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Author Topic: How to tell when someone is stupid...  (Read 35518 times)

umiman

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How to tell when someone is stupid...
« on: March 23, 2009, 02:38:00 pm »

I was wondering how you guys identify when the person you're talking to is a moron. Considering the anonymity of the internet (it's easy to avoid an argument with a 12 year old when you can see they're 12 years old), this is a pondorous task.

I usually look for key statements like this:

A: "Man, Lord of the Rings is awesome!"
B: "Lord of the Rings sucks."
A: "A lot of people will disagree with you. It's Metacritic & Rotten Tomatoes score is really high."
B: "Those sites are totally biased."

...

Failing that, I usually look at the screenname. If the name contains more than 2 numbers, the guy is usually a moron. Hell, I'd be cautious if there was even one number.

You can't use grammar and spelling to judge intelligence anymore simply because it's actually quite difficult to get into an argument with an avid phone-speak person. Example:

A: "L4D is gr8!"
B: "Left 4 Dead sucks."
A: "Well, smtimes it sux lol. PS party @7."

Besides, it's true that just because some people don't understand the language doesn't mean they're not intelligent.... though I wonder what they're doing on a forum they can't understand.

I wish there was a way to display age everywhere you go online, like a mandatory age test conducted by ISPs before issuing internet access. It might make pornography exclusive again and we wouldn't have to deal with so many fanboys. Maybe their most recent math score as well so we can avoid people who fail their math courses.

In any case, how do you guys pinpoint who not to talk seriously to?

inaluct

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2009, 02:42:19 pm »

You could legitimately argue that Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are biased because fans of a movie are more likely to go and rate it on the internet than people who thought it was a mediocre movie.
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Strife26

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2009, 02:48:00 pm »

How does my name having 26 relate to my inteligence?

Honestly, I look for people who don't capitalize their user name.
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inaluct

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2009, 02:51:50 pm »

I agree with the assertion that people with numbers in their names are stupid. It usually shows that they aren't capable of creating a username that isn't already extremely common, so they take an unoriginal name and differentiate it by adding numbers to the end.

I'm siding with umiman, and not just because neither of us capitalized our names.
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Gunner-Chan

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2009, 02:56:36 pm »

For me it's by how they post, like people that must appear all evil and edgy. Or others who simply don't take the time to make proper posts and just shit all over the place.

Username for me is not a valid judge, an otherwise normal personable poster could have numbers in their name just because they are attached to that name, they could of had it for years.
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Cthulhu

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2009, 02:59:25 pm »

I look for people who surround their name with something, like:

XxXxdemonxXxX

That person is guaranteed to be a retard.  I'd bet money on it.
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inaluct

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2009, 03:00:20 pm »

I look for people who surround their name with something, like:

XxXxdemonxXxX

That person is guaranteed to be a retard.  I'd bet money on it.
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umiman

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2009, 03:01:26 pm »

You could legitimately argue that Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are biased because fans of a movie are more likely to go and rate it on the internet than people who thought it was a mediocre movie.
Uh huh, because people who LIKE things are more likely to take the time to talk about how much they like it than people who hate something? Wow, what alien culture is this?  :P

Seriously though, those sites don't only publish user review scores (whom everyone knows to take with a grain of salt.) If both the critic review score and the user review score is high, chances are something is good. It's not that it sucks, the fact is you, the individual, don't like it.

In any case, that was a real conversation I had with someone over the internet. I asked him if he didn't believe the combined average of reviews, then what would he believe in, and he answered, "himself". In other words, the determining factor in whether something sucks is his own opinion. That's when I stopped talking to him.

Strife: I'm talking more about people who do this "~~~~Granterofwishes1223*!*~". I don't capitalize my username because I prefer it being flat when you look at it. Having the U stand out is a bit akward in terms of asthetics, don't you think? It's like a flat rolling countryside with a giant 12"toilet sticking out. Besides, I said more than 2 numbers.

inaluct

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2009, 03:05:34 pm »

I'm not only talking about the fanatics who either love or hate something; I'm also talking about people that have milder points of view. In my experience, people who like something are more likely to talk about it than people who dislike it. Of course, someone who hates a movie with every fiber of their being will rant about it just as much as someone who adores it, but they aren't everyone.
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Jude

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2009, 03:30:21 pm »

The only thing I've found is that it's pretty hard to make any judgment based solely off a username

But content of posts works pretty well

Also, I'm pretty sure "phone-speak" has more to do with saving time than "not understanding the language." I guess if you're texting constantly that becomes important...
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JoshuaFH

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2009, 03:45:35 pm »

It's a pretty big value judgment to just proclaim someone as a "moron", and shrug them off entirely. The way I handle it is I tend to avoid any place on the internet that small, immature children, who don't know any better, tend to hang out.
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umiman

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2009, 03:46:51 pm »

Jude: Oh no, they're two seperate things. I just kinda clumped them together to save time and space.

Fishersalwaysdie

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2009, 05:52:29 pm »

If you need a guide on how to recognize a moron, you are probably one yourself.
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Strife26

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2009, 05:53:45 pm »

You'll note that there isn't a 'Strife' or any number between 1-25 here. I'm the only one.

The 26 (which is my favorite number) is to differentiate myself (a 17 year-old teen in Fargo) from Strife, the trenchcoat wearing guy who can pull an infinite supply of handguns and knives from his pockets.

I'd find someone with the name of !!XxPig Tail SockxX!! very funny though . . .
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Bromor Neckbeard

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Re: How to tell when someone is stupid...
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2009, 05:55:08 pm »

I just go by the content of their posts.  If I see several idiotic or no-content posts from a particular username, then I'm more likely to skip that person's posts or topics in the future.

I wish we'd get an "Ignore User" function on this board.
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