Thank you so much for speaking up jla-x!!!

or else what?

you will type in caps to show everyone how angry you are? 

grrrr. 

piss off

I'm tired of them, too.

But, let's face it, most of Archinect's posters now seem to be students, or applicants to programs.  That's who's here.

The rest of us now seem to be in the minority.  Maybe it's time for someone to start a new, alternative website, for those out of school?

YES!  lol

jla-x:

I usually agree with your practical point of view.  The school threads that deal with money are annoying, as in "pencil it out."  The school threads that deal with "this one or that one" aren't.  I wish I had access to help with that decision.  The school part is sort of the one quirky experience we all have in common.  I saw some real crazy shit in 3 years of grad school, and this school was/is on the "tame" list.

However, yeah, the commiserate thread and a few others got long winded ... and make my contentious HS to licensure thread look pale by comparison.

Cheers!

I dont get it jla-x, if the threads annoy you. Why do you open them? Duh... 

I think a solution would be if Archinect separates the threads into two groups: Academia and Community. Which seems like it is already done. But the academia threads shouldn't show up in the community threads. That would solve everything. 

Oh, and there is a little scroll down menu on the top that says: "Filter Topics by Category". Maybe that can help you, or is it just a plain case of the Mondays?

We're listening. While students actually make up a minority of Archinect's users, they are obviously much more active in the forum than non-students. We're going to roll out a new feature in the next few days that will allow you to magically make the academic discussions disappear with the click of your mouse. Archinect will remember your preference, so you won't have to do it more than once if you never want to see a school-related discussion again.

Great! :) if you would add like buttons to post I would have liked your post archinect! 

Magic button = 'Tread Central'

TED, you should keep that secret away from the school people.  if they see an answer they don't like, they might end up spamming tc for people to tell them what they want to hear.

Sorry! You're so right curtkram, 

Magic Button [corrected] = "Tread Central"

seriously.. the only ones bitching about these schools are the ones who wish they could attend but can't afford it. ;)

With all due respect to those at Ivy's, I think there's an implied  undercurrent of thought that has been planted into this zombie topic. I would go as far as to say that some amongst us have seen that Ivy sense of entitlement rear it's head. Maybe in a conversation with friends, maybe at work.

Whatever the case may be, every basket has it's 'rotten' apples. I would agree, that an Ivy education is a privilege and not a right. I would also go on to say that the privilege, while well deserved and earned in some cases doesn't always equate to a better professional ( maybe this spawns a different debate). An ivy education shouldn't always equate to a higher salary but as some of us know, it sometimes does.

This is where those of us who are in the professional realm get bombarded with these na na neener debates that don't serve a larger purpose. It's like watching kids fight over the last piece of cake or something.  Let's face it, not everything on this forum is a worthy read. I look forward to the new filter option and maybe even look forward to a future community rating system even.

This forum sometimes becomes a nonsensical circus because of this stuff. Why separate the professionals from the academics? Aren't most other forums exactly that? Academic or Professional with little wiggle room. Props to Archinect for trying to bring the multitudes to a common platform and not adding to the divide.

The 'cream rising to the top' is the hope but as we all know, put enough underused / bored / fired up brain cells to the task and someone will figure out a way around things.  We are in a profession of egos after all, for better or worse.

seriously.. the only ones bitching about these schools are the ones who wish they could attend but can't afford it. ;)

I'm not so sure about this.  Schools, like people, have collective personalities.  We like some people and dislike others.  (In that way, archinect, and the collection of posters on here, is just like the real world).

I would have not gone to an Ivy League school, even if I could have gotten in.  I feel as if I would have had to overhaul my personality for such an institution.  I'm all for the great public universities that don't have to constantly remind you that you are now part of the elite and thus have a broad set of expectations to uphold.   Though America's great private schools also have great retention rates, some do bail out.  I knew a woman who belongs to a minority group and who is exceptionally bright who began her studies at Stanford, which is neck at neck with Harvard.  She did NOT like the atmosphere.  She finished her degree at one of California's public universities and has been successful in her work life.

But I love the audacity of the thread:  Stop with the FUCKING school threads already.

once in a great while there are interesting things that are more relevant to "academia" - however, maybe the adult stuff should be separated out into "pedagogy" - and the kiddie stuff should be "arch student life."  There's also "theory and criticism" which seems to fit into a few categories.

