Does anyone ever 'hold back' when posting?
 

Like, say, to keep from looking like an idiot, or posting while drunk, or posting in anger?

Personally, I don't hold back at all. This is pretty much the one place I can be an idiot, and get away with it. Its a nice place to test my opinions for the real world where an opinion might not go over so well.

What about you?

Yes... I dont post in politics very much because my views are seemingly too radical (ie communist)

If someone pisses me off and I feel like calling them a prick I tend to just log off, and by the next time I log on I dont care about it anymore.

Hell, I'm still pissed that Smeth didn't get that joke I made and gave me a warning. In like 2009.

Wait, what? Oh. Uh. No, I don't hold back. What's the point? It's the Web. This is a discussion forum.

As long as you're an asshole in an eloquent way (Roachboy on AceVentura), you can get away with nearly anything.

I think Strange Famous is the single finest example of how TFPers should post. He is a straight shooter.

Yes... I said it. You're my favorite prick, Adam. Don't ever change.

Do I hold back? Every post.

I like that SF posts whats on his mind...its the ignoring of all facts and refusing to change or give whatsoever that bugs me. But not by much.

Now this is a waste of talent right here.

Yeah, what do you mean? You've kind of hinted that you hold back a lot in your life. Why so serious? /joker

Wait, I got it, he's a CIA assassin.

please don't kill me

I try and hold back my smartass comments, if I don't divvy them up, I'll use them all up on Plan9.

Also, I don't like getting warned, so I try and think, "Will this piss off anyone that actually matters?"

It seems likely that most people hold back. I certainly do. We all have internal filters that have developed after years of social interaction. While TFP would be a more interesting place if we didn't hold back, half the active population would probably be permabanned in a matter of hours, and a lot of them would deserve it, myself included.

I blither, blather and express enough drivel IRL to want at least this part of my life to present me as a more thoughtful and considered fellow. Plus with no governor on my posting I would come across as even more obsessed with sex and low humour based on word play than I think I already do.

when i first started playing in the sandbox i was way more inclined to rhetorical whacking and dismembering than i am now. i'm not sure if i hold back or merely have more distance on this form of interaction. then it was new to me and seemed quite immediate---now neither is the case. but that's fine.



nonetheless, it remains important to excoriate adversaries with at least a degree of panache, don't you think?

I try to make fewer drive-by smartass comments than I'd like, even though they are my speciality.

Other than that, I frequently refrain from posting responses if I think said response will make me look like the asshole I am.

I never hold back, I'm a laid back kinda guy. (insert sarcasm as needed)

hmm... I have issues holding back in posts. but I do try hard to and have gotten better.

I try hard to be respectful. but sometimes when someone has the IQ of a decayed dead clam I tend to call them on it.

Over the years I have learned insults often make me look worse than the person I insulted.

So, I guess I am saying this:

good: I disagree but respect your opinion.
tolerable: Okay, so. I understand you think 2 + 2 = 7. Sorry but if you made up your mind without looking into the facts you're an idiot.
bad: I am liberal, you're conservative. I am right so DIAF you fucking asshole


Of course any liberal or conservative who think they need be so rude need to find another place..

/liberal who'd run into fire to save anyone
//which would suck cuz I can't walk
///posting on Fark has made me like using ///s

Huh, didn't realize how many people held back. Guess that means I'm a pretty good person then for not holding back and not getting banned :D or makes me something...even if some posts are idiotic ;)

Always. It's better than enduring the threadjacks and wrath of the minions.

Of course, I hold back.

TFP is entertainment to me. I participate to the extent that amuses me and stay away from things that do not.

Yup. Believe it or not. I rarely edit my posts to alter their content, though. tfp's tolerance encourages divergent expression, I think.

TruDat Ad infinitum

Baraka_Guru does hold back. The man is a font of profanity.

I don't think I hold back. I mean, sometimes I decide that it's not worth posting, but I don't know if that's what you mean. It's not that I'm worried what people will think of me, and more that I've decided that what I have to say either is redundant or doesn't really add anything to the discussion.

I know I present myself differently here as opposed to aye arr ell, but that's more to do with the fact that I can proof read and edit to my heart's content than anything nefarious.

That is funny! I don't post much in politics because my views are somewhat conservative.:paranoid:
I always believed that I was the only one on the forum that thought roachboy an asshole. How could I have known...:rolleyes:

Lindy
on the road again:)

sometimes.
sometimes not.

I find that I avoid some topics more than I used to which precludes the need to hold back to a large extent.

This is one place I try not to hold back. And generally speaking, I doubt anyone could accuse me of much restraint in what I've said when the mood takes me.

But that said, I have done so on occasion, when I might have posted in anger. And I very rarely, if ever, post in philosophy or politics, because I know that some of my views regarding religious philosophy, and regarding politics in the Middle East don't harmonize well with the views of certain other members here whom I like and don't wish to antagonize for no reason. So I abide by the "when in doubt, just keep it to yourself" rule.

