Cultural Differences and Forum Moderation

Please tell me you're joking.

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Please tell me you actually HAVE a sense of humour?

Charming. Why you feel the need to avoid answering a simple question and insult me as well, I've no idea.

I don't know you well enough to know if the smileys appended to your comments were intended to note that you were joking or that you found the thought of throwing other peoples towels into the pool funny.

Which is why I asked for clarification.

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Lol yeah, some books too. I had an amazing conversation with someone who'd read the Da Vinci Code (Brilliant, terrible book IMO) who sincerely believed that it was all true. What really tickled me was that he said he didn't like Angels & Demons (even betteer than TDVC i think) because it was "unlikely to be true" - not 'impossible', just 'unlikely'! LMAO anti-matter in the bowels of the Vatican - unlikely! Awesome.

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Unlike some people, I don't misuse smilies. If I use one, it's to indicate whatever emotion the smiley shows. In this case, it was poking out its tongue, indicating a joke.

You assume that everyone applies the exact same meaning to a smiley as you, do you? you come across to me (others might see different of course) as quite arrogant, sometimes, you know.

I'm not trying to start an argument, FFM. But some people might assume that the poking tongue was directed at the Germans.

Thanks for finally clarifying, anyway.

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

New account is because this one is a US account. I begun playing on the Virtue server with some new friends I met while while looking for a prelaunch group for a certain best not mentioned here up and coming superhero game. Most of them are in the US so I opened a new account there. A cool multinational bunch actually and more crativity goes on than gaming.

That and I also get to avoid all the housework of clearing up an old 3 year account. Makes me shiver the thought of 3 years dust and cob webs an all.

I assume that people apply the meaning to a smiley that the smiley is designed to convey. Winkey's or Tonguey's are usually used to convey humour.

Actually, I think Germans are lovely people; strong willed, intelligent, and makers of awesome beer, and I'd never be so crass as to bring up 60 year old history in front of one, as why be offensive?

You say you're British. Surely then, you should know that the towels on the sunbeds thing is very much a standing joke in the UK? It's no different to the ones we fire at the French, or they at us us in return.

In truth, the ONLY thing I dislike about Germans, is actually their government, and then only that they're trying to ban computer games that feature any violence even remotely directed as humans, or human-like targets.

If that legislation goes through, the EU CoH servers are GONE. They're HOSTED in Germany!

If you are goin to quote and respnd to my posts please have the courtesy to take what I said in context or not at all. You know this thread has fast turned into the CaptainMan show as I have observed you posting after post refuting peoples posts and comments and deliberately ruffling feathers. I know this was going to be something in your repetoire.

I never said the movie industry was like swallowing poison. I said the dismissive attitude shown by hollywood and other ignorant type casting and acceptance of type casting is beyond amusement. Expecially given in this age when acess to information and research is so easy. In reality there is no excuse for it. And its irroisponsible. Now while I beleive it can only hurt you of you let it, it doesnt mean that those people are ignorant.

My comment was that I have noticed this attitude to non US nations and cultures in mainstraim US media has become less tolerated and rubbed more people up the wrong way. My anology was that instead of letting it bounce off people are finding a need to speak up and each instance instead of being less cause for irritation is quite the opposite. Alotnof people are feeling enough is enough. I say that being the case dont go to the movies or watch TV. Of course we know that wont happen.

good man! lol

Your definitions of what smileys are intended to convey are NOT universal. I'm not saying that mine are, II'm not even saying that yours are in a minority. But don't just assume you speak for the world.

I, for example, use a pokey-out-tongue smiley exactly as i would in reality, ie to indicate mild dismissal of the person i'm directing it at. Stricking your tongue out at someone as far as I know is a childish mild insult. At best it's mischeiviously implying a false dismissal, a kind of 'well, thrrp to you, but-i-don't-really-mean-it. This is why you'll rarely find one in any of my posts. I use the normal smiley to indicate I'm smiling as i type, and the grinning smiley to indicate I'm laughing.

Incidentally, I and everyone I know uses the winking smiley to indicate a suggestive or flirting smile.

You can of course use your own definitions, but to assume yours are the norms is dangerous, and as we see if you compound it with smug evasion of explanation misunderstandings can develop.

