Thread netiquette: Off-topic vs. digression

[Mary-Beth]

I found it hilarious how by being off topic, they were actually on topic. :grin01:

 

[desertanimal]

I found it hilarious that this all happened several days after the thread was started!

Teratoma--Let me start by saying that your screen name really unsettles me and I find it difficult to take you seriously because of it. I would very much like you to post a picture of yourself so that I stop imagining you with a giant teratoma for a head. And yes, I am quite serious. Since this is my thread, I don't care how off-topic it is. Please, please post a pic. Alternatively, please explain that your teratoma means something other than what I'm thinking it means, and that may help me.

However, I like your point. I agree that threads started by questions--especially health questions--should be more to the point. And I generally try not to respond to those unless what I have to say is directly to the point. But it was recently noted in a "general distress" thread (with no particular aim other than to express general distress at a situation everyone knew and said would be resolved) that the thread took a detour for a while. And it did, indeed, and I am the one who initiated the detour. I was dogged with pursuing the detour (I am usually dogged about most things I start) until it was clear it could go no further. But I couldn't tell if the comments made about the detour were motivated by displeasure, so I figured I would test the water, so to speak, about digression.

So now, I have brought the thread back to its original topic. No harm done, right? That's the thing about threads (or conversations). Anyone can bring them back to the original topic at any time. So I am not at all bothered by a meandering thread. Abrupt gear shifts, though, are definitely unsettling. But not in this particular thread.

 

[desertanimal]

p.s. Jazz, if you get any Tom Waits, please share. I used to have some, but it went with the other woman in a break-up long ago.

 

[Islandzoo]

I think it's really rude, when you post a topic about whatever it might be, and somebody replies, then someone else comes along....

" Hey mate! long time no see, so how are you doing" in reply to the person that replied to you - and then they continue on their conversation, ignoring your topic completely! that's plain rude.

 

[Eremita]

Teratoma--Let me start by saying that your screen name really unsettles me and I find it difficult to take you seriously because of it. I would very much like you to post a picture of yourself so that I stop imagining you with a giant teratoma for a head. And yes, I am quite serious. Since this is my thread, I don't care how off-topic it is. Please, please post a pic. Alternatively, please explain that your teratoma means something other than what I'm thinking it means, and that may help me.

I was wondering if anybody knew what that meant. I never liked screen names - I try to pick a different one at every site that demands I have one so as to avoid becoming too obvious. And to be honest, I would be happy for people not to take me too seriously, as I feel like I've been involved in too many threads that got kind of heated.

But, since I actually like it here, and hence will likely be around for some time, and since you asked soo nicely, I'll post a crop of the only picture of myself I found on my computer here at work. Assuming I post the pic correctly. Note that it will not stay there indefinitely, though.

Cheers!
-Sean

 

[desertanimal]

Phew! You're so much more handsome than a teratoma! That's much better. And I think you do look like a Sean. From now on, I'll be able to think of you as teratoma Sean. Thanks! I really mean it! Nice to meet you! :wavey:

 

[alyndria]

A certain amount of meandering from the original topic is to be expected.. it's just a written conversation. When I actually talk to people, it seems like half of what I had to say ends up going unsaid because the other person would chime in with something, and the conversation would be completely different.. I've seen threads like that. Fortunately, it's easier to get back on topic when it comes to the written word.

I think it's really rude, when you post a topic about whatever it might be, and somebody replies, then someone else comes along....

" Hey mate! long time no see, so how are you doing" in reply to the person that replied to you - and then they continue on their conversation, ignoring your topic completely! that's plain rude.

I agree. That's where there's a private messaging thing on the site-- for private messages.

I was wondering if anybody knew what that meant.

I didn't know.. I looked it up since I'm a curious kid. Yeahh. Interesting choice for a screen name.

 

[Eremita]

I didn't know.. I looked it up since I'm a curious kid. Yeahh. Interesting choice for a screen name.

Heh heh, yeah, wife wasn't overjoyed when I told her about it. :grin01:

Actually, since this is the "free thread" now, I can digress and tell you that I picked it up in a "Straight Dope" in the Boston Phoenix several years ago. I grew up around Boston, and have spent a number of years there since also.

And to complete the locality coincidences (btw: I got my Okeetee today! Yay!), I met my wife in Tempe, Mr. desertanimal, as we both attended ASU. Wife had a run-in with a rattlesnake out in those parts, before I met her.

