So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[GHT]

2jakes is right, and I would add, nothing irritates a heckler more than being ignored.
To take your point about not reading someone's post, you only have to read a newspaper article online, then look at the comments. The remarks clearly demonstrate your point, people don't read other people's messages. Their ignorance causes so much friction and rifts, some of the name calling is really quite nasty. It's the same on Youtube, Twitter and other social media. But ignoring them is like starving a junkie of their fix.
Stay with us, we'll treat you like the lady that you are. Love the new avatar, isn't their a thread about changing avatars?

 

[HudsonHawk]

What ticks me off: internet arguments...

Ummm...guilty. But in my defense, it's not because I want to feel superior, I've just always found spirited debate interesting. Also, tone doesn't always translate well in short bursts of writing, and often I'm writing something trying to be funny or actually trying to agree, but come across looking like an ass. But I'm really a nice guy...I promise.

 

[2jakes]

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thing with internet arguments is that they can seem a lot more ferocious than they actually are just by the nature of the medium. When you're debating some question with a friend, face to face, you never lose sight of the fact that you're talking to another person, someone you like and care about, and while you might differ on some point or other that difference usually isn't going to be enough to sink the friendship. I have a good friend who couldn't be more opposite from me in a lot of ways -- she was raised an actual Blue Book-carrying Bircher, and I enjoy reading old copies of the Daily Worker. But none of that matters, because we're friends.

On the internet, unless you've got a really strong sense of empathy and visual imagination, it's hard to achieve that kind of friendship, because all you've got to go on is words on a screen. I think the Lounge is rather unique in that a lot of us here seem to have that ability.

 

[swanson_eyes]

Love the new avatar, isn't their a thread about changing avatars?

Thank you. I was just so proud of how my hair turned out that night. Had a dinner event and I did mine and friend's hair. She walked in first and immediately said "That's swanson_eyes' handiwork." They know me and my love of the '20s/'30s.

Lizzie, "I think the Lounge is rather unique in that a lot of us here seem to have that ability." Yes. I have another board where also this is true (not the one I was talking about). I've made a couple of very close friends there, as in we know each other off the board. It does happen if people treat others online the same way they do offline. That's how I am. I'll never use language or unkind words in print that I wouldn't use in "real life."

I don't think that person was really trying to argue, but in print it looked that way. I think she was just confused because she read but didn't actually comprehend what I said. There are a couple of people there who are know-it-alls, so I take what they say with a grain of salt.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Maybe, some of you got an idea, why I'm here, as a German.

I finally gave up german speaking communities, because it's just senseless. German language = german dialects = german mentality (!).

The big advantage of english language is the good and necessary distance in the way to talk with each other. That's, why English is a world-language and German isn't.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Some of the internet arguments can be interesting and entertaining. Once I was watching a thing on youTube about Romania during WWII and the comments were a full on flame war between some Romanians and Hungarians (Romania and Hungary were traditional enemies for centuries) -- they were even bringing up Vlad the Impaler!

My favorite comment was one written by a Hungarian who said, "stop posting in English because the Americans will believe the propaganda written by your radicals."

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I like to look at YouTube clips of Russian and Eastern European historical movies just to read the comments below. When the Russians and the Poles get into it, watch out! The Czechs and Hungarians and Romanians and such aren't far behind. These people never heard of PC. A typical Hungarian post I once read: "You Russians aren't even white people! You're just some kind of half Asiatic mongrels!"

 

[Hercule]

Actually, I find YouTube clips of Russian and Eastern European dash-cams quite entertaining and somewhat addictive. Great lunch hour diversion.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a reason "balkanization" is a word. And why the seeds of fascism have fallen on fertile soil in those countries.

 

[Stearmen]

I have a good friend who couldn't be more opposite from me in a lot of ways -- she was raised an actual Blue Book-carrying Bircher, and I enjoy reading old copies of the Daily Worker. But none of that matters, because we're friends.

.

Kind of like these two gentlemen!

 

[Trenchfriend]

I was in the discounter, buying my sweet (alcoholfree) kids-maltbeer, 25 minutes ago.

