Gentleman Enough to Buy You Lunch at Chili's!

*Was your membership to stupid_free denied?*

Feel free to comment here with any questions or to plead your case. Please have a recent psych evaluation ready for quick reference.





*note*

Sockpuppet accounts and new journals are allowed. If you are a current member of stupid_free in good standing and would like to create a sockpuppet account to divert kookoos from your personal journal, you may post here using your main user name. These comments will be screened and we will keep your secret safe.

sayonara_snot and I are dedicated to unearthing the stupidest stupids on LJ in our community stupid_free.

Join us! We post, we mock, and we laugh laugh laugh!



Smart people only, please.

1. RULEZ DON'T APPLY TO ME CUZ I R SPESHUL!!

2. OH NOES I R NOT SPESHULLLL!!!

3. I'm so kool, my sockpuppets let me show you them!!!

4. I don't care about my banning, so what's with my sour grapes???

5. The grapes! So sour!!!

6. Here is me, still not caring!

7. One time, I tracked down a picture of mrflagg and he was a great big fat woman-looking man in a muu-muu. True story. He took a picture of the night scene out a window and you could see his reflection in the glass and he looked like a giant woman. Only a big fat muu muu wearer would ever have the time to create and post with this many sockpuppets. Even lolcrafty had some pride.

Just found a thread of aikiariyen off in the personal journal of someone featured in stupid_free this week. Y'know what that has to mean? Banning. I don't get it. I mean...after all this time??!?!

Dear everyone: Your opinions are just NOT important enough to break the rules.

Hi!!!!

sayonara_snot and I spent most of yesterday loving up on stupid_free. It was real cute: side by side on computers, her sifting through 300+ new membership requests while I lj-seeked to figure out what we've missed in the past week when life made us too busy. Here are some things that presented:

We're at 4700+ members! Wow. Statement expressing intention of world domination. Gloating over community's rightful place as yardstick against which all of LJ is measured. Realization that I've just gotten way, way too into efw. Return to reality.



Some trolling with porn happened. The dickspam I saw within a couple hours of it being posted and deleted. I left the interruption posts featuring bees to show that something had indeed happened and been removed. The videos that were appearing and disappearing were missed completely by us. In both cases, people filed their own abuse thingees, but it didn't seem to cause any action from LJ. We gritted our teeth and prepared ourselves for the legion of "Where are the MODS?!?!?!?!1" comments, but it seemed to blow over quickly enough. We've been hand-approving, but it's a lot of stinking work, and still an imperfect system...so these things are going to happen on occasion. At some point, we might ask for someone to help us with it, but we're not there yet. When the time comes, we probably won't ask for volunteers, but will nominate someone(s) privately based on their community career. We're working hard at staying classy, San Diego.


Some banning had to happen as well. It wasn't a flagrant abuse of power on my part this time (for the record, the last bans I made - and if you don't remember, I'm not reminding you - were based totally and completely on my level of irritation and not rule breaking and I reinstated the parties a couple days later when I calmed down), but an actual rule-break banning for comment deletion. We don't care if you say "I keep forgetting I can't delete comments here" after you delete something. If you're the type of person who makes obnoxious statements and then instantly deletes your comment so no one can call you out on how obnoxious you're being, we don't want you in our community. Comment deleters are the worst. Automatic ban; no warning.


And finally, a very special LULZ to someone who will remain nameless who publicly flounced her way out of stupid_free a month or so ago by commenting in other communities how she had "left s_f in disgust" over our lack of respect for a certain form of food packaging...or something, only to reapply for membership now! HAHA, it's hilarious when someone decides we're awful, terrible meanies only to realize that once you leave, you have no fun!

A list of my favorite stupid_free tags:



"social experiments"

epic fail

how is babby formed

delicate sensibilities

i make funny / i make funny oh no i get banned!

jerks now banned

just like teh racism!!

left-field logic

modular accusatory fingers of doom

njyoder is a big fat liar

redefining words

font warfare

this post fucking sucks

we will not give you macros for this

very tricky age

you ruined book 7

Soap-boxing annoys the crap out of me:

THOSE HEALTH NUTS SURE ARE NUTTY! AND HEALTHY -- NOT!!! SNARK!"


