.
We're currently working on a new charter which will reflect the wants of the majority here. In the mean time, I ask that you report any post that you deem unacceptable.

You have to admit that the Ben Linus one was funny though.

T'was and I am not thanking it again.:D
I am thanking this post though, so in a way I am thanking it again.
Damn!

Earthhorse · 02-06-2009 10:35PM

Though I'll defend people's right to say what they want in AH I really don't know why anyone would want to say some of the stuff that was said on that thread. Pretty awful, in my opinion.

like clockwork! · 02-06-2009 10:46PM

Terry wrote: »

Because it didn't involve European whites and possibly Irish people.

Like it or not, this is generally the underlying reason why some stories arouse feelings of remorse in us and others don't.

A quarter of a million people dying in a tsunami in Asia is hard to fathom, in terms of the pain felt by the relatives of victims and the general population of the area. 48 people dying in the Stardust disaster, while on the face of it, seems like a minor tragedy in comparison, has the ability to arouse a much greater deal of sympathy amongst us.

A psychological flaw amongst humans I'd imagine; probably something to do with the fact that our capacity for empathy for other peoples' sufferings evolved in an enviroment wherby everybody knew everybody else.

poindexter · 02-06-2009 10:50PM

so is where everything is fair game then?? i've never really ventured in here, only occasionally popping my head round the corner for a quick peek

shenanigans1982 · 02-06-2009 10:54PM

Terry wrote: »

No. That is not the case at all.
While Parker and Stone are correct on so many things, they were wrong on that one.

They were right when they said that if you make an exemption for one group of people you are going to have to do it for another...and then another, and so on until you are at a point where you cannot make fun of anything.

seanybiker · 02-06-2009 10:58PM

As people have said already. If it wasnt Irish people involved it would be a free for all.
I see things all time that I dont like or agree with, I choose not the whine about it because this is after hours. Ya hardly expect a serious discussion in here.
We all know there is a serious thread in aviation for the plane crash. Well not serious cos some of them decided that AH is full of tards. Which is also wrong. My mother works with disabled people I think Ill go in and whinge cos someone used the word tard.
Balls to it. Ill just live my life in the real world on not get annoyed at a computer screen.

youcrazyjesus! · 02-06-2009 11:01PM

Terry wrote: »

I do agree that some people went too far in the Air France thread and at least 4 were banned. I know I banned one myself and was close to banning another.

There was a case recently (two now that I think of it) which involved people I knew and death.
Crass jokes were made, but I stood back in my moderator capacity because this is what the majority of people want.

Who was the very first person to make a joke out of the Air France crash?

You have to admit that the Ben Linus one was funny though.

In fact it was an utterly predictable and profoundly unfunny quip.

like clockwork! wrote: »

Like it or not, this is generally the underlying reason why some stories arouse feelings of remorse in us and others don't.

A quarter of a million people dying in a tsunami in Asia is hard to fathom, in terms of the pain felt by the relatives of victims and the general population of the area. 48 people dying in the Stardust disaster, while on the face of it, seems like a minor tragedy in comparison, has the ability to arouse a much greater deal of sympathy amongst us.

A psychological flaw amongst humans I'd imagine; probably something to do with the fact that our capacity for empathy for other peoples' sufferings evolved in an enviroment wherby everybody knew everybody else.

If your next door neighbour's house burned down (detached!) you would be quite interested in the event and it's aftermath. It's natural and understandable to be interested in local events, the closer to home the more interested you are in them. In the case of Air France there are Britons and Irish who are affected and a commercial air disaster is always big news. In most cases the media coverage overage of disasters is ok. Some other times it's not. For example, the coverage of the hurricanes that destroyed Haiti last year focused on moderate damage and loss of life in the US.

poindexter · 02-06-2009 11:01PM

RonMexico · 02-06-2009 11:03PM

Come on Terry admit that this is you!

02-06-2009 11:04PM

stepbar wrote: »

But posters should practice some restraint

Bondage?

tech77 · 02-06-2009 11:07PM

mirwillbeback wrote: »

Next time someone you care about dies, send me a PM.

I reckon I'll make up something to make ya laugh.;)

Yeah, i'm still waiting for one of our AH humour heros to make a joke in one of those boardsie bereavement threads that crop up now and then in AH.
Nothing like proximity to ensure seriousness.
"Everything funny or nothing funny" me ar$e.
Reeks of half-hearted self-suiting, hypocrisy tbh.

Can people be "serious" on After Hours?

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