TheREALBrooksThompson

So this is my last post on the forum here. Not just the off–topic section, but the entire forum. I clearly don't belong here, especially considering Live or Die Magic's opposition to anything I say. And he's in charge of things here, so there's not a lot I can do about that. He has the power to lock threads whenever he feels like doing so, and as a result I don't really have a way to express my opinion when it conflicts with his. He can just shut down debate whenever he feels like it, which is a nice thing if you're on the side that has power, but it's not such a nice thing when you're the one being shut down. I wish that this forum would someday become a place where people's arguments could stand on their own merits and ideas could be debated without people getting offended, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case here. If you agree with LOD, you're allowed to employ whatever bull**** tactics you want, but if you disagree with him, you're limited to whatever he feels like allowing you to express. I tried to clear this up in a private message to LOD, but he has neglected to respond to me. I know this is going to be deleted shortly after it gets posted, but for anyone who actually gets to read this, please continue to challenge the consensus reached by the forum as a whole. It's not always the right answer, and even if it was, you guys would be well served to mount an opposition to it. But please just think about these things and try to form your own opinions about what's going on. My prediction for the baseball season is that the Braves will win it all. Other than that, I've enjoyed reading posts from Drunk on Mystery, Berto, Ibn Whatever, Jareth, TITY, and select others. You guys are awesome.

This year the Padres drafted a guy named Mike Bass. If he makes it to the majors, he will join Mike Trout and Mike Carp.

For those playing along at home, this is what it looks like when someone knows they're wrong but can't admit it and tries to save face anyway. It doesn't fool anyone.

First, we all need to get off this idea that if someone disagrees with your opinion that means they think you don't have a right to hold that opinion. That's a ridiculous idea, and one that hasn't been promoted in this thread. Continuing to bring it up isn't contributing anything. You have the right to boo and you have the right to hold whatever opinion you want about anyone. This shouldn't be something that we need to discuss. Second, you're making strawmen all over the place here. It's possible to think Hill doesn't deserve boos while also not worshiping him. If you want to continue characterizing the other side that way, that's fine, but you might as well just say that your argument doesn't stand on its own and needs to be buttressed by making a ridiculous caricature of the other side that makes it look better by comparison. Because that's exactly what posts like that communicate. But yeah, call the guy whatever you want and stand by it. Similarly to your strawmen, it just makes your argument look weaker. There may be legitimate arguments for why people should boo Grant Hill, but they're not coming from the guy who's exaggerating everything and name calling people who disagree. To answer your question, yes, I do understand why you feel the way you do. I just disagree with it. That's all. I don't think you're an idiot, I don't think you shouldn't be allowed to boo, I just disagree with your assessment of the situation. As I said when Marc and I were discussing this earlier, if it turns out that the sign and trade situation went down the way he said it did, then I'll be more sympathetic to your position. But I don't know how that actually went down and I don't think anyone here does either. All the other reasons given I find to be either petty or insufficient to warrant booing.

Well the same basic reasoning could apply to any number of things where information is lacking, and most of the things people form strong opinions about lack adequate information. Are you saying that's a bad thing?

To put it another way, I take the "not guilty" position on Grant Hill as opposed to either guilty or innocent. So I reject the guilty position on the grounds that the things being said in support of it are not sufficiently supported by facts, but I'm not taking the innocent position either because the possibility exists that those facts, if known, could actually support the guilty position. Not guilty is still a valid opinion though.

In the words of Geddy Lee, "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." My Grant Hill opinion being neutral does not disqualify it from being an opinion. There are more than two sides to any issue.

I don't see how that changes anything. Have they said that publishers will be prohibited from implementing online pass-like systems that accomplish the same thing that the xbox does? I can't see a publisher releasing a game for both consoles where one will have all these restrictions on it and the other will be completely free of those restrictions. If that in fact does happen, I will owe everyone here a coke. But I highly doubt it.

Yes. What I'm making fun of is 30 assists calling the other guy obtuse for reaching a different conclusion. Marc and I disagreed on the interpretation of events earlier in this thread and we discussed differing opinions without insulting each other. As for your second paragraph, I get that you're criticizing me, but I'm not sure what you mean by that. I don't know what being an all time QB means in this context. Please explain.

Sony itself doesn't have to do anything. Their stance is the same no matter what happens. They can maintain that no DRM is mandated by Sony while still having all this stuff mandated by publishers. Keep in mind that the publishers are very much in favor of systems like what the xbox will have. This isn't a case of Microsoft being mean to their customers for no reason. This is an industry wide change that's going to happen.

You reached a different conclusion than the majority of the board, therefore you're obtuse. That logic checks out. Also, I'm smarter than you because I called you obtuse instead of an idiot or something like that.

I'm rubber and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

You can do better than that.

Whenever I go to a game and people around me are using inappropriate language, I am embarrassed to be a fan of the team. I understand people like to heckle the opposing players and they might get really excited when cool things happen for our team, but when they use naughty words while doing those things, that's where I draw the line.

Sony is going to end up having a lot the same restrictions, they're just framing it better by saying it's up to the publishers. But when things actually get released and publishers see that they're not losing sales to used games on the Xbox, they're going to require some kind of authentication on the Playstation as well. And Sony has said that they will be able to do that. So I'm not sure what it is that they're doing that's going to be radically different from what Microsoft is doing. Besides, look at what the 360 and PS3 were when they launched and look at what they are now. They're both completely different consoles than what launched. A lot of stuff is going to change once both companies see what works and what doesn't. People need to calm the hell down about this.