-Sean

 

[desertanimal]

Mr. desertanimal, as we both attended ASU.

So odd that this keeps happening to me. Must be something about my writing style . . .

Since turn-about is fair play, I'll post a very recent picture of myself (even though it is from an unflattering angle). And no, I don't work out my pecs much. :grin01:

So you were an ASU undergrad or grad? I've run into a few rattlesnakes myself, but luckily, none of those encounters has ended badly. I'm writing from Noble library right now. Awww. Don't you miss it? Oh and other interesting Tempe news--I had to carry an umbrella this morning to walk in from lot 59. This week it's rained twice in the morning!

Do you remember restaurant Mexico? It's moving again. They're taking out all of the businesses in the arches and putting in condos. Now we'll be left with only chain restaurants that have recently gone in on college north of the anthropology/nursing/language and lit/ buildings.

 

[SnakeCreations]

You know I cannot believe how much this thread has made me laugh... I have people looking into my office and seeing the cute little starfish bikini.. which started me laughing all over again. They think I've gone mad.

Jazz - I have Tom Waits.. for my Camilla on the Couch moments... I typically listen after I've dealt with divorce issues, the kids are at their dads, the hatchlings fed.. and I have nothing to do but wallow in my self-pity and a bottle of wine <grin> Thankfully this has only happened twice this year because I'm addicted to out-of-the-egg sales.... :bang:

Teratoma - Everytime I see your name I think of that (I'm sure gonna be a)prize winning movie "The Hills Have Eyes" In my best raspy voice, "kill the baby". I can bring my 16 year old to her knees by sneaking up behind her and saying that under my breath....hehehe - I love being a Mom!

Oh and Chuck? I don't care either... thanks to the wine...hehe

Thanks for the laugh!!

-Tonya

 

[desertanimal]

I love making people laugh.

p.s. teratoma Sean. What in the heck is a straight dope in the Boston Phoenix?

 

[Eremita]

p.s. teratoma Sean. What in the heck is a straight dope in the Boston Phoenix?

That was purely for alyndria. It's a column in a free rag in Boston. Like the New Times with more of an art bent, and fewer classifieds.

 

[Eremita]

It's online too, at http://www.straightdope.com/

I looked up "teratoma" on the search page and found the article. 10/2/1998

-Sean

 

[Eremita]

So you were an ASU undergrad or grad? I've run into a few rattlesnakes myself, but luckily, none of those encounters has ended badly. I'm writing from Noble library right now. Awww. Don't you miss it? Oh and other interesting Tempe news--I had to carry an umbrella this morning to walk in from lot 59. This week it's rained twice in the morning!

Undergrad, fresh out of high school. Engineering, then Communications, then... well, marriage, jobs, the lot. We miss aspects about it. But the public transit sucked and the pollution was getting pretty scary when we last left in '95.

Do you remember restaurant Mexico? It's moving again. They're taking out all of the businesses in the arches and putting in condos. Now we'll be left with only chain restaurants that have recently gone in on college north of the anthropology/nursing/language and lit/ buildings.

Restaurant Mexico is the best mexican restaurant ever! We both wish we could still go there, they had those great goat cheese enchiladas... mmm... and La Tolteca on University, burritos as big as your head as the person who turned us onto them said, for about $3. I hope they've survived. And I've still never had french fries I liked as much as at the Chuck Box anywhere else. Yeah, those were the good old cheap days...

Pic is much more informative than the avatar, btw - thanks for filling in the mental gap.

-Sean

 

[desertanimal]

Pic is much more informative than the avatar, btw -
-Sean

LOL! You should TALK! LOL!

La Tolteca is alive and well. But it's not on University now--it's in downtown Phoenix only. I first ate there this past year. Unfortunately for me, my little knowledge of Spanish misled me into ordering a chicharron burrito. uke01: I wondered why they spoke to me only in Spanish after that. Chicharron, for those who don't know, is not pork (like I thought) but pork RIND. My subsequent dining experiences there have been much better. And the chuck box is still there too, but we're wondering if they're going to make that into condos.

Public transit is no different, but they're finally putting in a light rail that is slated to be finished in 2008. It will go right by our house, making the commute to Tempe less wasteful of natural resources (though I do get 50 mpg on my motorcycle) and allowing more drinking at department happy hours in Tempe. :grin01: Plus, connecting the intellectual community in Tempe to the art and alternative culture community of Phoenix can only make the whole place cooler.

