Misspelling, syntax, punctuation, etc. on MP.com

For a long time, the American climbing constellation was peopled by the likes of Robbins, Chouinard, Batso, Ament, Rearick, Gill, Bachar, Hornbein, Erickson, ...

There were outliers, to be sure - but as a whole they could climb, they could think, and sweet jeezus, they could write.

I grew up believing that striving to climb was to be matched by striving to learn, think, and express myself in all aspects of my life. Trying to digest the candid thoughts of the current generation of climbers makes my frontal lobes pucker more often than not.

The gap between generations isn't worrisome. The next generation always appears to harken the end of civilization to us geezers.

What's troubling is the current trend towards idiocracy-style militant stupidity. It's not enough for some climbers on MP to climb hard and accept that debate and dialogue aren't their strong suits - there is a fundamentalist bent to bring every conversation down to an absolute minimum intellectual standard. A few users seem determined to bludgeon any decent thread to death by posting more than anyone else, using as many fake accounts as possible, and being as arrogantly idiotic as possible.

The crappy grammar is a symptom of an alarming undercurrent.

Mike McHugh wrote:What's troubling is the current trend towards idiocracy-style militant stupidity. It's not enough for some climbers on MP to climb hard and accept that debate and dialogue aren't their strong suits - there is a fundamentalist bent to bring every conversation down to an absolute minimum intellectual standard. A few users seem determined to bludgeon any decent thread to death by posting more than anyone else, using as many fake accounts as possible, and being as arrogantly idiotic as possible. The crappy grammar is a symptom of an alarming undercurrent.

This. Thank you. If there is one thing that chaps me the most on this site, it's the people hiding behind throw-away accounts (that they usually just made a month ago) while posting irrelevant and inflammatory comments that end up making the thread either, a.) about them, b.) not about the original topic c.) not about climbing at all or d.) all of the above. Trollfest.

But there are enough good, insightful discussions to encourage me to keep me coming back.

People are posting to meet their own needs, however neurotic those needs may be.

If that somehow surprises you guys, you need to get out more.

Suggesting practical solutions (killfiles, etc) is one thing; going on a rant that makes it sound like these people are personally conspiring against you seems rather pointless.

"Or maybe not, since your original post contains two grammatical errors and an error in usage. In addition, your title doesn't make much sense; I get that you don't like misspellings but I don't know why you are peeved about posts containing syntax and punctuation. It also contains a punctuation error (etc. is an abbreviation and requires a period." N.B.: "etc" did not appear in my original post.

Christian wrote:People are posting to meet their own needs, however neurotic those needs may be. If that somehow surprises you guys, you need to get out more. Suggesting practical solutions (killfiles, etc) is one thing; going on a rant that makes it sound like these people are personally conspiring against you seems rather pointless.

The conspirators are conspiring!

Conspritainting....

Mike McHugh wrote:For a long time, the American climbing constellation was peopled by the likes of Robbins, Chouinard, Batso, Ament, Rearick, Gill, Bachar, Hornbein, Erickson, ... There were outliers, to be sure - but as a whole they could climb, they could think, and sweet jeezus, they could write. I grew up believing that striving to climb was to be matched by striving to learn, think, and express myself in all aspects of my life. Trying to digest the candid thoughts of the current generation of climbers makes my frontal lobes pucker more often than not. The gap between generations isn't worrisome. The next generation always appears to harken the end of civilization to us geezers. What's troubling is the current trend towards idiocracy-style militant stupidity. It's not enough for some climbers on MP to climb hard and accept that debate and dialogue aren't their strong suits - there is a fundamentalist bent to bring every conversation down to an absolute minimum intellectual standard. A few users seem determined to bludgeon any decent thread to death by posting more than anyone else, using as many fake accounts as possible, and being as arrogantly idiotic as possible. The crappy grammar is a symptom of an alarming undercurrent.

Are you suggesting that because a dozen climbers from an early era stand out as scholars that there weren't droves of dullards that were never published? The average IQ has only dropped about three points in 50 years and that is mainly due to increasing an population. I would suggest that technology has changed how society views written language and how written language is expressed using different mediums. I would also suggest that cheap technology and direct communication mediums allow people with varying levels of education and background to express themselves publicly that could not in the past.

Ray Pinpillage wrote: Are you suggesting that because a dozen climbers from an early era stand out as scholars that there weren't droves of dullards that were never published? The average IQ has only dropped about three points in 50 years and that is mainly due to increasing an population. I would suggest that technology has changed how society views written language and how written language is expressed using different mediums. I would also suggest that cheap technology and direct communication mediums allow people with varying levels of education and background to express themselves publicly that could not in the past.

Nah dude, it's more like some people are pre destined for salvation while most are destined to hell. After all, you are simply the sum of your parents wealth.

Shit, were you all just forced to take a peek at poverty? I sincerely regret my upbringing you self righteous twats.

I'm suggesting that a handful of "loud", repetitive, dishonest MP users misuse the forums to enforce a least common denominator. I suspect some of them are actually quite intelligent - but are hell bent on turning MP into a trollfest.

I'm suggesting that this rigorously enforced stupidity is absolutely toxic to what climbing can inspire.

Mike McHugh wrote:I'm suggesting that a handful of "loud", repetitive, dishonest MP users misuse the forums to enforce a least common denominator. I suspect some of them are actually quite intelligent - but are hell bent on turning MP into a trollfest. I'm suggesting that this rigorously enforced stupidity is absolutely toxic to what climbing can inspire.

I think you're correct here but your above post stated that the examples you listed were the norm and that the stupid people were the statistical outliers. Maybe it is just that access to technology is cheaper or easier that we are seeing this current trend but I don't think you are correct by saying Choinard, Robbins, et al, were typical. Statistically speaking, Choinard was the outlier.

The internet isn't real life. Want to cure the problem? Go outside.

Mike McHugh wrote:I'm suggesting that a handful of "loud", repetitive, dishonest MP users misuse the forums to enforce a least common denominator. I suspect some of them are actually quite intelligent - but are hell bent on turning MP into a trollfest. I'm suggesting that this rigorously enforced stupidity is absolutely toxic to what climbing can inspire.

Yea friggin toxicity man ... .

craghead wrote: Yea friggin toxicity man ... .

You're a left side outlier three standard deviations from the mean.

Richard M. Wright wrote:"Or maybe not, since your original post contains two grammatical errors and an error in usage. In addition, your title doesn't make much sense; I get that you don't like misspellings but I don't know why you are peeved about posts containing syntax and punctuation. It also contains a punctuation error (etc. is an abbreviation and requires a period." N.B.: "etc" did not appear in my original post.

And I didn't write that "etc" [sic] appeared in your original post. I wrote that it appeared in the title.

Ray Pinpillage wrote: You're a left side outlier three standard deviations from the mean.

You are just plain crazy, Old Man...you are just a plain crazy old man....sounds the same to me ....