12/22/24
March 07, 2006
Just when you think you have a clue...: ...what does the "." represent in the post about Kirby Puckett's death?
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY to navel gazing at 10:05 AM - 65 comments
Ancient *filter.com tradition.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:12 AM on March 07, 2006
Thanks guys. I don't go to Metafilter and have never seen it before.
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 11:01 AM on March 07, 2006
That's cool, Texan, and you're certainly not expected to frequent MeFi (heck, I'm only a very occasional visitor nowadays). It's just that a lot of SpoFi customs and convention can be traced back to weird ol' Uncle MeFi.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:35 AM on March 07, 2006
Didn't mean my response to sound rude; it just comes up a lot at Metafilter (where even a cursory search would provide an answer). Obviously, the same isn't true here. It just gets old in a geometric progression: once for every time someone asks what the period means and once for everyone who does it because it seems an intolerable bit of cheek to feel it matters if you personally leave a mark in a thread about the death of someone you never knew. And yet I did the same stupid thing today though, in my defense, I posted it as a stand-in for a rant about why the hell it couldn't all have been in one post.
posted by yerfatma at 11:42 AM on March 07, 2006
it seems an intolerable bit of cheek to feel it matters if you personally leave a mark in a thread about the death of someone you never knew. 1. Presumes that everyone who posted didn't in fact know him. 2. #1 is mostly irrelevant anyway. This whole site celebrates the notion of having such stong feelings for a team that "their season-ending loss makes you cry like it was the end of Brian’s Song?" To suggest that fans shouldn't have at least as strong a reaction to the passing of a person with whom they have come to strongly identify through their fandom is bizarre. 3. If, instead of leaving the period, people were rehashing the same sentiments over and over, we can guess what your view of that would be. 4. The period is a nice gesture, even if it provides nothing more than a head count of the number of people who recognize and mourn the loss. I had never seen it myself before, either -- I also don't go to MeFI -- but I picked up on it right away and thought it was classy. The only reason I didn't respond in kind is because I DID spend a significant amount of time with Kirby, and I felt obliged to leave something more. Sorry, yerfatma. I couldn't let that comment go unchecked.
posted by BullpenPro at 12:05 PM on March 07, 2006
So I knew we lost the first 1000 or so threads awhile back due to some database problem. Has that problem grown quite a bit larger recently, at least in regards to the locker room? My posting history is decimated. .
posted by danostuporstar at 12:06 PM on March 07, 2006
1. Presumes that everyone who posted didn't in fact know him. I feel pretty comfortable assuming 99.9% of posters didn't know any given deceased player or celebrity.
posted by yerfatma at 12:36 PM on March 07, 2006
2. #1 is mostly irrelevant anyway.. I think you may have missed my bigger point.
posted by BullpenPro at 01:23 PM on March 07, 2006
dano, the Pantheon has been moving everything off the old server (currently this one) to the new one. They did the first 1000 locker room threads a while back, and now they're proceeding further. We'll get everything back when the new server goes live.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 01:25 PM on March 07, 2006
I think you may have missed my bigger point. I did and I still do. I don't think it's a question of point or right v. wrong so much as perception. Between my Irish-Catholic upbrining and my Yankee roots, public displays of grief are not my thing.
posted by yerfatma at 01:28 PM on March 07, 2006
I'm not into the whole period thing either. I see no great injustice or rudeness in genuinely (and sensitively) commenting on the death of a public figure in a public forum. Of course doing the period thing is doing exactly that.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 01:53 PM on March 07, 2006
I'm with yerfatma. The whole "I'll miss you Kirby" thing just isn't for me, and, in fact, seems a little trite considering that the man just lost his life. Am I sad that he's gone? Sure. Will posting a "goodbye Kirby" message on SportsFilter make me feel any better about it? Nope. When something happens that moves me emotionally, I would rather get involved personally; give money, volunteer my time, go to church and pray, something more involving than a post on a website. If your grief is really heartfelt, go to the local Hallmark, get a card, and send it to his family. Better yet, make a donation to charity.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 02:19 PM on March 07, 2006
I respect the sentiments, but I don't like the line of dots here or elsewhere. I'm tempted to add some code that consolidates all the dot comments into one comment with a list of usernames who posted one.
posted by rcade at 02:30 PM on March 07, 2006
It'd be cooler if you zoomed way out from the page and all the dots actually spelt out something filthy.
posted by yerfatma at 02:46 PM on March 07, 2006
I think they just spell the letter "i".
posted by DrJohnEvans at 02:56 PM on March 07, 2006
Guys, I just wanted to know what it meant. I couldn't care less about the justification behind it or whether it's appropriate or not. I don't think anyone here should be measuring whether condolences are or aren't genuine.