I say I'm British? I've taken your word for it that you are. You think I'm lying? Lovely.
I'm well aware of the absolutely hackneyed trope that is 'the germans stealing all the sunbeds'. It's lame IMO and not particularly backed up by reality in the last decade in my experience. You say that you get up at 6am when on holiday; From what I have seen of British tourists abroad, you are decidedly an exception. I have no sympathy for your average british package-holiday tourist who crawls out of bed at 10am expecting a full english and a free sunbed.

As ever, the truth is somewhere between my stereotype and your 6am example. But I'd rather stay in a Greek hotel full of Germans than one full of Brits, to be frank.

If the only thing you dislike about the Germans is their government, stop perpetrating the 70s image of aryan sour-faced clock-watchers annexing the pool sunbeds.

I think that its too soon to jump to any conclusions based on a google translation and reprts from 3 readers of one website. If the German ban leads to CoH being prohibited from being hosted in Germany (which might not be the case anyway - it might just mean thatt the GErman CoH is shut down) then I'm sure NCSoft will think of something.

The sky isn't falling, Chicken Little.

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

I beg your pardon, I didn't mean to take your quote out of context. I see you feel strongly on the matter, and I've no wish to denigrate you for that. My apologies. I obviously personally am fairly happy with the US film industry, but, well, different strokes and all that.

Regards

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

You don't need to claim it, I refer you back to what caused this in the first place, which is you assuming that your smileys convey to anyone what you think they do. They don't.

Or at least they didn't, until I asked you to clarify.

Now everyone knows for example that if you send them a wink, you're not flirting with them.



Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

In 4.5 years and 17,609 posts, you're the ONLY one who's ever misunderstood them. Or rather, to be more accurate, you're the only one that's SAID they don't understand my meaning.

Maybe it's just you, hmm?

Indeed. I'm sorry I was misled by the wording of your original post, which suggested that Polish intelligence staff had carried out significant Enigma code-breaking work independently of Station X. I did choose the word "Allied" quite deliberately, to encompass the work of all nationalities.

To be honest, Enigma did not impress me enough to imprint much of a memory of its plot, so pardon me if I haven't recalled the details of the film correctly.

[To be on the safe side, SPOILER coming up:]

What I do remember, though, is that the narrative firmly attributes the atrocity at Katyn to the USSR. If Polish viewers are offended that the plot calls for the whistleblower on the cover-up to be Polish, then they're missing the entire point. The narrative clearly does not seek to deny the atrocity of the Katyn Forest massacre; quite the contrary in fact. Instead it suggests that the need to shift blame for it to the Germans was evil - it's certainly held to be an evil conspiracy by the two main protagonists. If the film appears to judge the whistleblower, it's to recognise that the motives were correct, and that the need to attribute blame to the Nazis in order not to offend or disrupt relations with the USSR was wrong. Making the whistleblower a Pole lends an emotional, heroic weight to the action that could not exist if it were another nationality.

How this could offend Polish viewers, I don't understand.

There are two of us in this to date unique conversation. You dont seem to be having difficulty understanding the things I'm trying to convey. Maybe it's you.

Eco

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

hm...you make a very good point. I think i and the poles ive heard complain about Enigma have not paid enough attentiin to it. i admit i didnt think of the whistleblowing in these terms, and im sure poles are swayed as much by the inevitable 'wah give us our due!' knee-jerk media reactions to such things as any other nationality.

I stand corrected by your well-put and civilly put argument.

Eco

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Not just him, I don't know if this is a US/EU forum difference you've uneartherd here, or if it's just me; but I've never interpreted a wink as 'flirting'.

To me it means more along the lines of: "what I just said may be taken with a pinch of salt, and may in fact be sarcasm or blatantly untrue" - rather like the wink you get from an uncle who just told you the moon is made from cheese...

I've always understood the wink as meaning either what you are saying there, or as flirting, depending upon the context of the post (and the supposed gender of the poster).

Then it looks like some form of cultural difference. I'm not sure its particularly US/EU, tbh, since I live in Poland and most of my friends are English. Birmigham, Barrow, South London, Somerset and also one from South Wales, to be more exact.

I just texted my friends to make sure. 'joking, flirting, sarcasm, depending on context' was the reply that summed most responses up best for the winking smiley, so that seems to cover all bases.

The tongue-poking one had 'insulting', 'F-Off', 'don't care if u disagree', 'drunk', and 'don't know from my fellow Welshman lol.

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."