posted on July 17, 2008 08:42:05 AM
I have been on this board since it started and in the past it has been very helpfull and had a lot of great people posting useable information. It now has less and less people particapating in threads every week and I see why. Also less abut eBay and more about OT BS.
Most of you seem to love being rude to others and have formed your own little gang here. You should all be very happy hanging out telling each other how smart you are. I have a life.
posted on July 17, 2008 09:05:05 AM
Ahhh. Now we understand.
Actually, it's rather refreshing to be talking about SOMETHING different than the regular griping about eBay and the multiple changes that have come our way in the past few months.
Tool - You obviously have as much of a life as others who are reading these forums. It's always good to take a break and go offline and engage with the world around us. I, for one, appreciate the interaction with those who are at least as intelligent and many much more so. Frequently, I think the public has taken a turn for the worse when it comes to etiquette and common sense. I really do think that Howard Hughes might have been right -- make as much money as you can then get the hell away from everyone.
Re: "Most of you seem to love being rude to others and have formed your own little gang here. You should all be very happy hanging out telling each other how smart you are. I have a life."
As near as I can tell (without re-reading each and every post on this thread), the very first act of rudeness on this thread was yours. Okay, you don't care about apostrophes. Good for you. Is your browser stuck, or can you just avoid this thread?
I didn't know I was in a gang; I don't even know my colors or hand signals.
This situation is what the phrase "that's what makes horse races" was intended for. Go on with your life. FWIW, I have a life also, and I'm willing to bet that you and I are not the only ones with lives on this thread.
It's true that there's less and less about eBay on this board. My guess is that there is eBay fatigue; relentless bad changes are being made, fees going up, etc.
posted on July 17, 2008 10:57:20 AM
Tool, I find very little rudeness on this board. We are discussing a topic which does not interest you. Fine--don't read it. Contrary to your belief, the only rude or derogatory remarks on this thread are yours. You keep telling us that the topic is not worthy of your attention and implying that we are shallow for discussing it. That's pretty judgmental and critical, if you ask me. You seem to be quite defensive on this topic.
posted on July 17, 2008 12:29:30 PM
Toolhound: You said, "I guess a bunch of you on this board live in a different world than I do. The use of the apostrophe means nothing to people that are trying to feed their families or pay their mortage payment to keep from being homeless. Get out of the house and look around this worlds problems have nothing to do with the apostrophe."
I respectfully disagree with you. This is an ECONOMIC ISSUE. Some (not all) of the people struggling to feed their families and pay their mortgages might have gotten better jobs if they'd been able to express themselves well in (1) writing and (2) speaking.
Please don't jump on me for attacking all poor people. We have two adult children, married, who are working as hard as they can to keep afloat, and they have been educated. I know that today there are many people who undeservedly are losing their homes and jobs. All the more reason to have as much training as possible to make yourself more employable.
If you don't care about punctuation and grammar for any other reason, care about it from the standpoint of economic security. See that your children (and grandchildren) are brought up to represent themselves well in person and in print.
posted on July 17, 2008 12:54:42 PM
"The use of the apostrophe means nothing to people that are trying to feed their families or pay their mortage payment to keep from being homeless. Get out of the house and look around this worlds problems have nothing to do with the apostrophe."
These ideas are not mutually exclusive. You can still use the apostrophe correctly while you are trying to feed your family. Trying to be grammatically correct does not prevent you from being concerned about the state of America or the world. As Roadsmith said, the ability to use the English language correctly may allow you to get a better paying job or make a better impression at a job interview.
posted on July 17, 2008 01:27:57 PM
Here's an example from a few moments ago.
I've been watching "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." I pause it and go to Netflix to see if anyone actually enjoyed this movie. I find this review:
This movie is the perfect example of everything bad about Hollywood: a senseless, thoughtless, stupid parade of violence with no real message and even less "entertainment."
I couldn't agree more. I start feeling a little simpatico with this reviewer.
Then I get to the next line:
Even the plot was rediculous
...which ruins it for me.
Sure, it's a common-enough misspelling, more's the pity. But it detracts from the point he was trying to make. It makes me wonder if the first line he wrote was just something he heard somewhere. (I forgave him the use of sneer quotes around the word entertainment.)
Life is all about credibility. You get it by following generally-accepted conventions, like politeness, grammar, correct spelling and etiquette. Come to think of it, it's usually the sloppy language types who also insist that etiquette is a thing of the past.
fLufF
--
The Fourth is over but we've still got Fireworks...
posted on July 17, 2008 02:14:33 PM
toolhound, I believe I am as intolerant as anyone of OT BS, as you call it. I would love some rousing discussions on how to improve our eBay businesses. As others have said, though, it is the summer of uncertainty. Hard to decide what to do when eBay changes the rules constantly.
Or as an analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald said: "Every two or three months sellers walk into their living rooms and see all the furniture rearranged." (Cantor has long had a SELL recommendation on eBay.)
fLufF
--
The Fourth is over but we've still got Fireworks...
[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Jul 17, 2008 02:43 PM ]
posted on July 18, 2008 03:24:13 AM
OK, here's something to rant about.....contractions....I increasingly hear even allegedly educated people, journalists, news anchors, pronounce words like "didn't" with TWO syllables!!!!!!!!!!!!! DUH! It was changed from "did not" to "didn't" to SHORTEN it!
"didn't" is ONE syllable and only one syllable.
"wouldn't" is ONE syllable, not two, not three...ONE!.
posted on July 18, 2008 09:21:19 AM
Mingo, I beg to differ. Couldn't and didn't, etc. are TWO syllables! Do you live in Michigan? My college roommate was from Grand Rapids and pronounced those contractions as one syllable; I've never heard it before or since.
I couldn't resist, because I knew an otherwise perfectly pleasant young woman who had a speech affectation that made that particular contraction sound an awful lot like that particular word.
Slightly off topic but hey, the whole thread is by now, I also once had a Vietnamese boss who spoke any number of languages; I believe none of them fluently. One unfortunate thing is that when he said "focus" it sounded much more like "f___ us." There was one memorable presentation he gave where he was giving what was intended to be a rousing speech exhorting us all to focus more on product delivery. The end of the speech consisted of his telling us that:
"Developers must f___ us"
"support must f___ us"
"and not least, management must f___ us."
There wasn't a dry eye, or unbitten inner cheek, in the crowd. It was, and deserved to be, a never forgotten speech.
