Author Topic: Thread drift  (Read 20616 times)

Paddy

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #25 on: September 19, 2007, 10:41:27 AM »
Thank God he put that one out of its misery.  It was the only humane thing to do with such a grotesquely contorted chain of.........whatever it was.  May it rest in peace.

Tuco

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #26 on: September 19, 2007, 04:00:58 PM »
Mmmm..... pancakes!

With maple syrup on     ................    the table.
7-11 was a part time job.

Perd Hapley

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #27 on: September 20, 2007, 01:52:22 PM »
Quote
Engage the topic.  Don't just make unsubstantiated proclamations and expect everyone to accept them as fact.

You mean like when someone is losing an argument, but they think they can win by saying that the Iraq war is bad?  Where have we seen that before, Mr. Riley? 
Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?
--Thomas Jefferson

Paddy

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #28 on: September 20, 2007, 02:11:38 PM »
Quote
Engage the topic.  Don't just make unsubstantiated proclamations and expect everyone to accept them as fact.

You mean like when someone is losing an argument, but they think they can win by saying that the Iraq war is bad?  Where have we seen that before, Mr. Riley? 

Hypotheticals like that don't add much to the discussion either, Mr. fistful  police

Perd Hapley

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #29 on: September 20, 2007, 04:09:03 PM »
Oh no, it's very factual. 
Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?
--Thomas Jefferson

Paddy

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #30 on: September 20, 2007, 04:58:04 PM »
Oh no, it's very factual. 

Now that's the unsubstantiated proclamation I was talking about.  You should preface statements like that with 'in my opinion' or 'IMO', or (in your case 'IMHO').  Unless you can provide a cite of some kind, it's just an opinion, not fact.

Perd Hapley

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #31 on: September 23, 2007, 06:39:31 PM »
Riley, if you can't separate fact from opinion without my identifying it for you, then you may need a new hobby.  I also note that you failed to identify your last post with IMO. 
Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?
--Thomas Jefferson

grislyatoms

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #32 on: September 24, 2007, 08:58:26 AM »
Isn't that the nature of conversation? To drift gently from one topic to another, particularly if the topics have a common factor? I can't imagine a written conversation being different.

Granted, some thread drift is extreme and it can get irritating.
"A son of the sea, am I" Gordon Lightfoot

BrokenPaw

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Re: Thread drift
« Reply #33 on: September 24, 2007, 09:27:57 AM »
Isn't that the nature of conversation? To drift gently from one topic to another, particularly if the topics have a common factor?
You haven't fully grokked "drift" until you've experienced BrokenKid's "stack-based" conversational style.  It follows a pattern, thus:

Kid:
"I was at school today, and my friend Kara..." <push>
"...who is in my geometry class..." <push>
"...and she hates my geometry teacher..." <push>
"...who is always talking about her chihuahua..." <push>
"...why do people even like dogs like that?  They're like rats..." <push>
"...but my friend Ann has a rat, and a lizard..." <push>
"...I want a lizard, but dad won't let me have one..." <push>
"...So when I buy a house I'm going to have a lizard and a snake and a guinea pig..." <push>
"...A friend of mine says that people in South America eat their ears."
[implicitly and silently, the stack is popped 8 times]
"...She said that [something or other]."

Me:  "Who said that?"

Kid:  rolleyes "Kara said that."

The thread drift that happens here is nothing.  At least most of the posts here are, in and of themselves, on a single topic.

Oh, and, yes, that was an accurate description of BrokenKid's matter of speech.  Note the careful use of completely ambiguous pronouns, such as the "she" in a soliloquy that includes 4 potential "she"s.

-BP
Seek out wisdom in books, rare manuscripts, and cryptic poems if you will, but seek it also in simple stones and fragile herbs and in the cries of wild birds. Listen to the song of the wind and the roar of water if you would discover magic, for it is here that the old secrets are still preserved.