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There are a number of things to dislike about ED. Little things, for starters, like the increased population over it's subforums. It's a statistical reality with a forum as large as Gaia, and makes community forming difficult. The large number of pointless threads, for another. The "i did something crazy today" talking about random acts of liberal vandalism, or the scam notification thread, or the "what would you do if..." threads, or Holocaust denial, and threads asking for opinions. It's enough to drive a man batshit. And then there are the morons with gigantic signatures. Good Mod, some of them get defensive. Like this fella from five minutes ago:


I don't understand why people think they can freely violate the contract that they accepted when they joined Gaia. The little checkbox is there for a reason: Even if they haven't read the Terms of Service, they are still bound by them. But this is getting off the topic.

The number one reason I'm not fond of ED: The worship of intelligence. More specifically, the wry form of intelligence frequently found in satire. Most posts of this type, the kind that take an individual down a few notches in a witty, wordy, properly formatted and grammaticized post, are followed up with "What he said" and "Dude, you got totally owned" and another three or four posts repeating similar sentiments. It's spam. Clutter. A number of posts that do nothing but distract from the topic. Large fanclubs moving from thread to thread trying to catch a glimpse of their various idols and, when they do, trying to be the first one to praise their genius. stressed

This is, I think, a symptom of a larger problem. Satire is not a valid discussion method because it is inherently negative. It's attacking something rather than building it up. And if there's one thing that people like, it's a fight. They flock to the sight of blood, be it real or virtual. And that is my problem with ED.