ChainedLightning
Inactive
In my town, there are lots of restaurants and bars and bistros and coffee houses. Places where people like to hang out. Some restaurants require a suit and tie, some require shoes and shirt. Some allow smoking, some have smoking in designated sections, some don't allow smoking at all. Some sell beer, some sell whiskey and beer, some sell only wine.. and some make a point that there is no alcohol sold there.
You can go to the local honkeytonk, so thick with cigarette smoke you can only see ten or twenty feet, listen to country music and see a wet t-shirt contest on stage. They have beer and maybe a few selections of whiskey - ask for a glass of wine and you'll be laughed at.
Or, you can visit the local coffee house, watch local musicians play, and have stimulating conversations with people while drinking various flavors of overpriced coffee and tea.
My point here is that there is something for everyone. The honkeytonk is not "wrong" in their approach, as there are people who enjoy being there. Those people would likely see time in the coffee house as torture.
But, the coffee house is also not wrong in their approach, as there are people who enjoy being there... and it's also likely that most in the coffee house would NOT enjoy a trip to the honkeytonk.
And, there are different rules of decorum at these places as well.. it's probably appropriate to yell YeeeeeHAAAAAAAWWWWW at women during the wet t-shirt contest at the honkeytonk, and it's probably appropriate to slurp your beer and wipe it from your chin with your shirtsleeve. However, those actions would not be appropriate at the coffee house, or at the "suite and tie required" restaurant, or even at the local Hardees.
And, while MOST people would not enjoy both environs of the coffee house and honkytonk... I'm sure there are a few who would, depending on what mood they were in at the time. However, if they truly enjoy the coffee house, I can't see them *demanding* that the coffee house follow the same rules of decorum that the honkeytonk follow. It seems to me that if they enjoy both places, they will appreciate both places for their differences. However, if they hated the coffee house and had some agenda against it, then I can see them going in and yelling YeeeeHAAAAWWWW at the attractive ladies when they walked in, knowing the attractive ladies with class will go elsewhere if the management isn't capable of getting that behavior to stop.
The internet has many gathering places. You can go to a forum full of moms who cloth diaper and breastfeed. You can go to a site full of republicans, or a site full of democrats. You can go to a forum to learn about a particular illness and talk to others who are experiencing the same things you may be experiencing. You can find a forum full of local people, and learn about things going on in your community.
Or, if you want to talk to a wide variety of people who may not think exactly like you do, you can find a forum similar to Timebomb. I can see several things that many of us have in common... like news junkie, or prepper. However, we have dems and repubs, Christians and agnostics and atheists and various flavors of spirituality, pro and anti vaccine people, etc. Name a position on this board, and it's likely someone will have the opposing position. It's part of what we're about, intelligent conversation, debate, etc. And, we do this with rules of decorum... the no personal attacks rule being our biggest one, but there are others out there also.
People who come to this board and stick around, generally do so because it is moderated.. like the coffee house that would need to boot the Honkytonk crowd that got drunk and decided to go pick a fight somewhere.
Interesting, don't you think... it's easy to imagine the Honkytonk drunks invading the coffee house... not so easy to imagine the coffee house patrons (strung out on caffeine) invading the Honkeytonk and demanding everyone stop smoking and turn the music down so they can talk to each other without having to yell.
Anyway, back to my point. Neither the honkytonk nor the coffee house are necessarily "bad" places. Each is necessary, each has people who prefer that environment. The problem, I think, comes in when people who enjoy one of them might attempt to try to bend one to conform to the rules of the other.
Shouldn't you either appreciate them for their differences.. or stick to the one you most like being at? Why go to a honkeytonk if you're just going to bitch about the smoke? Why go to a nice no smoking restaurant if you're just going to make everyone else miserable with your bitching about not being able to smoke?
You can go to the local honkeytonk, so thick with cigarette smoke you can only see ten or twenty feet, listen to country music and see a wet t-shirt contest on stage. They have beer and maybe a few selections of whiskey - ask for a glass of wine and you'll be laughed at.
Or, you can visit the local coffee house, watch local musicians play, and have stimulating conversations with people while drinking various flavors of overpriced coffee and tea.
My point here is that there is something for everyone. The honkeytonk is not "wrong" in their approach, as there are people who enjoy being there. Those people would likely see time in the coffee house as torture.
But, the coffee house is also not wrong in their approach, as there are people who enjoy being there... and it's also likely that most in the coffee house would NOT enjoy a trip to the honkeytonk.
And, there are different rules of decorum at these places as well.. it's probably appropriate to yell YeeeeeHAAAAAAAWWWWW at women during the wet t-shirt contest at the honkeytonk, and it's probably appropriate to slurp your beer and wipe it from your chin with your shirtsleeve. However, those actions would not be appropriate at the coffee house, or at the "suite and tie required" restaurant, or even at the local Hardees.
And, while MOST people would not enjoy both environs of the coffee house and honkytonk... I'm sure there are a few who would, depending on what mood they were in at the time. However, if they truly enjoy the coffee house, I can't see them *demanding* that the coffee house follow the same rules of decorum that the honkeytonk follow. It seems to me that if they enjoy both places, they will appreciate both places for their differences. However, if they hated the coffee house and had some agenda against it, then I can see them going in and yelling YeeeeHAAAAWWWW at the attractive ladies when they walked in, knowing the attractive ladies with class will go elsewhere if the management isn't capable of getting that behavior to stop.
The internet has many gathering places. You can go to a forum full of moms who cloth diaper and breastfeed. You can go to a site full of republicans, or a site full of democrats. You can go to a forum to learn about a particular illness and talk to others who are experiencing the same things you may be experiencing. You can find a forum full of local people, and learn about things going on in your community.
Or, if you want to talk to a wide variety of people who may not think exactly like you do, you can find a forum similar to Timebomb. I can see several things that many of us have in common... like news junkie, or prepper. However, we have dems and repubs, Christians and agnostics and atheists and various flavors of spirituality, pro and anti vaccine people, etc. Name a position on this board, and it's likely someone will have the opposing position. It's part of what we're about, intelligent conversation, debate, etc. And, we do this with rules of decorum... the no personal attacks rule being our biggest one, but there are others out there also.
People who come to this board and stick around, generally do so because it is moderated.. like the coffee house that would need to boot the Honkytonk crowd that got drunk and decided to go pick a fight somewhere.
Interesting, don't you think... it's easy to imagine the Honkytonk drunks invading the coffee house... not so easy to imagine the coffee house patrons (strung out on caffeine) invading the Honkeytonk and demanding everyone stop smoking and turn the music down so they can talk to each other without having to yell.
Anyway, back to my point. Neither the honkytonk nor the coffee house are necessarily "bad" places. Each is necessary, each has people who prefer that environment. The problem, I think, comes in when people who enjoy one of them might attempt to try to bend one to conform to the rules of the other.
Shouldn't you either appreciate them for their differences.. or stick to the one you most like being at? Why go to a honkeytonk if you're just going to bitch about the smoke? Why go to a nice no smoking restaurant if you're just going to make everyone else miserable with your bitching about not being able to smoke?
Very well thought out, ChainedLightning! 
