Good guesses, but not correct. Sorry.



Well, I am a Wight, after all...

Actually, it may be a pet peeve of yours, but it is idiomatically acceptable. The OED states:

I, etc.) could care less is a "colloq. phr." -- but so is (I, etc.) couldn't care less. The only difference is that (I, etc.) could care less is a "U.S. colloq. phr."

It is an Americanized colloqualism of the original English term, and is considered more sarcastic than the orginal phrase. It is accepted in a journalistic sense and has been used in print by many news organizations. For your edification, you can Google 'could care less vs couldn't care less', and find 14,000,000 entries, both pro and con, for the Anglicized or Americanized version.

Yes, the debate rages on, but I could care less.

Well, knowing you to be a romantically natured teenage girl, I assume you adopted the nick from Georgette Heyer's Regency novel The Nonesuch. :Merisu:

[No applause, please - I'm here incognito and don't want to be recognised.]


On a serious moderator note: Though I too doubt that many evil internet persons lurk around a small, specialized website like this one, you can never be sure. Here are two important reminders: First, please do not post your real name or e-mail address on the forum, where it can be read by anyone. Second, should you choose to meet other members in person, please provide for your safety by meeting in a public place and/or taking a friend with you.

Ah, I get to use information from the innumerable history classes I used as electives in college! Nonesuch was a palace built by Henry VIII. It was demolished in the 17th century for building materials to settle the gambling debts of a later resident.

I'm glad you got it off your chest, Boro, and I'm really sorry that people were hurt.

Having said that...HAH! My instincts were right!

I always thought you were close to me in age, B. You struck me as the sort of person I'd have over for PS3 duels and beer.

*booty dance of victory ensues*

You know, I was 17, so precious and delicate and young, when I first joined here, and although I don't think I actively misrepresented myself, I talked a lot of rot. And a lot of said rot came from anxiety at being in a room with grown-ups, so to speak. So I really couldn't judge.

Now, my entire life is on the internet. I have even managed to somehow make a living off it for the last two years. Yet I can still recall those days when the internet was a mysterious, mystifying entity - and how it was and wasn't real.

The thing is, some of my closest friendships today started on the internet. Some of the brightest episodes in my life involved people I met here, or elsewhere. I can't help but be grateful. And this is why I particularly hope that things will be put right with folks for whom this came as a shock, those that are close to you.

"It never goes away, but it all works out." ;)

Nope, as a 16 year old Fangirl from Hoboken, my tastes run more to High School Musical, though the Jonas Brothers are just sooo last year.

Nope, as a 40ish Lawyer from Miami, I am not well-learned in European architecture. Your reference, for some reason, rings a bell, but it is not the source of my alter ego's nickname. Out of curiosity, was this palace named Nonesuch because it was some form of an architectural folly or for other reasons?

My Nonesuch reference is a bit more obscure. I could not possibly give a hint without simply revealing its source. It is not well known other than perhaps to aficionados of the space in which it appears. I initially adopted it for use at a "rival" message board to try to smooth over some bad blood through diplomacy.

Oh, I know, I know! It's a reference to a Pomeranian breeder in Slovenia!

(just kidding - it's just that the almighty Google has given me that suggestion, and it's always a bit hard to argue with Google)

Couldn't be a reference to an obscure & humourous sci fi book, now, could it?

(Why not? No one seems bored anymore.)

Morth, the fact that Americans commonly use the phrase doesn't make it sound any less ridiculous. It may, however, feed negative stereotypes of Americans.
Perhaps this has something to do with the tone usually used to say it, though; one without even a hint of sarcasm, implying the speaker simply doesn't realize what s/he is saying.

Warning: rambling follows. Read at your own risk

I suppose I could relate this to the original topic, then (and avoid skwerlz) by suggesting that, all else being equal, text on a screen will take on the tone of voice the reader is most used to hearing, or perhaps the one s/he expects to hear based on a chain of personal associations with irrelevant trivia arbitrarily linked with the person in question, and the resultant "personality" perceived by the reader bears only a distant relation to the person, persons, or monkeys behind the keyboard (or keyboards, or even voice/face).
Therefore, the "knowledge" that Morthoron is an English major, the observation that someone using Morthoron's account previously posed some delightfully well-phrased and pun-filled contributions, and the unexamined assumption that "I could care less" is always spoken in a certain tone, might lead a poor newbie to the erroneous assumption that Morthoron is somehow not himself, slipping, or has some reason behind his phrasing which must be - teased - out.
Of course, all this is silly, and it is much more logical to assume he illustrates his lack of concern by using a deliberately sloppy phrase to express it.

[/rambling]

Mith, it wouldn't have any connection with Nonesuch Theatre, would it?