Ok people! It's time for another digression. That's about all the talking about Phoenix there is to be done!


--2003 UB313

 

[alyndria]

I've actually never read the Phoenix.. I've never seen it around. I have the Metro shoved at me a hundred times a day, but I've yet to even SEE the Phoenix.

desertanimal-- I thought you were a guy when I joined, too. It's definitely the avatar.. most women don't have a [partially/fully] shaved head. And that picture is just too cute.

 

[desertanimal]

desertanimal-- I thought you were a guy when I joined, too. It's definitely the avatar.. most women don't have a [partially/fully] shaved head. And that picture is just too cute.

Ahhhhhh. I get it. It's just a high and tight haircut is all. It's funny, Kristi's haircut is shorter than mine right now and as short as my high and tight when I have it, but women all over everywhere love it and are always asking her where she gets her hair done. There's something about me that produces gender confusion and I can never key into what it is. My facial structure is not masculine, my voice is not unusually low, and my bra is a 38D. Yet, I am constantly mistaken for a guy. Maybe it's my clothes--cargo shorts and t-shirts, but when Kristi goes out dressed exactly like me she doesn't get mistaken for a guy. And she has a very confident carriage just like I do. In fact, I'd say her carriage is a little bit more like a teenage guy when she wears cargo shorts and a ball cap, and mine is never like a teenage guy! Maybe it's because she's too slender to be a guy so that even if you initially think that her clothes look boyish, you have to check because her arms and legs just don't have enough muscle mass for most guys her height. I'm a little on the thicker side (even when I'm thin, I'm so short and have enough muscle mass that I could never be considered slightly built), and I have a good bit of muscle mass in my calves (Asian descent) and forearms (motorcycle riding). So maybe it's my overall body conformation in combination with my clothes, carriage, and haircut. Hmm. I'm just thinking aloud here. I'm always trying to figure out which parts of gender steroetypes I'm bending that make people confuse me for a guy all the time. Lots of women have tribal tattoos in obvious places. Lots of women walk around in cargo shorts and t-shirts. Lots of women have short haircuts. Lots of women carry themselves in a confident manner. Etc. Maybe I'm onto something with the body conformation thing. I have an hourglass shape, but rarely show it. So maybe the other aspects of my body conformation don't give me away as a woman. I don't get mistaken for a guy much when I'm in those tightly-fitting tank tops, though it has happened, and that REALLY astonishes me.

Interestingly, when I actually have a buzz cut, I get mistaken for a guy FAR less often. I think somehow it makes people actually look at my face, and my facial structure just can't be mistaken for masculine. I always find it interesting that hardly anyone mistakes me for a guy with that haircut.

That's ok. I don't mind bumping my elbows on and stretching out the gender stereotype now and then.

 

[JoannaD]

I would say that on line people might mistake you for a guy because your posts are written in a direct non apologetic tone. Women tend to soften things they say and often apologize even when they know they are right. You say exactly what you want to without any softening. Way to go!

By the way I think the photo of you is very flattering.


Jo

 

[Chris Olson]

My facial structure is not masculine, my voice is not unusually low, and my bra is a 38D. Yet, I am constantly mistaken for a guy.

.....by blind people? :shrugs:

Chris

 

[jazzgeek]

p.s. Jazz, if you get any Tom Waits, please share. I used to have some, but it went with the other woman in a break-up long ago.

Jazz - I have Tom Waits.. for my Camilla on the Couch moments... I typically listen after I've dealt with divorce issues, the kids are at their dads, the hatchlings fed.. and I have nothing to do but wallow in my self-pity and a bottle of wine

First off, :roflmao:at the "Camille on the Couch" reference....the original drama queen!

I own every Waits album from "Closing Time" through the "Alice/Blood Money" releases (yeah, I'm a little behind....). He's part of my Holy Trinity of performers (Van Morrison and Steely Dan being the other two), and seeing him live is nothing short of a thrill. The man doesn't sing; he emotes.

Unfortunately, I'm not finding much in terms of DVDs/boots of live performances. Thank God for YouTube, however, and the wonderful souls who post clips like this, and other clips showing his humor and humanity, such as this and this.....

regards,
jazz