DiabloFans

There are people who can be mature on the internet and accept ideas presented through them. Shitstorms are not the fault of the discussions; they're the fault of the people participating in those discussions. If people are going to bicker, then that's their prerogative; bad apples spoil the bunch.

I've never tried to force an idea. I've always tried to present one. There's an difference between giving the option to have spinach and commanding people to have spinach.

My desire to start another thread isn't because I think good discussions can't happen in the URT; they have in the past. A while ago, people were more engaging and more open to actually talking about stuff because, at the end of the day, exchanging ideas and having conversations about our passions was a good experience as opposed to a chore. We were able to grow stronger as a community because of the knowledge we shared. I can recall times when conversations on the same topic spanned, maybe, five pages or so.

I guess I just want that back. I want a lot of things back; some of the members I used to talk to on here had some brilliant ideas and had interesting things to say. Not to say that there isn't any of that now, but I feel that it's more of a rarity now.

There's simply not enough people who actively participate in this thread to balance the amount of "random" and the amount of discussion. That's a conclusion I've come to simply from looking at pages and the things that are talked about: a lot of stuff and a lot of media. This has led me to believe that it is foolish to go to the URT in search of a good discussion.

Edit: People who feel the need to project the measure of their intellect over the internet are incredibly vain. Again, bad apples spoil the bunch. At least I try to project an earnest demeanor when I want to talk about something that's touchy like abortion or religion. I used to be that way, but then I grew up and stopped being so protective of my ideals. If I'm in public, I don't throw a fit when someone disagrees with me; in fact, most discussions I have in public about politics and the such, depending on the person, are completely cordial and pleasant and, more than anything, I want to project that into things I say on the internet.

People who see the internet as a forum for their vanity probably don't speak that well in public. Being humble in a discussion, more than often, will result in something worth remembering and will probably lead to a higher sense of respect for the people you talk to.

That's what a discussion is to me.

Quote from Zingi

Let us discuss the current political climate in Egypt.


.....go.

I'm not entirely knowledgeable on the subject, so I can't add anything of value.

My idea behind this thread was that people who started a topic in the URT or a topic in the General Discussion sub could continue it here in the hopes that, in a time of relative inactivity, the topic could be restarted and people could give more input. I'm trying to move away from video game and music discussions and more towards world events and discussions on inner thought.

Quote from Daemaro

So you went and made the general discussion forum but all in one thread?

Well, my idea was that we need a thread that can be a concentrated venue of intelligent discussion. The General Discussion sub includes stuff like video games (inb4 "you're on a video game forum, dipshit") and almost all the misplaced threads I see get thrown in there and it dilutes the potential of that sub.

In my opinion, it's like the recycle bin of Dfans; full of little threads (some that I have started but die because of the little traffic that runs through that sub) and some gems that get resurrected every once in a while, but are slow even after that. I have tried to start some discussions that I, at least, thought were interesting.

I applaud Don_G for his effort on actually trying to talk about something; this might be the URT, but the way that intelligent discussion gets snubbed is, in my opinion, insulting (not to me, but to everyone who actually wants to chime in on a good subject without people putting up videos and pictures).

I'm not trying to be condescending to anyone; I'm being frank about my expectations for this forum. I don't expect everyone to follow single line in absolute maturity and I expect people to have fun on this forum, but some people find a good discussion on psychology or world events far more interesting than comics and Youtube videos. That's the point I was trying to make.

This thread is for serious discussions that have intellectual merit.

Any random tomfoolery will be dealt with promptly.

I'm gonna start a thread where we can have actual discussions about real topics and not Gooby and cats.

Bye, losers.

Quote from Don_guillotine

This thread needs more serious conversations.

What do you guys think of calculative persons in social circles? By calculative I mean people that act partially based on rationale opposed to just going by the gut, i.e. what feels right and natural.

In that sense, I would consider myself to be pretty calculative. I ponder a lot of things and I always think about consequences of the things that I do, whether they're good or bad. Some of the stuff I do is to benefit the happiness of others and I'll do it impulsively.