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 03:00 PM on March 07, 2006
Sorry Texan, but this thread has completely spun out of our control. .
posted by NoMich at 03:18 PM on March 07, 2006
Oh look at me over there. So young. So innocent.
posted by mkn at 03:20 PM on March 07, 2006
Public displays of grief are not my thing. So, would it be fair to say that you walked into a post asking to discuss the meaning of the period and said, "NASCAR sucks! It's not a sport!"? My chiding is meant in good humor. I actually agree with you to a point -- I don't like unnecessarily maudlin statements in these situations, but I think there are rememberances -- even emotionally tinged ones like batgirl's -- that are perfectly fine. Unlike TBH, I don't find these comments trite, by and large. I really liked some of the stories that came out of Kirby's post. And I don't think there is anything maudlin, trite or in any way objectionable with the period. Since this is a site about sports, and about athletes like Kirby, I don't see this as any different than the Twins having a moment of silence in his memory. Would you object to that? On preview: I don't think anyone here should be measuring whether condolences are or aren't genuine. I wish I'd said that.
posted by BullpenPro at 03:32 PM on March 07, 2006
Bullpen, I was just tossing my two cents into the pot. Rememberances are great, and there are a few that were indeed touching. Just not my gig. As far as the Twins having a moment of silence, well, some of them actually knew Kirby Puckett, as opposed to the vast majority of posters on this site. Not "met him at an autograph session," not "bumped into him at the gas station/restaurant/men's room at the Mall of America," but actually knew him as a human being, a colleague, and a friend. I see a slight difference there. Don't take it personally, and don't read too much into it. It's a locker room post, m'kay?
posted by The_Black_Hand at 04:38 PM on March 07, 2006
No offense taken. Just getting in my view. /Has lots more to say on subject, but pulls hands from keyboard. Letting it go.
posted by BullpenPro at 04:54 PM on March 07, 2006
SportsFilter caught hell after Reggie White's death too. People react to stuff like this in all kinds of ways.
posted by rcade at 06:29 PM on March 07, 2006
BP, my stance here and at MetaFilter has always been to let the obit threads stand (there's an ongoing battle about whether celebrity deaths deserve a post on Mefi). I think great stories come out of it, like the ones you mention finding in the thread and linked as well. I also think it serves a great purpose in letting people grieve. While I'm weirded out by the need to grieve for celebrities*, I appreciate other people feel differently. I'm sorry I brought the issue up, even as an aside. It's my personal bugaboo; there's no reason anyone needs to debate it as though it was the law of the land or made sense. It kind of bothers me that I seem to have an authoritative tone I neither perceive in my own writings nor wish to have. * for the most part: understand if Jim Rice or Dwight Evans drops dead tomorrow, I will need to take time off from work to ponder mine own mortality and the short time we have on this coil.
posted by yerfatma at 06:30 PM on March 07, 2006
It kind of bothers me that I seem to have an authoritative tone I neither perceive in my own writings nor wish to have. Thats the understatement of the century. You shit on peoples opinions all the time.
um...... a couple. Somehow my posting abilities keep being revoked, without anyone telling me whats going on.
If you pull away from the monitor and look at all the dots, they look just like ants.
posted by jerseygirl at 08:44 PM on March 07, 2006
I pulled away from the monitor, but now I'm freaked -- the dots spelled "red rum".
posted by wfrazerjr at 11:25 PM on March 07, 2006
"Come play with us..."
posted by lilnemo at 02:14 PM on March 08, 2006
"All I tried to do was to pull him up! A momentary loss of muscular coordination, hmm? A few extra foot pounds of energy, per second...per second...snap!"
