Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
I don't post really frequently on the site, but I do read it a lot. For the most part, I find the conversations to be pretty interesting. Sometimes there are topics that don't resonate with me, but that is always going to happen on an internet discussion forum.
For the first time in ages, I spent an hour or so looking at a current affairs forum I used to spend some time on and remembered what a wasteful, hateful place it is. Nearly every thread ends up in petty, personal name-calling. The place is full of trolls, paid posters, people with multiple pseudonyms, and posters that are banned repeatedly only to pop up under new names.
The forum recently required a Facebook login to comment on stories and it has helped clean up the vile nature of the "story comments," but the forum is still a cesspool. I don't want to give up my anonymity to post on a forum, but I do like having a civil place to post. If you don't have your personal integrity or a paid membership to lose (i.e., skin in the game), it is easy to fall into the trap of being able to say anything to anyone because it is anonymous. And if you get booted, you just change your sign-in name and continue.
There are a few civil people there that I hope become members here. I'll reach out to them before I have my ID deleted. I appreciate this place today more than ever. It was Rob's pitch that got me to join. Thanks Rob!
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Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
So I heard someone today talk about skin in the game and I thought he must be a Ricochet member. That's how much I associate the phrase with Rob.
I so agree with you about having a nice, civil place for conversation. Even newspaper comment threads are vile cesspools these days.
Mar '12
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Rob has skin in the game.
Dec '10
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
You @#$%^!. Your mother *!@.
Just in case you were homesick.
Jun '10
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Nice post. Thanks.
Dec '11
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
So is this the secret to getting your post promoted to the Main Feed?
:-)
This is the one place I come to in order to read intelligent political debate. No other site has the balance of passion and civility of Ricochet.
Mar '11
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Robert Wright recently had a bloggingheads.tv episode about this very topic, and staggeringly not a single time did the idea of "skin in the game" get taken up seriously as the obvious solution.
A mutually agreed to Code of Conduct and $3.67, Mr. Wright: that's what civility and intelligent conversation costs out here amidst the "bombs throwers" and Tea Party "extremists"......
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
I still prefer "epidermis in the scrum," but whatever. Thanks for coming aboard, mattman!
Nov '11
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
It really does make all the difference.
The Internet is a giant cesspool. Ricochet is like a beautiful flower that grew out of a pot of dirt. (And yes, I realize I mixed metaphors.)
Jun '12
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Huzzah! And thank you mattman. I am going to be formally hitting up several people soon. I agree this place is a beacon of light in a depressingly dark internet world.
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Welcome, Mattman! And thanks for enabling my pitches!
Here's our thinking: the idea that anything worth participating in is worth paying for -- even a tiny amount like barely $1 per week -- is something that conservatives instinctively understand.
May '10
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
I agree. I don't post much, but reading the discussion here is much more enjoyable than at almost any other forum I've been to. Having some skin in the game really helps.
Nov '10
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
I associate "skin in the game" with this crazy lady I used to know who sold Cisco gear. She used to say that all the time. So now when I he's Rob say it, it makes me want to buy Cisco gear.
Aug '12
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
I love the podcast and it was the pitch that convinced me to join. I joined partly to support the podcast and partly for the potential to take part in civil discussion.
Jun '10
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Welcome, friend. Start a post and tell us about yourself.
Jun '10
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
My profile bio is about this very issue and presents Eeyore's Postulate concerning most discussion sites: “Every comment in a thread increases by 1% the probability that the thread will contain a flame war.”
So when you gets over dat hunnert mark, duck!
Jun '10
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Sucking up to show-biz people...it's like magic.
May '11
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Eeyore
Sucking up to show-biz people...it's like magic. · 56 minutes ago
I always wondered if there was some sort of secret formula....
Mar '12
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
I'm continually amazed at the quality of the comments on Ricochet. That, combined with a desire to listen to the backlog of Law Talk episodes, is what convinced me to join. I can honestly say that this is the best commenting culture that I know of.
... Granted, I've been known to peruse reddit, 4chan, and Gawker sites from time to time, but even Breitbart's Big sites and NRO tend to have regrettably toxic comments sections.
Now if we could just apply the same concept to the 47% not paying federal income tax but supporting increased government spending.
Skin in the game indeed.
Jun '11
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
Eeyore
Sucking up to show-biz people...it's like magic. · 10 hours ago
That wasn't my intent. My first post making me look like a sniveling, brown nosing, suck-up....... I usually try and hide that for a little while ;)
Aug '12
Re: Rob Long Is Right Re: Skin In The Game
I've also just joined after lurking for a while and scamming the podcast. My $$ contribution was made to help keep this place afloat.
I've blogged for over a decade but my blogging has gone downhill the last several years. I've found writing out your thoughts help to sharpen them, and there is some sharp steel here at Ricochet.
I want/need my arguments sharpened, as the next few months are going to get ugly. If we see the current administration given the opportunity of another 4 years to damage and don't get The US Debtanic yacht turned around, there will be a whole lotta people looking for a few already full lifeboats.