Re: Ridiculous expectations - CHANGING THE HEADER

Geoffrey Riggs wrote:

"tapefanatic@xxxxxxxxx" wrote:

Geoffrey Riggs wrote:


Oh, I see. Even when I call Tillman's insults disgusting, that's not
good enough for you, since I also dare to call it as I see it when Olsen
acts just as disgusting in his own snide way. So I evidently have to
hew to your party line all the way, or I'm automatically the "enemy".

In the protocol of Kazzie-Land, that's how it is, Geoff.


And that's precisely how you've acted too with Neutrals like Ed and
Donna Mobile. So don't preen. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it
was that which turned Donna Mobile into a partisan. She was a Neutral
for quite a long while here until the last year or so. Nice work that,
Tillman.



I came to rmo because of my interest in opera, specifically as a result of a Google. I have stayed because there are interesting and informative posts; people who share my interest etc.

However, I did not come from a vacuum. Like in Real Life, it takes time to discern trends and patterns of behaviour, but bottom line, irrespective of my love of opera, I don't find anything palatable, amusing, interesting or worthwhile about faecal references (unless there's a genuinely amusing anecdote attached), accusations of Nazi-ism, exhortations to people to die, or wishing infertility on people.

There are many other posters who from time to time get short-tempered, or brusque, but they combine this with genuine input, often very informed and usually interesting, and often follow their short-temperedness with an apology or an admission or implied acknowledgement of such (because that's what normal people do in Real Life, too).

I just find it puzzling that when a small group continue with their verbal viciousness and/or faecal references, there is another small group that seeks to defend them. Not usually actually defending what they have written, but "protecting" them from the criticism of those who find the faecal-Nazi tirades tiresome and/or repulsive.

I don't think it's unreasonable to express disgust at the filth that clutters up a newsgroup for discussion of opera and opera-related topics. Thread drift happens; blatantly OT threads, especially when so marked, can be taken at face value or just eliminated by pressing the 'k' key. But when On Topic threads degenerate into discussions of ***, or when one poster so dominates the volume of posts with self-referential or ad hominem posts (and rarely responds to threads started by anyone else), it's hardly 'taking sides' to condemn these.

I also find it irritating that there seems a lack of understanding from those people that this newsgroup is disseminated on the internet, with or without the word wide web, accessible, in theory, by the entire population of the world and certainly cropping up in googles by all opera-loving internet users, English-speaking or not. This makes it different from a members-only bulletin board or yahoo group which are nobody else's business.

I know from conversations at opera houses and concert halls in London, and by private email, that there are people who read, or used to read rmo, but don't contribute, or no longer even lurk, because of certain posters. Strangely, they don't mention Mark or LJO or REG or even you, Geoffrey, but there are two names that come up time and again as reasons why rmo is not for them. And express incredulity that two posters can be so lacking in self-awareness and awareness of how rmo is disseminated that they don't even begin to understand that they are the problem.

I remain on rmo because there is a large number of posts that are worth reading. I also receive emails from Parlour, but find it difficult to contribute to detailed discussions of operas or singers of which I know little; and I find the pettiness, small-minded ignorance and xenophobia of Opera-L to be less and less appealing, but stay because there are a few posters of very high quality and/or whom I regard as online 'friends'.

And, I have to say, despite the fact that it may seem xenophobic, it strikes me that the most egregious posters seem mainly to be based in one particular city. I am sure I am not the only person who has noticed this. Collectively, they do not act as particularly impressive Ambassadors for that city in the eyes of the rest of the opera-loving internet-using, English-reading world. In fact they are an atrocious advert.


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