Y-A-W-N.

There are plenty of communities promoting things any one of us might disagree with...but it's THEIR community and they can promote whatever they want; that's why people start communities, that's why people join them. People believe different things. To snark them for believing something I don't believe would be idiotic, otherwise I'd be in religious comms all day long.

First of all, everything we have to say about trolls/spam posts is right there in the FAQ, fully addressed and complete.

Many people have suggested moderated membership.


I moderated membership for awhile after the last huge porn photo attack, and guess what? It makes no difference.

1. We get 50-60 requests per day.

2. Who exactly do I moderate OUT?


Here's Lord Snot, your friendly stupid_free co-mod, moderating membership. I have to click on every profile and analyze it. Here are some requests:

• A brand new journal. Deny for being a potential troll? Maybe it's just someone new to LJ.
  
  
• A journal that has no friends and is only in communities. Deny? Maybe it's just the community account of someone perfectly reasonable. Lots of people have community-only journals because they're not interested in exposing their personal journals to the great unwashed of communities, especially the communities that sometimes get heated (like...stupid_free, mayhaps?).
  
  
• A journal with a few friends that was created in 2004. Accept as safe? What if it's a stealth sock account that is only used once in awhile to troll?
  
  
• A journal I know has been banned from other communities. Deny? I've been banned from communities. Sometimes it just happens, doesn't mean you're a troll.
  
  
• A journal with sparkly graphics. Deny on general principle?
  
  
• A normal-looking journal like ladyghost316. What reason would I have to deny it? But she spammed the shit out of us.
  
  
• A journal that looks normal but is a known trouble-maker. But maybe I don't know that. I can't possibly know every bad experience that has ever happened in every community.
  
  
• A journal like mrflagg. I find him to be a total ass. Deny? But he's a harmless ass.
  
  

Are you seeing the flaws in this proposed system? I can't even count the number of times I was called a troll and denied membership or banned from communities when I first set up this account. Why? Because I don't update a lot, I called people out for being stupid, I was only in communities and didn't have friends. A year and a half later, I'm a well-known moderator of a popular community. But I still call people out for being stupid. I still don't update a lot. I still use my journal primarily for communities. I'm no more or less a troll now than I was then. But if I was moderating membership, I'd probably have had to deny lord_snot membership to my community based on the criteria of moderating membership.


Moderating membership = FAIL.


I'm not even going to talk about moderating posts because that's just retarded and would go leaps and bounds towards the total destruction of stupid_free. It would also mean that we would have to be sitting here non-stop approving posts or the community would become stale. And can't people still edit their posts after they've been approved?

Moderating posts = FAIL.


More mods? We take banning very seriously. With more mods, we'd eventually have a situation where some mods thought someone needed to be banned but others didn't. How do we preserve the integrity of the community if we add more moderators? How can we assure that someone's views will sync up exactly with ours? sayonara_snot and I had to have a discussion about some of the people we have banned because they were borderline decisions. More mods would mean more discussions and more work.

So where does that leave us? Probably exactly where we are right now.

What is the political agenda of stupid_free?

There is no political agenda in stupid_free. We are a conglomeration of various opinions united in our quest to unearth stupidity.

Can anyone join stupid_free?

Yes. Or no. It depends.

What constitutes a “stupid”?

Stupid, in the context of this community, is a statement or opinion which the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would identify as brainless, deficient, dense, dim, dumb, foolish, half-baked, half-witted, idiotic, imbecilic, inane, laughable, ludicrous, meaningless, mindless, moronic, naive, nonsensical, obtuse, pointless, senseless, simple-minded, thickheaded, unintelligent, or witless.

There is some grey area and subjectivity here, so use your best judgment.

Will anything get me banned from stupid_free?

