Dan Gross

What about the Lime Black Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke Zero? Add many more flavors and they'll have to make the can bigger just to add the name on... Lemon Lime Black Cherry Vanilla Pickle Juice Lark's Vomit Diet Coke: newly formulated with extra "Coke."

Like it took a mod to figure that out anyway....

See, this is where I misunderstood your hypothetical situation. I thought you meant that the "board" consisted of 1 thread with 300,000 replies. Not had one thread. But that thread really in a sense proves "nothing," as it is a thread whose very spirit is to add random thoughts.... There are all sorts of examples of zany, crazy threads that have shown up here, and when they happen it's fine, hilarious. Sometimes something that starts on-topic goes way off topic. That happens, that's personalities. But what if every thread went that way? Wouldn't it get tedious? What if someone decided to post their creation in another thread, or several other threads? It isn't any different here, and I don't think anyone is arguing that. PPP, OtW, Consumer Forum, College sports, baseball forum, etc... I'd defer to XXX XXXX's rare lucid moment. Yes, I did read it, and if I hadn't I would have wasted a lot more of my time as well as those actually reading this thread pretty much repeating what he said. He pretty much nailed it. Maybe I'm a weird person, but it takes me a lot longer to compose a response than it does to read, and I'm lazy, so it's usually in my best interests to read the responses to see if what I'm thinking has already been said. If it has, then frequently it's a net savings on my time. Of course, based on a lot of what I have bothered to read here lately, part of my problem is that I actually bother to think about what I'm going to type before I open the reply window.... It's very clear that, as you mention in another reply, lack of patience is part of the problem as well (as evidenced by the "why hasn't the entire coaching staff been announced?!" threads that started about 5 minutes after Jauron was introduced). I'm just one who thinks that better community is built by talking to each other rather than trying to shout above each other...but I guess I'm old-fashioned that way...

I really don't think it's as much about high post counts as much as it's "seeing your name in lights." Maybe if we masked the "author" "last posted by" fields it would help, but I doubt it.

Ya know K-Dog, it's not really common sense you're talking about here, it's common courtesy. And I think the last ounce of it disappeared sometime in the 20th Century. In either case, they are both highly uncommon in this "me" age....and as you can see from the responses, it's not about "building communities" it's about "taking the stage (and trying to up-stage the previous guy)," not dialogues as much as conflicting monologues. Besides, it's obvious you don't even have "management" support in this. Let the kids have their playground, with one thread with 10,000 posts that no one reads but people keep adding to it...

I'll try to make it (to Tahou's, not NZ, though I'd like to get there someday...)

Pfizer giving out samples of the newest anti-inhibition drugs today? No, really NG, tell us how you feel.

What's the alternative if Jeb runs against her? Bush v. Clinton II: This time it's personal.

Are you suggesting that we merge the whole Wall into one giant thread? If I came across such a message board, I would say "what kind of weird wackos are they?" and go find another one on the same topic, one that actually used separate threads...so I can actually follow the conversation....

So, in other words, no one's opinion matters but your own? That you so need to make your point known to the world that you have to log in between eating dinner and doing dishes to say it? That your point is so important that you can't wait until you have time to read what has been said? Okay.

Hey, he was pretty much asking for spoilers...you ruined it for me though.

So are you suggesting I and about 7 others start a new thread about why I think K-Dog's common sense thread idea will/won't work, pretty much rehashing what's been said in this thread? Then maybe we can get someone else to start a poll? Then 30 other people can start 30 other threads about different common sense rules that won't work either? Then someone else starts a poll on which common sense rule out of the 31 would be most feasible? That's the equivalent of what would happen with the Ben R. trade thread...

OH, yeah, the "Wish Book." Man, I used to turn the corner of just about every page in the toy section as a kid, indicating a page that had something I wanted on it...

It's an actual setting for the forum at the admin level. It would apply to all users who post in said forum.

On the plus side, I've never seen a vampire there...

Shut up! I have the conch shell! Seriously, there are a mess of common sense rules that already exist, and they get broken any day here. Any "common sense" rules will be taken even less seriously than the "carved in stone" ones, as the latter can actually gets you suspended/banned, the former is just annoying to others. Attempts to be reasonable are wasted here. People will continue to PMRL, they will continue to start new topics on existing discussions so that their knowledge/opinion doesn't get "lost" in said existing discussions, attack any serious attempt to be helpful, etc with banal humor, etc etc etc. I applaud your attempt to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, but it's lost on this monkey house. And as for beerball's suggestion, I agree. The mentally challenged should be insulted by being compared to some here... [/conch]

Just remember, motion's success turns into more weight in the postal worker's bag....