"Let's talk about pussy farts"

- George Carlin

The "which school" threads aren't just kids contemplating college; many sadly are unemployed or underemployed or just frustrated "older" folks in the profession who, for some bizarre reason, think that the answer to being in a dying industry is to go into debt to double down on a bad bet.  Like watching your Enron stock falling go to zero and thinking that buying more of it on margin is the answer.

The idea of a separate isn't a bad idea if the topic headers would accurately reflect the discussion going on.

The trouble with more forums is pretty soon you'll have which school, how much $?, look where I'm going, unemployed education, etc., all of which just adds complexity without solving the problem of repetition and the fact that most first time posters of this stuff don't seem to bother reading a single related topic before they bare their souls here.

Most forums have stickies with basic guidance for noobs, and that too is often ignored. Some have a requirement that a user must contribute to some number of threads before creating a new topic which at least requires them to read something first. I'd suggest a minimum of 10 posts required before posting a topic.

The forum filter is a nice idea. While you're at it can you add a filter for Zaha, Gehry, Koolhaas and FRaC?

I wish I could upvote this thread a million times.

The intellectual curmudgeons of Archinect:

• The socialite— well-versed in sociocultural issues, this Archinect personality often resorts to emotional appeals; their light-footed nature and overtly-understading nature gives credence to their sometimes overbearing ethical aptitude; skills include sharp wit, mind projection and If-by-whiskey
• The automaton— the automaton is a personality driven entirely by data, real or inferred; frequently abuses logic-based approaches to all aspects of discussion, this personality is often cold, brutal and incessantly tries to quantify the unquantifiable; skills include unnecessary pie charts, circular cause and consequence and congruence bias
• The solipsist— A personality type so toxic to discussion forums other combatants often flee or watch the carnage from a distance as the solipsist sets fire to a thread; unlike common trolls, the solipsist is often unaware of what their actual arguments are or why they are arguing them; skills include focalism, poisoning the well and special pleading
• The technician— A combination personality of the automaton and the artist, the technician is a skills-based objective individual driven by aspects of art namely the craft; this personality type tends to ignore or miscomprehend the true impact of their actions in the larger scheme; skills include availability cascade, nirvana fallacy and hot-hands fallacy
• The 親分 [foster parent], "The Boss"— A figure of authority, this personality is generally within a position of power who has fallen out-of-touch with the culture of subordinates; while a generally wise figure, their arguments are purely anecdotal-based and their supremacy was generally the result of chaos and dumb-luck; skills include inconsistent comparisons, money illusions and recall biases
• The dadaist [or artist] — a unique figure to overtly intellectual discussions, the dadaist tends to focus on communicating solely through visual objects and literary metaphors; their discussion style often focuses on excessively complex or infinitesimally small minutiae or theorem and their points are often fractured, disjointed and unorganized; skills include hypostatization, normalcy bias and semmelweis reflex
• The satirist — commonly known as "trolls," the satirist makes it their full-time job to point out contradictions, ironies and manipulates tragedy for either intellectual or emotional enjoyment; this personality is frequently relegated to the fringes of discussion because their argument style is often deemed toxic to the assumed social conduciveness of the forum, skills include system justification, petitio principii and base rate fallacy

^

Wow.  One needs a graduate degree in English from a good school to wade through that ... and its elegance.  Well written, though.  Crap, I'm no intellectual, so I'm looking to find myself in the list.  Which one best describes the sarcastic smart-ass?

great list j.  i'm having trouble trying to figure out where i fit in, since i think i may exemplify all of them.  i think archinect should add icons next to names for which personality type members fit into.

curt, good idea ... an icon or little blurb next to names would be useful.  Now, if it was Myers-Briggs, I could put down ISTJ.  That much I know.

Brilliant, James.

For what it's worth, school-related discussion threads have historically peaked in March while applicants commiserate in these parts. You will see a noticeable reduction in these types of threads until the season starts up again next year. We're still going to be releasing a "hide all school threads" option shortly, for all you didaskaleinophobes.

Flame Warriors

(illustrated)

This is a link to, of all the odd fucking things, Charles fucking Gayle playing in a grocery store with William Parker and Marvin Smith. If you don't like that kind of thing: don't click the link.

Seams pretty easy.

Best thread ever.

I don't know if these people who are soooo consumed with selecting expensive schools, etc  have a (n effin') idea how the architecture industry is really doing. I mean, really??

There's a link at the top of the forum now that will allow you to include or exclude academic threads. 

woohoo!  thanks archinect! 

Excellent.