Only a very few things can possibly get you banned: Racial slurs. Deleting posts, deleting comments, disabling comments. Posting spam. Harassing users or commenting without permission in their personal journals. Internet vigilantism. Anything that directly violates the LJ TOS. If you've been banned, you're a complete and total moron.

How should I construct my post?

Your post should include the names of the major players, links to the posts and comments you are speaking of, and a brief synopsis of the stupid. You may add commentary, so long as it’s not soap-box ranting about your own personal agenda. This is a point-and-laugh community, not a rant community.

Where can I find good “stupid”?

This is Livejournal, where the stupid roam wild and free. You’re likely to find stupidity everywhere you look, but a good place to start is in large communities where many members are likely to have opinions rooted firmly in intolerance. While there is probably lots of stupid in personal journals, we ask everyone to confine their efforts to open forums and unlocked posts in communities.

There's some great stupid in a community I'm in, but it's locked. Can I post it anyway? I'll just copy-paste and take screencaps, m'kay?

No. Open community posts only.

I saw some great stupid when I was trolling someone's personal journal, can I post about that?

No. Open community posts only.

What if I am stupid? Can I still get involved?

Yes! In fact, some of our funniest contributions are from our stupid associates. Click these links for examples of real-life idiots right in our ranks:
http://community.livejournal.com/stupid_free/83204.html?thread=3440900#t3440900
http://community.livejournal.com/stupid_free/79287.html?thread=3131575#t3131575
http://community.livejournal.com/stupid_free/77562.html?thread=3005690#t3005690
http://community.livejournal.com/stupid_free/15805.html?thread=218045#t218045

I saw a really stupid thread on the IMDB forums the other day, can I post about it here?

stupid_free is for LJ community threads only. There are other communities for mocking stupidity found in the world and internet at large.

I posted something about someone I think is real dumb but everybody yelled at me and said they didn’t see the stupid!

You throw gum at the wall, not all of it will stick. Perhaps the post seemed really stupid to you because of your particular belief system, but that might not mesh with the bulk of this community’s members. *shrug* Don’t sweat it if they aren’t all winners. And you gotta have a little bit of a callous towards flames to participate in a mocking community to begin with because it does get heated here at times.

People are flaming me because of something I said, can I delete my comments or post?

Deleted posts and comments makes us bannifyingly sad. Toughen up. Or just stop reading and responding. Flames on LJ burn hot and out fast. If you’re not enjoying it, just ignore it.

I made a spelling/grammar/html boo-boo in my comment to someone, can I delete it?

Please do not delete comments, even for boo-boos. All we see is "deleted comment" and have no way to know if you threatened someone with sharpened sporks, or simply used the wrong form of there/their/they're. Everyone makes errors, just correct it in the next comment down and the universe will surely forgive you.

I saw a community specifically for purple cross-dressing space alien pig farmers! Can you believe that?!?!

While purple cross-dressing space alien pig farmers might seem outrageously stupid to you, we mock people for stupid things they say rather than simply what they are. We try not to poke fun at lifestyle choices on the whole, no matter how wacky they might seem.

Somebody made a post about me and I’m real mad and I think you’re all a bunch of meanie poopheads!

Everyone loves being agreed with. We all enjoy when our posts are received with a collective intarweb high-five, the cheers for our wit and wisdom echoing through LJ’s virtual halls. But occasionally a post or comment may fall short of its desired masturbatory goals. It’s not the end of the world. Dissenting opinions will not kill you. In fact, they might broaden your horizons. If you feel strongly about your thoughts and would like to expand upon them here, we welcome debate. You do not need to be a member to post.

But I possess skin so thin and arguments so flimsy that not even I can defend my statements!

If you’re so fragile that you cannot tolerate some chipping at the cracks your logic facade, you might want to re-think posting your opinions to open forums where countless strangers can read and dissect them. Go back to your personal journal and preach to your own choir. LJ communities are not for you.

You’re using MY words and that’s a violation of my copyright!!