posted by The_Black_Hand at 02:31 PM on March 08, 2006
/steps back, deep breath, gets perspective (hey, from back here the dots DO look like ants, marching to devour my posts of righteous indignation) One last post on this issue, if I may. No, this is not a church. I am not now nor have I ever tried to tell anyone how to react to Kirby's passing, I have only defended those who have chosen to overlook his short-comings. And, I have tried to enforce some sensitivity to those who may be dealing with some real grief over this. I almost certainly overstepped my bounds in this defense -- that came from a projection of my own unusual perspective in this particular case. I recognize that. Having said that, as a Spo-Fi rookie who has spent a good amount of time on this site, there is a list of veterans from whom I (and I would assume other newer regular posters) take behavioral cues. These are people whose obvious love of sports and commitment to this site I respect. Some of these people surprised me with their comments on both this and the Kirby thread, and combined with my own weird personal response to Kirby's passing, I reacted a lot more strongly here and on the other thread than I would have if it had been, say, Reggie White. I realize this is a long post that is pretty much all about me, which is why I chose to post it here rather than clog up the Kirby site. I wavered on whether I should post it at all, but I felt I owed something since I kind of called the whole site out on these issues. Justgary, I appreciate and accept your apology, and I hope you, rcade, yerfatma, The_Black_Hand, and anyone else I've annoyed with my rantings accept mine for going over the top on this stuff. I would, however, like to nominate a policy on future "In Memoriams" that we let the thread just go and discourage all commentary that addresses in any way the merits of grieving or the various expressions of such (excepting, of course, for those that are obscenely offensive). I'm done, and now off to bash the Cleveland Spelling Bee champ in the Bonds thread.
posted by BullpenPro at 02:45 PM on March 08, 2006
Didn't annoy me at all. But watch out: that fool is All-Ohio Debate Team. His "friend" said so.
posted by yerfatma at 03:14 PM on March 08, 2006
Thanks for the comments, BullpenPro. I don't know that I'm ready to lean on people not to take a death as seriously as others, but that's certainly something to think about as we try to bring 5,000 newbies into the community.
posted by rcade at 03:17 PM on March 08, 2006
But watch out: that fool is All-Ohio Debate Team. His "friend" said so. We should have a Debate-Off. We can bring our best Poindexter friends and wear our most sedate sweatervests. Meet you in Study Hall.
posted by jerseygirl at 03:21 PM on March 08, 2006
Meet you in Study Hall. I'm totally bringing the Rice Krispie treats. BullpenPro, if you're going to apologize for anything, it need not be opinionated discussion on this site. Now, being a dirty stinking Yankees fan, that's worth apologizing for.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 07:51 AM on March 09, 2006
TBH -- my first read of your comment was, "If you're going to be apologizing for stuff, take it somewhere else." Which was so shocking I was going to fly off the handle about it, then apologize later. I don't ordinarily apologize for my opinions. In this case, though, I did kind of call the whole site out, as I said, and I thought that warranted a more moderate follow-up. Plus, I generally feel bad when people have to read what I write. (You'll observe that somehow doesn't stop me, though.) Actually, I used to be a somewhat apologetic Yankee fan. Rooting for the prohibitive favorite in a country that has a history of being, and rooting for, the underdog felt a little unpatriotic. Not so much now though -- I think this country has recently made vogue the notion of rooting for the king of the mountain. But this is REALLY off topic. I like sweatervests. I own several. I'm not smart enough to debate, though. The vests are to keep me from drooling on my tie.
posted by BullpenPro at 11:10 AM on March 09, 2006
HEY! I made BullpenPro's profile! I'm really someone!
posted by jerseygirl at 11:47 AM on March 09, 2006
Your on it twice now for your "dripping sarcasm".
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 02:23 PM on March 09, 2006
Well that just sounds messy.
posted by jerseygirl at 03:11 PM on March 09, 2006
jersey, just be glad it doesn't include links to your profile, or some variation of an altar complete with a homemade MIDI and a mini Jobu with your photo pasted on.
posted by lilnemo at 03:42 PM on March 09, 2006
HEY! I made BullpenPro's profile! I'm really someone! Oooh, me too, me too!
posted by billsaysthis at 03:53 PM on March 09, 2006
I wouldn't want somebody dripping sarcasm on my profile.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 04:05 PM on March 09, 2006
jersey, just be glad it doesn't include links to your profile, or some variation of an altar complete with a homemade MIDI and a mini Jobu with your photo pasted on. You can do that? Do you have a link to instructions? I wouldn't want somebody dripping sarcasm on my profile If somebody did, how would you tell?
