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Intellectual Sex and Message Board Format


The Chocolate Jew

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The Chocolate Jew

"SEX is a subjective concept for me, just like everything else.

I feel like I've had sex, though I never have had anyone in my pants.

Maybe to me and my lover it was just more of an emotional connection, and not "getting all up in there" that made us feel like we had already "done it". . . we were just so. . . connected. I don't know how to explain it, but it was like I could feel her physically miles away. . . I knew when she hurt her leg that it was her left hip, because I could feel it, I could FEEL it. . . I mean, just being close to her, so connected like that. . . she said she felt like we had (and she's sexual, so. . . )"

I took that from a post by True in another thread (see below).

So that's emotional connection--do the rest of you believe in intellectual sex (as I strongly do)? It is something I have experienced--I would define it as an intellectual interaction between two people (not sure about more) that is profound, generative (bringing each to new insights neither had had before), very exciting to experience and in my thinking of it involves sort of a climax experience. It is something I had repeatedly with this one girl in high school, and I craved it, and there was foreplay and all that. Makes many academic- or removed-type `intellectual' discussions seem very boring by comparison.

As a side note/question, I did not see any way to quote this post in a different thread/topic. I'm obviously new here (but not to message boards in general) and still getting the hang of it, but what would anyone think of a threaded format here?

Currently we have a main page with subjects like this:

Subject 1

Subject 2

Subject 3

Then, if you click on "Subject 1", you get something like this:

Person A: :?: Blah blah blah blah...

---

Person B: :lol: No, I don't think so because blah blah blah blah...

---

Person C: I agree because blah blah blah... 8)

---

Person A: What are you saying?!? :evil: blah blah blah...

---

etc.

What about something like this?

:?: Subject 1 by Person A

.....:lol: No, I don't think so... by Person B

..........:evil: What are you saying?!? by Person A

.....8) I agree because... by Person C

:!: Subject 2 by Person D

:idea: Subject 3 by Person E

(Excuse the dots--it won't let me indent with spaces.) Then clicking on "Subject 1" would give you something like this:

---

:?: Subject 1

by Person A

blah blah blah [message body]

--- [outline of responses]

:lol: No, I don't think so... by Person B

.....:evil: What are you saying?!? by Person A

8) I agree because... by Person C

---

I personally find the second format easier to follow because it's obvious who's responding to whom, and that's particularly difficult to tell using the first format, especially in a long discussion when some people are sticking closely to the original question while others are wandering fall off topic in the natural course of conversation--those are both good things to do, but I find it confusing to have the posts interspersed by being ordered somewhat arbitrarily by the time they were written.

Some message boards combine the two formats by having an outline as in the second format but providing a button to view all the posts in a thread *or* subthread `inline', as in the first format.

Of course, I'm new here, so I have no idea if what I'm suggesting goes against the culture here for some reason, or maybe it's already available and I just haven't found it yet. :roll:

Here's kind of a crude implementation of a threaded format, to give an example:

http://www.theparentperspective.com/boards...w.asp?forumid=7

(R.I.P. ParentsPlace!)

I think it helps the long, involved discussions get carried on instead of being lost in confusion (or people's simply getting tired of scrolling through pages of posts).

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Visually I like the linear (as opposed to threaded) format better, because it allows for larger heading text and (I would say) better handles a forum with alot of different threads going at once. Also transferring between the two while keeping the existing text would probably be something of a pain (though I definitely see how the current format is hokey in some ways.)

As for intellectual sex: I completely know what you're talking about, but I'm more inclined to point out that there are intensely intimate things that aren't sex than to try to extend the definition to include them.

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do the rest of you believe in intellectual sex (as I strongly do)?

Gee. What with all our debating over the definition of 'sex' I would very strongly hesistate to give it yet another meaning by applying it to an activity that is dissociated from the body.

I would have to say no, I don't think of intense intellectual discourse as intellectual sex, because in my own mind sex has a very grody connotation. I find emotional and intellectual bonds to be engaging, but not to the point of feeling climatic. I suppose I don't experience a lot of 'passion' per se. My emotions shift and grow, but it's always a sort of slow burn. Nothing frenzied or ecstatic about it. But that's just me I guess.

what would anyone think of a threaded format here?

Eh. I've seen threaded formats before. I actually sort of like the one we have here. The "threads" are the topics themselves, and I kind of think threading it further would just make it look kinda messy. All those indentations and stuff. Also, I know folks have the tendency to respond to multiple posts in a single reply, so that would complicate that habit. I don't think it's that chaotic right now that we need to change the format.

Thanks for your thoughtful input though. Like I said, these are just my opinions, don't mean much. *waves big DISCLAIMER sign*

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I've had intense intellectual connections with people before where I got all excited that I could talk to soeone about some obscure topic, but I'd never think of that as being a form of sex. I wouldn't think of anything other than actual genital contact as being a form of sex. To my mind, it's simply a deep intellectual connection. You may call it whatever you'd like, though, if anyone said they wanted to have intellectual sex with me I'd show them the intellectual door.

Cate

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Not to mention we employ that helpful Quote feature a lot. :D

We do?

Occasionally.

But to stay on topic, I'm not a big fan of threading. Slashdot's forums are a prime example. Trying to track any given thread is an excercise in futility.

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The Chocolate Jew

Well, upon further investigation, it appears that the main problem with using threads here is that the site apparently uses message board software that (as far as I know) does not permit that.

If anyone thinks this format is easier to follow, though, for the life of me, I don't understand. Many times in the middle of a discussion, someone posts a comment that could easily be in response to one of several people (completely changing its meaning, of course), and I have no way of telling what they meant.

Aside from that, I think the main advantage of a *true* threaded format (unlike Slashdot) is the ease and speed of browsing for a casual user. I hate having to read through multiple messages I'm not interested in, and I like to be able to examine the entire set of topics visually and pick just the few subtopics I'm interested in to browse if I only have 15 minutes to spend. Without threads, I also feel like my response isn't given the importance it deserves, since there's no link to it from the main page/board, which tempts me to move my discussion to another new topic if I want it to get attention, even if it's in response to something someone else said. It seems the threads/topics here peter out after they hit page two, and people's choosing to post new topics rather than carry them on in turn pushes entire topics off the page before their time.

Having a combination format wouldn't sacrifice anything--it would look exactly the same as now unless you clicked on the "view threads" link--but it's the implementation that would be a problem. Vive le HyperNews! ;)

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Huh. Didn't realize there was a whole psychology to the thread/unthreaded deal. Neat.

*shrugs, smiles* I don't know, CJ. I understand where you're coming from...but I don't agree I think, because I'm not a casual reader. :) MUST READ EVERYTHING.

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While a threaded view would make it easier to find what you're looking for, and would keep the posts organized, people here do respond to multiple people/posts in a single post, which, from my understanding, would complicate things in a threaded system. Also, by only going to the posts that you are specifically looking for, you would miss a lot of the more random/fun tangential posts ;)

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I don't even know what threaded and unthreaded means. All I know is that it's some form of how a message board is arranged, but don't ask me which is which.

I like the forum the way it is now.

. . . Of course, a darker background would always be a plus, but that's just me :mrgreen:

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