A couple things: --Quantity does not equate to quality. Higher post counts do not necessarily mean a better board...or poster (sez the guy with over 7500 posts ). I'd rather see 1/10 of the current posts on the Wall if it meant that the posts were meaningful football discussions. And I'm not saying that 10% of the posts "up there" are good. There are very few threads I even bother to open any more, because either: a.) the original poster b.) the title c.) it's clearly someone who wasn't comfortable adding to an existing discussion on some topic, and needed to create a LAMP titled "My thoughts on X." There are a rare handful of posters whose names attached to said LAMP will be the exception for me, but seeing those same names in the "last post by" column can pull me into reading a topic that I wouldn't have otherwise as well. --Stating the same opinion over and over without any substance does not add to the discussion. Answering every "why?" question with "because Levy/Jauron/Wilson sucks" certainly makes your position clear, but it really doesn't answer the question. Further, it is clear that some have decided already that X hire is bad for the team and have decided every decision/statement that X makes (with X being any of the men hired by the Bills in the past few weeks, or even Ralph) is bad primarily because X made it. --Generalizing people based on their opinions on a particular topic doesn't add to things either. People who support a hire, or are willing to keep an open mind/"wait and see" attitude, are not automatically "ball washers/jock sniffers" And while some people prefer to remain pessimistic to avoid being disappointed, neither is anyone who provides negative commentary about one particular move a "doom and gloomer." --The bottom line is that your opinion is welcome, but you should be able to back it up, or at least bow out when you have nothing more to add. Your opinion can certainly be formed out of the "I just have a feeling..." but if you want credibility you should try and figure out why you have that feeling and be prepared to elaborate, rather than just pulling a "because I said so." Further, there are a number of people guilty of "constipation of the mind diarhea of the fingers" who really have nothing to say but spend a lot of words saying it. This isn't a contest. You don't have to respond to every thread. One thing I think the OTW board has done is move what some consider the "ganging up on posters" off of the Wall, leaving people feeling pretty safe about offering their opinions. On the downside, it has created quite the "stew" on the Wall, with a lot of broth, but not a lot of substance. It can be a self-feeding problem, as the threads that draw the responses are usually the ones that are the most inflammatory, while the well thought-out analyses drift down because there's nothing really to add but "good post." I hesitate to add to this thread, as I don't like to bring up problems without proposing solutions, but the flailing of arms "up there" already convinced me to take a month away, and it's very near convincing me that I came back too soon. Not that that particular point matters, as I really don't add much to the discussion myself, and a lot of my points above apply to me as well as anyone, but I'm guessing I'm not alone, and that there are people whose inputs/posts are valued that are feeling the same way.

To paraphrase Animal House: "He can't do that to our team." "Only we can do that to our team."

...being well-tanned (even if sprayed on) with glossy white teeth apparently helps as well...

...and what smiley will he/she use to denote the topic?

Where do you think the Marines got it from?

Nothing. I don't recall anywhere where he was specifically asked by the press what he thought of the hiring of Jauron, he came out and said it. I imagine then you'll also say that he made up the fact that he interviewed and considered Jauron for the head coaching job at Indy, and that "confidants" that were quoted in various news stories lied about him looking at Jauron as a possible successor to Levy. Yeah, it's clear that he thinks Jauron will stink and that he's just trying to make Levy look good....

How many NFL head coach interviews did Ferentz get? I mean nearly half the NFL had a coaching change, why didn't I hear more about him interviewing if he was an ideal candidate? My point was that being a successful college head coach does not necessarily predicate success as an NFL head coach. That, "because Saban is doing well in Miami," it means that X Coach will also do well here. There are always indicators and counter-indicators WRT coaching situations, regardless of the background, but it all gets back down to the same thing as with the players: "I've heard of him, he must be good." And of course, if we don't get the guy, it just becomes a "I told ya we should have got X" if things don't work out. That's all well and good, but there's no such thing as an automatic winning solution, neither are the decisions made so far automatically going to plunge us into 3 0-16 seasons in a row. Like I said before, maybe I cut my vacation too short....

Yeah, I remember when he had a competitor show up, the "I pinch your face" guy. Funny stuff.