Thursday, January 3, 2008

Sailing the Sea of Snark

People who don't get my burner world are going to find this post confusing.

Snark = Sarcasm, snide remarks, backhanded compliments, mockery ... snark can be unkind, but snark is also funny and a an art. Snark is best served room temp, provided the room is full of people with a good sense of humor and a wicked perspective on the world. I love snark, although I know snark has a place in the world. I don't snark much on the Scifi forums, the audience is too varied and and for the most part, the snark is seen as mean. I get that. Over on eplaya however, unless I'm giving serious information to a newb, it is all snark all the time. We have a bar thread, a F*CK thread, politics threads, joke threads ... you name it, we'll talk about it. Say the word "manifest" and you're a snark magnet.

Then there's Tribe. Tribe is social networking and I belong to many tribes, each with a specific focus. Most of my tribes are related to Burning Man in some fashion, except the Farscape and Hail Darth Vader tribes. I left the "main" Burning Man tribe, it got too snarky even for my blood. So I'm on the Other Burning Man tribe, some Utah tribes, playawear, trading post, and Burning Women. I adored BW, Armadillo is the moderator, and she rocks. Very low snark content there, when I joined the people who posted understood snark and let it ride. As we moved away from the end of the event into the slack time, the threads became, well, still women's threads, but weird. Weird to me. So most of the time I'd skip them, but now and then I'd be drawn in to a conversation. No, a discussion. No, an argument. And suddenly I was the bad guy, seen as snarky and mean. Me! Me so nice I was made a mod on eplaya nice! The women on tribe have become self-righteous and dogmatic, unwilling to participate in dialog. I left, I blew up on the Burning Bridges tribe. Double-check the name of that tribe: Burning Bridges. Oh yes, a place for snark and ranting and sillyness and whatever you choose. But the one woman who put me over the edge must have checked my profile/bio, and saw my last post out of context. She had no idea what BB was, only that I was bashing her. I got a PM taking me to task for that. Sheesh. I did get it all straightened out with her, which I needed to do, she's a Utah burner. That led to my first friends only blog post on Tribe, and I was overwhelmed by the supportive nature of the posts, and how many women have given up on BW. This makes me feel bad for Armadillo, she deserves a tribe as awesome and fabulous as she is.

Now all this happened after the JoeMallozzi weblog with the resolutions hit, I went back and reread his resolutions, and sure enough, they rang a bell. Be less charitable, be less accommodating, be less patient. In fact, be less nice is what it boils down to for me. I mean, I will always be nice, I aspire to nice because my Mom was the epitome of nice. But I will also not suffer New Age hippy-dippy morons to intrude upon my sense of order and justice in the world. I will suffer good hearted, well informed, and eloquent hippy-dippy New Agers who are willing to engage in discourse, even when contentious. I mean, some of the people I love dearly are hippy-dippy New Age wide-eyed innocents. Just because I disagree with your ... worldview, dietary restrictions, healthcare choices, lifestyle ... etc. does not mean I do not respect you. I do. You have to understand that your choices are your choices, and if I deem the choices fit to be mocked, mock I will. Up to you to understand I find some things funny which you may not. Doesn't mean I think you're stupid or whatever, simply means I can see humor in anything. Just because a cause is near and dear to your heart, doesn't mean I won't wipe my bum with it now and then. Grow a thicker skin and move on, and know I love you.

TMI: menopause, which was on and wonderful, is now off. Lovely. No wonder I'm such a raging bint right now. Note to ovaries and other assorted female organs: knock it off. Didn't you get the No More Estrogen memo?

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