Unless you are a lawyer, those words make you sound foolish and petty. What we do here in stupid_free is something called “satirical commentary” and your words are merely quoted for the purpose of clarification and critique. According to LJ’s TOS, you have a default copyright on the material in your personal journal. A comment or post to a community is a snippet of your LJ presence. We could all get lawyers and argue about Fair Use and Public Domain, but doesn’t that seem a bit excessive? Especially since you’d have to be pretty pretentious to claim your community comments are tantamount to “your work” and any reprinting here is done with full credit to you and without intent to profit.

I’m going to sic LJ Abuse on you and get your little community shut down because I can’t sleep at night knowing that people like you enjoy your freedom of speech just as much as I do!!! Because what I’m saying is important and what you’re saying is mean and not funny and I hate it!!!

Repeat this diatribe in front of the mirror. See how silly you look?

Someone is trolling my personal journal and I think they’re from this community.

Trolling personal journals is strictly prohibited in stupid_free. If someone from this community is commenting in your personal journal against your wishes, please contact us at stupid_free (@) hotmail.com and we will take action. If they are commenting anonymously, we suggest you opt for IP logging and disable anonymous comments. You can always change your settings back when it blows over (and LJ drama always blows over). If anyone posts anything you view as a threat, attack, or obscenity, please contact us immediately and we will assist you in following up with the abuse team.

I just read a post on stupid_free and it was SO stupid, I was thinking of going to that person’s personal journal and telling them (anonymously, natch!) they’re too stupid to live/have kids/own a hamster/dress themselves…

Trolling personal journals is strictly prohibited and a bannable offense. If you wish to comment to someone directly, do so in the community of origin. If you are unable to post to that community due to membership or posting restrictions, you should make your comments to the post in stupid_free and learn to live with the fact that the person might never know how you truly feel.

I’ve got some great shit-eating goat porn pics, should I post them here?

Congratulations, but no. This is not the place and your post will be swiftly and silently deleted.

Someone keeps posting shit-eating goat porn, can’t you guys make them stop/moderate membership/screen posts for approval…?

We intend to keep the community open as we do not wish to prevent non-members from replying to posts. An open forum is a successful forum. We will delete obscene/spam posts as soon as we can. If you think that we’ve not yet discovered it, you can email us at stupid_free (@) hotmail.com or lord.snot (@) yahoo.com. If it is pornographic or violent content, you may report the post to LJ abuse immediately.

OMG SPAM POSTS are ruining my friends-list view and now I have to leave the community or something because LJ life as I know it has been insufferably disrupted! Please, for the love of all that is holy, LJ-CUT!!!!!

Spammers love attention. If you don't give them any, they will go away. Please just scroll on past and we promise to delete as soon as we can. See one question up for more information.

OMG OMG SPAM POSTS SPAM POSTS DEAD BABIES INFECTED PRIVATE PARTS GIGANTIC FONTS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! WHERE ARE THE MODS?????

I keep chaining sayonara_snot to the computer, but she's crafty and manages to chew herself free. We promise to delete as soon as we see offending posts. We swear. You can send us an email or comment in our journals to let us know what's going on. You can also report TOS violations to LJ abuse. You DO NOT have to leave the community. There are a variety of ways to circumvent offending images. Using this link:
http://community.livejournal.com/stupid_free?nohtml=1 you can view the community with the html disabled. You can also disable all images through Firefox; here's a tutorial on that.

Who are the brilliant minds behind stupid_free and how might I reach them?

The moderators and supreme-overlords of this community are sayonara_snot and lord_snot. You may lather us with praise and compliment through our personal journals, or via email at stupid_free (@) hotmail.com or lord.snot (@) yahoo.com.

Don’t you guys have anything better to do?

Sadly, no.

I mean, get a life!!!

We’ve tried life. We prefer this.

What are the Stupid Police and can I join them?

The Stupid Police are an elite band of tattlers. If you’d like to become a Stupid Police Officer, please submit resume, head shot, and psychiatric evaluation to the above addresses.