posted by BullpenPro at 04:14 PM on March 09, 2006
I actually have a couple ideas for my profile which would enhance its interactivity and better serve the SpoFite populace. So within a few weeks I will indeed be able to tell when someone drips anything on my profile. I have a couple of real-world projects to finish first though.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 04:27 PM on March 09, 2006
Justgary, I appreciate and accept your apology, and I hope you, rcade, yerfatma, The_Black_Hand, and anyone else I've annoyed with my rantings accept mine for going over the top on this stuff. No problem, and I wasn't annoyed. I understand what you're saying, and understood your comment in the thread. My comment really had nothing to do with puckett. I thought the 'whole world' fpp was just a little lazy and easy. If we were at a bar and I could explain myself it wouldn't have been a big deal. But online it sounded harsh. I doubt memoriam threads will ever be just that. There will always be discussion, hopefully in good taste, regarding the athlete's entire career/life. And there should be. I highly value honest discussion over a glossed over facade. But I agree that commenting on the ways people mourn is pointless and could easily be misunderstood. I'll keep that in mind in the future. (and I still think you're on the wrong website =)
posted by justgary at 04:54 PM on March 09, 2006
I think jerserygirl's profile is kind of bland. I'm going to start a club of people who aren't in bullpenpro's profile.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:31 PM on March 09, 2006
Thanks for the critique, Mr. Blackwell.
posted by jerseygirl at 06:04 PM on March 09, 2006
If we were at a bar and I could explain myself it wouldn't have been a big deal. All right, buddy, that's it. We're taking this to a bar and sort this out. I'm going to start a club of people who aren't in bullpenpro's profile. Ying Yang, you're just too freakin' nice. You want onto MY profile, you're going to have to take me to task. Criminy, it's not like I don't provide the opportunities.
posted by BullpenPro at 11:11 PM on March 09, 2006
I like that someone called you BullpinPro.
posted by jerseygirl at 06:37 AM on March 10, 2006
You want onto MY profile, you're going to have to take me to task. Jesus Christ, would you please just shut the fuck up?! Will that get me on?
posted by The_Black_Hand at 10:28 AM on March 10, 2006
You have no idea how bad it gets! I'm not you ... I can't make it on a coupla high-altitude fucks once or twice a year! You are too much for me BullpenPro, you sonofawhoreson bitch! I wish I knew how to quit you.
posted by rcade at 11:16 AM on March 10, 2006
winner
posted by jerseygirl at 11:54 AM on March 10, 2006
Ying Yang, you're just too freakin' nice. You want onto MY profile, you're going to have to take me to task. Actually I'm good now since I now appear in jerseygirl's formerly bland profile.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 11:58 AM on March 10, 2006
I could no longer ignore your cries to be loved by someone... anyone.
posted by jerseygirl at 12:11 PM on March 10, 2006
I'm still confused by how a jerseygirl lives with herself being a Red Sox fan. Just how do you reconcile yourself?
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 12:41 PM on March 10, 2006
Will that get me on? Maybe. Or maybe it will just get you off. I can't post that -- what if my mother reads it? You have no idea how bad it gets! I'm not you ... I can't make it on a coupla high-altitude fucks once or twice a year! You are too much for me BullpenPro, you sonofawhoreson bitch! I wish I knew how to quit you. I can't post that either. What if my girlfriend reads it? The amount of attention my profile is getting is making me uncomfortable. Look -- look over there. A post about MC Hammer. Go! Go post!!
posted by BullpenPro at 12:47 PM on March 10, 2006
Jersey Girl the song. Not the state. Ew gross.
posted by jerseygirl at 01:02 PM on March 10, 2006
Ew gross. hey, watch it.
posted by goddam at 01:28 PM on March 10, 2006
Well that's an easy way out, and I'm guessing one that's been told before.
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 01:44 PM on March 10, 2006
I just thought she was a jersey chaser.
posted by tron7 at 01:55 PM on March 10, 2006
You mean you're not from the Channel Islands? /disappointed that we will never be able to discuss Matt Le Tissier
posted by owlhouse at 01:59 PM on March 10, 2006
A post about MC Hammer. Go! Go post!! To bad its related to Barry Bonds so I guess I'll just sit here and cross examine your profile somemore. So about the Derek Jeter thing, what if I contended Alex Rodriguez is better (which he is).
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 02:54 PM on March 10, 2006
By the way jerseygirl, I think I'll be autodrafting tomorrow. Not entirely sure but that is the way its looking
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 04:25 PM on March 10, 2006
Fine, don't add me, BallPeenPro. As Groucho Marx once said, I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would actually have me. Hmph!
posted by The_Black_Hand at 06:35 PM on March 10, 2006
Bitches.
posted by yerfatma at 08:32 PM on March 10, 2006
A moment of silence. See 4,000,000 related Metatalk posts @ Metafilter.com