Behind me such a woman, which make no move to pack her goods on the belt, although I almost packed my stuff on it, set the divider and stepped aside, like I always do, that she can pack her goods on the belt.
What's the problem, rose-coloured polyestre-jacketed lady? You got enough place and time, to pack your goods on the belt, so why hindering the whole "checkstand-business" behind me?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Also entertaining are Brits arguing about football (soccer). Nobody can hurl insults better!

 

[Fading Fast]

So Trivial, yet it really ticks you off:

"Your call is very important to us, but we are experiencing 'high-call-volume' so your wait will be..."

Really? On a non-event Monday in March, you really are getting unexpectedly high call volume - doubt it. More likely, you intentionally understaff to save money and run an obnoxious message loop when the caller is on hold that constantly heckles him or her to go to your website for answers (as if any sentient person hasn't tried that first knowing that calling you will be torture) to save you money. Hence, for your bottom line, you put up an insultingly insincere recorded message about "high call volume."

It's disingenuous, selfish and makes people dislike your company.

 

[GHT]

Also entertaining are Brits arguing about football (soccer). Nobody can hurl insults better!

Our fellow Europeans have made it an art form. On Sunday night I enjoy watching highlights of Rugby Union. Whilst waiting for it to start, I caught the last five minutes or so, of a Manchester United defeat. Their manager, one: Louis van Gaal, was blaming one of his players who the referee had sent off. I'm not into soccer, but this manager was giving a class tutorial on buck passing. And there was I thinking that it was the head honcho's desk where the buck stops.
By way of contrast, later, watching my Rugby team win an away game, the home side manager, one: Mark McCall, praised the visitors, took the loss on the chin and said that they would use the defeat to learn lessons. How refreshing.
That scenario does duck your point about insults, so let me enlighten you to one of my favourites: Aimed at the referee for awarding an infringement against your team:
"Who's your father? Who's your father, whose your father referee?
You haven't got one,
You're a right one,
You're a b*****d referee."
However, that paled into insignificance, when Liverpool fans learned that the American owners of their club planned to raise the cost of a season ticket by seventy-seven pounds. At the next home game, on the seventy-seventh minute of the match, over ten thousand fans deliberately clattered their seats upright and walked out of the stadium. The price increase was cancelled.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^

I'm confident many of us have had similar thoughts. It's insulting, on at least a couple of levels. If my call is so &$@"ing important, then answer it!

I understand that it's much less costly to have customers serve themselves online than to pay real live humans to answer calls, even if those humans are in a call center in some far-off land where they are paid a small fraction of what workers here in God's Country knock down. But please, let's not pretend it is something it isn't.

 

[LizzieMaine]

However, that paled into insignificance, when Liverpool fans learned that the American owners of their club planned to raise the cost of a season ticket by seventy-seven pounds. At the next home game, on the seventy-seventh minute of the match, over ten thousand fans deliberately clattered their seats upright and walked out of the stadium. The price increase was cancelled.

Ahh, I see the good Liverpudlians have gotten to know Mr. Henry, Mr. Werner, and their methods. They own the baseball team that I and my fellow New Englanders spend our summers in thralldom to, and that team is well-known for having the highest average ticket price in the major leagues, despite having finished last three out of the last four seasons. Do they also spend millions in Liverpool signing fat stumbling bums for players?

 

[GHT]

Do they also spend millions in Liverpool signing fat stumbling bums for players?

I'm not into soccer that much, the eye watering wages paid to the players has really soured the enjoyment. A quick check on the internet confirms that Liverpool are no exception and spend squillions. I won't bore you with the minutiae, but the team that wins the league taps into untold riches and fame. It's why billionaires the world over fancy their chances. They all throw money around like confetti.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I'm not into soccer that much, the eye watering wages paid to the players has really soured the enjoyment. A quick check on the internet confirms that Liverpool are no exception and spend squillions. I won't bore you with the minutiae, but the team that wins the league taps into untold riches and fame. It's why billionaires the world over fancy their chances. They all throw money around like confetti.

Out of curiosity, why does it bother you that the players are receiving a higher percentage of the money the clubs are making?

 

[GHT]

It doesn't bother me, perhaps using the term eye watering gave you that impression. The top earners are paid anything from £100K to £250K per week. The clubs are pushing up entrance costs all the time. I use the time honoured way of protest, don't go.