You're above and beyond frozen yogurt at times. The highest level of Kung Fu is talking shit and making them thank you for it.

Yeah, but everybody can smell the passive aggressive through their monitors. Really, it's a miracle of modern science.

...

I don't know, but this thread actually makes me want to party with you people even more than before.

I mean, if there is far more depth in each character here, there's no limit to how deep the weird goes.

And Baraka being a "font of profanity" made me laugh. I imagine him cursing in Ye Olde English.

Almost everything I write here goes through a series of mental filters and rewrites before posting. I'm probably just as bad as Plan9 when it comes to self-edits only mine are so obsessive I often click away in frustration.

Damn.

I hold back all the time.

I find being polite makes your point better than calling an asshole an asshole.

i speak how i write instead of the opposite way around which leads to me not ever talking to much but i revise every one of my posts. i have no idea why but i feel the urge to make sure that the mistakes are marginally low and that i can live with them before i post

You're Canadian, right?

Oh definitely. There have been a couple of times where I haven't held back, though, and I don't regret it. I felt that I said something that needed to be said, and if no one else was going to say it, I would...then it turned out there were a bunch of people hanging around who agreed with what I said. That was not really a surprise, but much appreciated.

I think holding back occurs for a couple of reasons: holding back out of politeness, out of fear of hanging your ass out there with an opinion others might not share, or else someone has already said what I wanted to say better than I could have said it myself (this happens more than you might think...I consider more than a few of you brain twins).

I think not holding back is a good thing. You learn something about yourself.

Oh I wish you'd post more in philosophy. We need more posts there. Pretty please? :thumbsup:

I don't agree with that. You are just as likely to learn something about yourself if you have a thought and keep it to yourself as you are by saying it out loud.

There is nothing wrong with cultivating the self-discipline it takes to know what to say and when to say it. We've had this type of discussion several times before here at TFP - debating whether every thought that pops into your head is a golden nugget of truth that needs to be shared with the world. To me it seems like an immature and rather egotistical sense of entitlement and to be quite honest (here I am measuring and then saying what I think) most of the people I have known who argue for saying everything they think without sparing propriety and feelings and diplomacy tend to be assholes with an inflated sense of their own importance. Not saying that anyone here at TFP right now (and certainly no one on this thread) seems that way to me, quite the contrary. I do defend the practice of diplomacy as a rule but realize that there will always be exceptions, extraordinary circumstances that make diplomacy difficult and sometimes even not desirable.

eh I never said to post anything and everything that pops into your head, otherwise I'd post, giraffe-rhinoceros mating, cause that just popped into my head. I'm talking about whether you hold back legit opinions and such because it might make someone mad.

No, I never hold back legitimate opinions because it might make someone mad.

I hold back opinions that might be more problematic than their expression is worth or opinions that might hurt the feelings of someone who doesn't deserve it.

Otherwise, I think the point of my comment was very clear and has nothing to do with blurting out images of cross-zoological mating.

Shrug fooled me. Does anyone really get there feelings hurt on this website? Its a site of exploration and differing opinions. Its hard to imagine someone crying over some comment.

Of course they do. Not so much these days as a couple of years ago.

I hold back sometimes, mostly because this is so new to me. I like this site though, many different topics and many different people. My first few post's were so whiny, awful really. Guess I had a lot junk built up and it had to come out somewhere.

Sometimes I hold back while posting, other times I just let it all out. One lesson I have learned is to be very careful about posting while drunk...I have cringed through bleary eyes while reading post I have made the night before...

Of course I do.
I don't want all you people knowing all that goes on inside my head. Not only would it scare some people away, but it would be Out There on the Intarwebz.
How's this for Not Holding Back? Sometimes I think Plan9 and MM both take up residence in my head. Not only would I love to listen to Baraka curse like a Renaissance Sailor, I also avoid a lot of the discussions that would make me share more than I would, normally. Whether out of passion, emotion, irritation... whatever.
I cannot share 100%, it doesn't happen. Not in real life, not here. I don't want to be That Chick. That Angry Chick or That Crazy Chick. I need some privacy for some of the things that go on in my head, so I edit my posts, rethink what I want to say, and sometimes just Shut the Fuck up. If I'm blatant and my post is after 10 pm, you can be 50% sure that there is some mind-alteration in action.

It's a blessing. It's a curse.

I love Canada more and more every day.

...

Mmm, I guess all this holding back is okay for civility's sake, just as long as you guys don't turn into the TFP version of a Hallmark greeting card writers.

Ya know, the bad ones. Divorcees. Drunks. Cynical but on a lot of Zoloft.

...

Sweet Baby-Mama of Jesus, don't ever put that combination together.

It's like that 7th grade science experiment where you mixed potassium chlorate and sulfuric acid to reenact Mt. Vesuvius.

Except in this case though... your head would explode.

Like that dude in Scanners.

Mmm, chunky.