# Any chance of banning IBTL?



## Aberzanzorax (Mar 24, 2010)

A personal irritation of mine is when people write IBTL or "In Before the Lock".

Frankly, I see it as threadcrapping, and don't really see a positive side to it.


I'll also note several threads have had IBTL posted at some point and have never been locked...or have gone on for quite some time.


I dunno....I just find it kinda passive aggressive..."your thread is inflammatory and I'll say it publicly in a snide way...but won't actually contribute to addressing any problems I see or simply ignoring them".


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## jaerdaph (Mar 25, 2010)




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## Umbran (Mar 25, 2010)

Aberzanzorax said:


> I dunno....I just find it kinda passive aggressive...




It does not fit the definition of "passive aggressive" as I understand it.  Passive aggressiveness is characterized by ambiguous or cryptic speech - with a P-A statement, you can question what the person is talking about.  This is most definitely not the case with "IBTL" - they are quite clear they think the thread's destined to go downhill.



> "your thread is inflammatory and I'll say it publicly in a snide way...but won't actually contribute to addressing any problems I see or simply ignoring them".




Reporting a problem is probably more constructive than "IBTL" statements.  However, it is not so disruptive that we're apt to ban (and thus discipline people for) saying it.


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## Alzrius (Mar 25, 2010)

In before the polite response!


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## Aberzanzorax (Mar 25, 2010)

First....lols.


To address Umbran, touche' my terminology was lax.

Not "passive-aggressive". What I was attempting to capture was that it is often used in a somewhat joking fashion ("ha ha, we all know this thread's going to be locked") along with deriding the thread itself. Sarcastic? That's not right either... It's aggressiveness with a hint of humor that disguises how aggressive it actually is.

A direct, and nonhumorous version might be a post of nothing other than "This thread is inflammatory." Come to think of it, that's not SUCH a bad thing to say, I suppose. 

In any case, I guess you're right, no need to ban it.


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## Piratecat (Mar 25, 2010)

I see your point, but if I were lining things up against the proverbial wall to dispose of, IBTL wouldn't be in the front of the line.


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## RangerWickett (Mar 25, 2010)

Piratecat said:


> I see your point, but if I were lining things up against the proverbial wall to dispose of, IBTL wouldn't be in the front of the line.




Yetis, though . . . they're a menace. Put em up against the wall.

_(Gainst! The! Wall!)_


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## Henry (Mar 25, 2010)

Piratecat said:


> I see your point, but if I were lining things up against the proverbial wall to dispose of, IBTL wouldn't be in the front of the line.




*Bunnies*, though... those shifty furry bastards need to go.


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## TheYeti1775 (Apr 6, 2010)

RangerWickett said:


> Yetis, though . . . they're a menace. Put em up against the wall.
> 
> _(Gainst! The! Wall!)_



Whatta got against Yeti's?????


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## renau1g (Apr 6, 2010)

I had someone say IBTL in a thread I started about cuisine utilizing monsters from the MM and I didn't even understand what it was until I googled it. I was like WTF? I'm looking for some cool ideas on how to add some flavour (pun intended) into an adventure I'm working on. A sample I pointed out where gelatinous cube glaze on Bullette steak to soften the normally tough meat.

Maybe I don't understand the interwebs too well, but why would someone even care about being IBTL? Is it like those idiots who post "First" after a thread is started (usually when like a dev posts in video game forums or WoTC when 4e was in development)


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## Rel (Apr 7, 2010)

If I have anything to say about it, *Pandas *will be going extinct long before IBTL.


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## StreamOfTheSky (Apr 7, 2010)

renau1g said:


> Maybe I don't understand the interwebs too well, but why would someone even care about being IBTL? Is it like those idiots who post "First" after a thread is started (usually when like a dev posts in video game forums or WoTC when 4e was in development)




You hit the nail on the head.

IBTL is really annoying, and I'd be in favor of banning it.  But with it allowed and tolerated, it does provide me an excellent instantaneous rubric to judge someone's intellect and persona.  Every post of "IBTL" to me reads as "I'm a sad, pathetic loser who has nothing better to do than brag about posting in something."


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## wedgeski (Apr 7, 2010)

Indeed, these memes often say more about the poster than anything else they could have written.

Oh, and, 13th!


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## Piratecat (Apr 7, 2010)

Rel said:


> If I have anything to say about it, *Pandas *will be going extinct long before IBTL.



Well, duh. Pandas are at least delicious.


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## Umbran (Apr 7, 2010)

Rel said:


> If I have anything to say about it, *Pandas *will be going extinct long before IBTL.




Yeah, but with perhaps 3000 pandas in the wild... that could be before the end of the year...


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## Rel (Apr 7, 2010)

Piratecat said:


> Well, duh. Pandas are at least delicious.






Umbran said:


> Yeah, but with perhaps 3000 pandas in the wild... that could be before the end of the year...




Peef:  It's what's for dinner!


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## TheYeti1775 (Apr 8, 2010)

You mods could always have Morrus to alter the Grandma Filter to replace IBTL with something like.
"I have a horrible obsession for turtles" or something of that nature.  One of the boards I'm on changes hitler references to turtle references, because one of the common fall back arguements on there is to compare it to him.


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## pawsplay (Apr 9, 2010)

IBTL is like a general eye rollsy, but more whimsical, and hence, in my view, sort of an improvement.


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## weem (Apr 9, 2010)

In all my time here, I think I have seen just a handful of "IBTL" posts.

I was a mod on the VN Boards (IGN) for a while, years back - THAT place saw a lot of those posts. It doesn't seem to be a big issue here (fortunately) - that or I have had great luck in missing them


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## renau1g (Apr 9, 2010)

Yeah that site has a ton of "first" "first...oh I mean second" posts this sites pretty good, like I said I have only seen it once here.


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## catsclaw227 (Apr 9, 2010)

RangerWickett said:


> Yetis, though . . . they're a menace. Put em up against the wall.
> 
> _(Gainst! The! Wall!)_



There's one in the spotlight.  He don't look right to me. Put em up against the wall.


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