Disgusting

Articles

Disgusting

By Jack Lepiarz
Jan. 16, 2007

I detest childish behavior. Maybe it's leftover frustration from high school, where everyone seemed to act like large toddlers. "It's not my fault," they'd say, "They started it!"

Maybe it's because I dealt with it so much in high school that I have no patience for it when I see it surface in adults. Sadly, I'm seeing it surface a lot here on Useless Knowledge Magazine. Now, I'm not one to criticize (or praise) someone publicly. Of my 175 articles thus far, I can say with great certainty that less than ten of them are rebuttal articles. I was raised to be polite to people, not to curse, and not to jump to conclusions. I guess I had good parents.

What's unsettling, though, is when people who are nearly (if not older than) my parents' age begin acting like five-year-old children.

It is appalling.

It is ugly.

It is unprofessional.

I take serious pride in my work here at Useless-Knowledge.com, and I expect to see other people have the same commitment. However, when the front page of the site looks the way it does, with personal attacks hurled back and forth and a disgusting rebuttal forum, there's really only so much that I can do.

Useless Knowledge Magazine has unlimited potential. We have talented writers, a dedicated editor, and unique perspectives from around the world--the Americas, Africa, Europe, and even several columns from Iran.

But in order for Useless Knowledge Magazine to reach its full potential, there are several things that need to happen.

First and foremost, some of the more (in)famous writers need to stop acting like children. Name-calling, baseless accusations, and the like cannot be tolerated. Not in the rebuttal forum and most certainly not on the front page. I would hope that we can at least keep the disgusting baggage out of public view. Hanging our dirty laundry on our front page will not attract readers, nor will it attract Google or Yahoo. The editors need to clamp down on this issue and either edit the articles or refuse to post them altogether. Nobody cares that this columnist is a liar, or that columnist is a scientologist (an actual claim made some time ago). In fact, it's more likely to deter readers--and nobody wants that. The two youngest columnists on the site--Max Burns and myself--have been able to remain very polite and free of personal vendettas. There is no reason that men and women more than twice our age should not be able to. It is absurd, and it is appalling.

Secondly, the rebuttal forum needs to be policed, and heavily. I'm a strong opponent of censorship, and I know that a lot of the older writers hate having their words deleted without notice, but unfortunately it is necessary. We have tried having an open forum, and it has failed miserably, resulting in some of the ugliest fighting I've ever seen on the site. Now, I've been doing my best to enforce the forum rules, but I'm only one kid and I can't possibly police the forum every single day. At the moment, we have seven moderators, and only about three of them do anything on the site. The rest have disappeared and rarely contribute or submit, not to mention police the forum. We need to find moderators who are willing to police the forum, or shut the forum down completely. Again, it doesn't pay to have your dirty laundry hanging right where everyone can see it.

Finally, we need to find new talent for the site. We need to attract new writers and better writers to the site. Each writer brings with him or her a few readers, and that, in turn increases the magazine's potential. It's a win-win situation for everyone. But, once again, writers are not going to submit to a site like ours when they see the ugly, disgusting atmosphere on the front page and in the rebuttal forum. And also, for some of the more... argumentative columnists, it's important that we not scare these new writers off in their first month writing for Useless Knowledge Magazine. I'm not saying don't criticize articles, and I know that fresh meat can be tantalizing, but, again, we want them to think of Useless Knowledge as a place where they can post their thoughts.

That is how we can make the site better. If the various writers can stop their bickering and stop chasing away so many of our talented writers, then Useless Knowledge can become a much better website. At the moment, it is exactly what I said in my title: Disgusting.

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About the author: Jack Lepiarz is an 18-year-old college student at Emerson College in Boston. He also co-hosts the Katherine and Jack Show on UthTV.com and has been performing various circus talents for the past several years. Though often described as stubborn and egotistical, he tries to keep an open mind and treat others the way he would like to be treated.

Email: Jackwuzhere42@aol.com

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