Mithadan, with all respect, I don't quite get your point. Anonymity is different from lying - I think it is ok (or even wise!) not to tell everything of yourself on the internet (or in RL, for that matter!), but I don't think it's ok to lie. I just can't see why it would be more acceptable to lie to your online friends than to your RL friends.

Actually, I think this may even be a generation question. Interesting... am I just imagining or is it mostly younger posts who think of the internet as a sort of extension of normal life and thus applying more or less the same rules here and the older people who are seeing the internet as a "different universum"? Perhaps that explains something...

As I said above:

Thinlómien, Boromir has something to apologize for. The apology is owed to those he communicated with via PM or e-mail or however, and these people have the right to be angry with him for misrepresenting himself.

But we, meaning the admins, have always taken the view that what happens between members away from these boards is the private business of the members. We warn people to be careful, etc. as Esty mentions and as is contained in our rules. But we can't control what people do and simply can't police everything. We had to draw a line to establish what we control, act upon and punish. Years ago, when we began receiving the first complaints about behavior on PMs and e-mails between members we considered turning off the PM function and chose not to. Each member can choose to receive or not receive PMs (or list AIM or e-mail info publicly on your profile). The consequence is that if you chose to receive PMs, etc., you yourselves have to deal with all related issues.

Messageboards are as anonymous as people want them to be. We have no per se rule against a 15 year old acting as a 40 year old as his on line persona or vice verse (except to the extent that the purpose of such a persona is predation). We do have a rule (written or otherwise) of one person, one account, which Boromir violated. He says he's sorry, he's forgiven so long as he uses only one going forward.

Boromir could have simply let the Kent persona quietly fade away without fanfare and privately addressed his issues with all the persons he was communicating with. This thread was not necessary. He chose to do his confession publicly. Fine. He did it and it's up to everyone else to forgive him or not. That's why I say this thread is getting tedious. There's nothing left to accomplish other than any recriminations or anger or "I forgive yous" and these should be done privately.

I was tempted to close this thread a long time ago and chose not to. I will not do so now, but can we wrap it up and get on to bigger and better things?

What, like the Brits don't have colloquialisms that make little or no sense, but are nonetheless institutionalized in common speech? Please, spare me the grammatical indignance, nor the mention of negative stereotypes. If you wish to maintain your newfound standing as arbiter of English Usage and Syntax, I suggest you refrain from the use of such internet inanities as 'skwelrz' and 'newbie', as it undermines the very premise of your lofty pretension.

Morthoron -
I never claimed any such position; in the beginning I merely intended to engage in some lighthearted teasing. I thought I made it clear in my last reply that I respected you as an intelligent poster. There's no need to get so defensive.

The tone of your last post was insulting, and I take exception to it. For instance:

It may, however, feed negative stereotypes of Americans.

Would you prefer I drop my 'aitches and eat bangers and mash? I don't presume to correct other folks' grammar here, as the majority of posters have valid points, and the dialogue is excellent even with a large proportion of members using English as a second language.

In addition, you wrote:

the observation that someone using Morthoron's account previously posed some delightfully well-phrased and pun-filled contributions.

This indicates what precisely? That I require a ghost-writer to maintain a dialogue posting on an internet forum? Sorry, as you say, one is not always aware of the intent of the monkey pecking on the keyboard. This is just such a case.

By all means close it down Mith, sorry if it caused a problem, or if you felt it unecessary. Even though I hadn't shared PMs or IMs with everyone I just felt since I interacted with 100s of members over the years here, it was best to just let the entire place know.

I always knew I would have to work out individual situations privately, with those I have had more extensive conversations with, but felt it necessary to let the whole place know in the forgiveness process. I mean I spent over 5 years and 4,000 posts here, and straight out pushing a fake image a lot, even if Lush always thought I was closer to her age. :p

I do thank you for leaving it open, but I did what I felt I needed to and there's no other reason to keep it open. :)

Well of course you're right, Mithadan. However, I still think lying even in public conversations regarding private life is lying... but no need to argue about that here. :)

And personally, I don't think there's anything bad with this thread. I think it's good that Boro had the chance to correct the wrong image he wanted to correct this easily - surely it would have been quite a work to PM everyone he might have mislead during all these years. I see the case with the "I forgive you"s the same way: I believe that if all people who had dealings with Boro PMed him just to say it's ok, his inbox would get flooded for weeks.

Of course it's best if the people who know Boro the best have talked with him via PMs and not expressed their feelings about the issue at lengths here, but I believe/imagine that has happened already.

I think this thread is good, but I agree there has been maybe unnecessairly much elaboration of the issue here (and off-topic posting!). I have a feeling I could say a dozen more things, but I'll PM you instead...


edit: xed (and apparently agreed :D) with Boro himself

Your wish is my command. Thread closed. Good luck Boromir!