I don't like making choices either. I'm always afraid that I'll make a decision to go somewhere and we'll get there and it won't be as fun as I thought it'd be. Taking from your example, if one of my close friends wanted to do something, I'd probably agree with them and we'd go and do that; if that same person had said, "hey, dude, wanna go X? If there's anything you want to do, that's cool too," I'd probably just prefer to go do X because it's simple and to the point.

I don't like to necessarily impose my wants on others. I think of myself as a quiet observer and, if someone asks me to be frank, I'll be frank and tell them what they want to know. People often mistake my quietness for a silent depression when that's simply not the case; I'll gladly jump in to a conversation if someone wants me to add something, but I like to just sit back and listen to people because I think (and this might sound weird) that the sound of other peoples' voices soothes me a little bit.

But, yeah, I tend to think of myself as someone who likes to take things into account. I totally get the thing about social karma too; I try to establish myself as someone who is there to listen and I think a lot of people appreciate that part of me.

It's more of a problem with soft drugs because they blow the symptoms of tobacco and marijuana way out of proportion. They make a marijuana high seem like a permanent, terrible thing. They imply that everything is "bad." That is definitely the case with meth and heroin and MDMA and shit like that.

My dad has smoked (tobacco) for as long as I've been alive. I've recently started smoking far more than I used to (but is still pretty modest, not even 5 smokes a week) and I'm fine. My dad has also drank alcohol on a pretty regular basis and he's fine and I've never been inebriated on alcohol ever.

From the program, I never learned the concept of moderation. Of course, I went through the program seven years ago, so it might be different now. They tried to force the idea that you shouldn't ever touch marijuana or tobacco; the simple truth is that it will hardly do anything if you practice in moderation. I can understand them forcing the idea that you should never touch meth or heroin because those are real problem drugs, but marijuana is far from the demon that they portray it as.

I appreciate what the program is trying to do, most definitely. They need to work on the effectiveness of their technique because simply saying something is bad is not enough and doesn't have enough of a lasting impact.

Does anyone here know what the DARE program is?

It's, essentially, a social program used to help curb children's exposure to drugs. I've had to sit through it; they have a police officer come in and talk about how bad meth and cocaine is, show us some anti-pot propaganda, and it's pretty much the biggest waste of time.

There is very little evidence that this program works. It's because they're trying to reach the kids at an age (fifth grade) when they're encouraged to learn and want to learn. It's not as much about learning about the dangers of drugs as it is about learning about the drugs themselves.

It didn't phase me. Popular culture has done more to protect me from the dangers of meth and other hard drugs than DARE ever did. At the end of the program, we got a T-shirt with the acronym on it (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). We outgrew the shirt.

Is there any reason why I should like Ron Paul?

I know he's definitely not going to get the Republican nomination, but is there any reason why I should like the guy that apart from his "consistent" record?

Doodah, just uh, I smoke rocks.

I've never been committed when it came to drugs. The last time I smoked was 4th of July 2010.

This summer will probably be one of the last times I ever get to experiment. I know what I'm definitely not going to touch, but then there are things that I kinda want to try. I've heard DMT will change your fucking life.

Edit: I should probably clarify what "smoking" is; I'm, of course, talking about smoking marijuana.

Yah. He's the one that introduced me to Diablo when I was about six or seven. Shit was choice.

Well, it wasn't even that; my dad didn't want to have to play through normal before experiencing nightmare difficulty. I'm pretty sure he only played the higher difficulties in DII and, in his mind, it's not worth it to play through it once and then have to play through it again with "one eye closed," so to speak.

I've never tried any psychoactive (I've only ever experienced marijuana, never been drunk before), but I'm always interested.

Maybe that's the wrong attitude to have when it comes to drugs, but they've always intrigued me.

Fuck, looking back, I realize that this was a really obvious question.

Of course you have to play normal because they expect you to have a leveled character going into nightmare.

Thanks, guys. I don't follow every detail about D3 to a point.