Question for Michael Suarez Options

[radek]

This is something I've been wanting to ask for awhile:

Michael,
Why exactly do you edit ED? Or more specifically, why do you edit the new ED?

It's a serious question. Obviously you get something out of it or you wouldn't do it. More so - you get enough out of it to have ditched your ol' loyalties to the old ED and switched to the new ED. At some point you were pretty pissed about the new ED usurping the ol' ED. But then.. something happened, you got ok with it, somehow rationalized it... I don't know, there was some weird switch that flipped in your head (I mean, I don't quite understand why anyone would want to be on the ol' ED, but I can suspend disbelief for a second or two) and now you're full force about it.

So just wondering. What does it do for you? What does it allow you to do that you couldn't otherwise? As far as I can tell anything you posted there you could've posted here (and you probably would've gotten more drama per word, given that here people actually care about DB or whatever). I'm just not understanding the strategy - assuming your motives are given. Is it that you want to be liked by the people there and you don't particularly care if you're liked by the people here? Sort of a "sit on the chair in the lunchroom cafeteria which is right between the "Star Trek Geeks" and the "Firefly Geeks"" kind of thing, and you just tried to move one chair over? Or is there something more to it? Probably poking my nose into business that no one can understand (well, actually... but whatevers, anyway, the lunchroom ladies always hate all you folks, and they're the ones who actually get to go to heaven, even cynical atheists like me know (and hope for) that)

I'm being a bit of an asshole about it, but I do honestly wonder what your motivation in all this is?

[Detective]

you get enough out of it to have ditched your ol' loyalties to the old ED and switched to the new ED. At some point you were pretty pissed about the new ED usurping the ol' ED. But then.. something happened, you got ok with it, somehow rationalized it...

I don't understand why you arr puzzled, Radek. The old ED is dead and gone and will never come back. However, the new ED is almost indistinguishable from it. So anyone who enjoyed the old ED is almost certain to enjoy the new one at least as much unless he had some incredible attachment to the old management. So why shouldn't Michael edit the new one? Of course he isn't the only one.

[Herschelkrustofsky]

True. We have others here. But these are interesting questions. I have never been able to grasp the attraction of lulz, as opposed to actual humor.

[TungstenCarbide]

True. We have others here. But these are interesting questions. I have never been able to grasp the attraction of lulz, as opposed to actual humor.

did you ever burn ants with a magnifying glass in the sun when you were a little kid?

[Tarc]

True. We have others here. But these are interesting questions. I have never been able to grasp the attraction of lulz, as opposed to actual humor.

The problem is that you see it as an opposition.

[radek]

you get enough out of it to have ditched your ol' loyalties to the old ED and switched to the new ED. At some point you were pretty pissed about the new ED usurping the ol' ED. But then.. something happened, you got ok with it, somehow rationalized it...

I don't understand why you arr puzzled, Radek. The old ED is dead and gone and will never come back. However, the new ED is almost indistinguishable from it. So anyone who enjoyed the old ED is almost certain to enjoy the new one at least as much unless he had some incredible attachment to the old management. So why shouldn't Michael edit the new one? Of course he isn't the only one.

This is true but given how gung ho anti them he originally was, I'm just wondering about how the psychological process works.

[Somey]

This is true but given how gung ho anti them he originally was, I'm just wondering about how the psychological process works.

That's because you've been looking at the problem from the wrong perspective, and I daresay the opposite perspective from how you should be looking at it. I also suspect that most people look at it from the wrong perspective, because most people have a positive outlook on things in general.

The impulse to participate in a website like Encyclopedia Dramatica is almost entirely negative - the emotions behind it are fear and resentment, but while what you see is mostly resentment, fear is the more visceral and powerful motivating force. In Mr. Suarez' case, the decision to go from distrusting/disliking the new ED regime and joining it was probably based on basic insecurity, i.e., the fear that people he had interacted with would think he was more "ghey" for not joining than he was for ultimately changing his mind.

So, given that he saw the ED users as a peer group, there was presumably a "turning point" (which some of us might have termed a "crisis of conscience") when he realized that the new ED site had sufficient support to survive, and that its members would (in all likelihood) actively attack former ED'ers who refused to join, while other former ED'ers would simply go off and do something else. Rather than risk damage to his ego-facade as a result of attacks from his peer-group, he opted to go with the herd, which is probably what most people in his position would have done under the circumstances, given that most people in his position are somewhat sociopathic to begin with.

[Tarc]

This is true but given how gung ho anti them he originally was, I'm just wondering about how the psychological process works.

That's because you've been looking at the problem from the wrong perspective, and I daresay the opposite perspective from how you should be looking at it. I also suspect that most people look at it from the wrong perspective, because most people have a positive outlook on things in general.

The impulse to participate in a website like Encyclopedia Dramatica is almost entirely negative - the emotions behind it are fear and resentment, but while what you see is mostly resentment, fear is the more visceral and powerful motivating force. In Mr. Suarez' case, the decision to go from distrusting/disliking the new ED regime and joining it was probably based on basic insecurity, i.e., the fear that people he had interacted with would think he was more "ghey" for not joining than he was for ultimately changing his mind.

So, given that he saw the ED users as a peer group, there was presumably a "turning point" (which some of us might have termed a "crisis of conscience") when he realized that the new ED site had sufficient support to survive, and that its members would (in all likelihood) actively attack former ED'ers who refused to join, while other former ED'ers would simply go off and do something else. Rather than risk damage to his ego-facade as a result of attacks from his peer-group, he opted to go with the herd, which is probably what most people in his position would have done under the circumstances, given that most people in his position are somewhat sociopathic to begin with.

Don't worry, ladies...Professor Somey is here.

[SB_Johnny]

Don't worry, ladies...Professor Somey is here.

I think Somey should make that his new avatar.

[Somey]

Don't worry, ladies... Professor Somey is here.

Ahh, but the ladies should be worried most of all.

[TungstenCarbide]

Don't worry, ladies... Professor Somey is here.

Ahh, but the ladies should be worried most of all.

[Tarc]

Don't worry, ladies... Professor Somey is here.

Ahh, but the ladies should be worried most of all.

But back to the original question, perhaps he simply realized there was more fun to be had in the old ED than in running an icanhascheezburger clone.

I edit there as well, but we all know that my moral standing is usually lying down.

[RMHED]

Don't worry, ladies...Professor Somey is here.

I think Somey should make that his new avatar.

Somey isn't Lucy, he's more of a Charlie, forever trying to kick that football but always being thwarted.

[jsalsman]

Michael, why are you so interested in pedophilia issues but not racism? Isn't the latter far more pervasive and harmful in aggregate?