Each year i join the facebook group for the module and each year i rage quit them by Christmas...
This year i have joined the DD209 october start group.
Yesterday i nearly quit on the first day of the module start date.
Some smart arse posts, on the day the module planner opens, about some thing they don't understand in chapter 3...
FFS, no one is impressed by your passive aggressive gloating about chapter 3 on day 1 of the course... thats 48 hours of study, or 3 weeks, away... of course you didn't understand it, you have compressed 48 hours of study into an 8 hour period....just because you think it will impress your fellow cohort... it does not impress us... some of us work full time,study and have 3 kids...
Did not rage quit the group, despite the gloating first post...
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I have noticed these people tend to quietly disappear part way through the year.
I don't mind someone saying "I'm rushing ahead before I get posted back to the submarine, but I've got stuck at TMA03, I don't suppose someone who did this last year is around?" or "I deferred last year and I'm starting at TMA03 - anyone else doing the same because I'm stuck in the same place again". They make sense. Especially when a few weeks into the module.
But in my last 2 (or is it 3?) modules there were definitely a couple of the "Look at me, I'm on week 13 already, losers" type posts right from when the module site opens. But those people never mention TMA05 or the EMA or exam. I assume it is some form of fantasist behaviour.
I made it to within two weeks of the exam for DD301 before I ragequit the Facebook group.
Another phenomenon are the hordes of people posting "Can I have your textbooks? I'm poor / disabled / disadvantaged and intend to do this module next year - please send me your books". There seem to be more of these people than people actually doing the modules. I assume most of them just re-sell them Amazon, like the freecycle leeches who get stuff for free to sell at car boot sales.
Anyway, Facebook's just evil. It is made from mashed toads and smells of wee.
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Hi Simon.
Wise words indeed there.
I have never got as close to 2 weeks before the exam to rage quit... i am normally gone by christmas.
I have never been asked for my books, although you might not be surprised to hear that there is a Facebook group for people trying to sell old OU module books.
There are other bug bears, aside from the passive aggressive ' i am on chaper 3 after one day' arseholes.
The reverse also bugs me... the post usually go like this....
'Lolz, i am 7 weeks behind now... just starting block 3 and tma 4 is due tomorrow!!!!'
Other frustrating posts include...
'Just got a two week extension because my sisters-neighbours-cousins-step dad's dog has a hang nail....so i cant cope with writing my TMA for two weeks'
I am not tolerant enough with people on facebook really.... hold on i am just not tolerant of people full stop...
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Another that gets on my wick is "Oh, there's an exam in June? But I've booked a holiday for the start of June in Japan." This is then followed by weeks of "Woe is me" when I can think in response is 'You're a fuckwit'. Who the heck enrols on a degree course and books a holiday in June? How can it ever be a surprise that there are exams in June? I reckon the holiday was booked as a way of getting out of the degree.
I suggested half a dozen solutions to one person who did this last year and none of them were acceptable. In the end I lost my rag and said they are obviously looking for an excuse to drop the module, so just get on with it and stop fannying about pretending to study. If you're gonna quit, then make the decision and move on. There's no point slogging a dud course.
I don't mind people whinging and getting on with the work - that's how I cope!
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Simon, that exam in June and the holiday to Japan made me chuckle...
Last year on Facebook i had the reverse situation... someone banging on from the November about what the actual date for the exam was because they had to book the day off from work six months in advance with their employer!!!!
Turned out with some further questioning from me, they worked on the railways and were expected to book days off six months in advance for time table planning....
Did not go down well when i suggested just phoning in sick on exam day, it would not matter because no trains are ever running on schedule anyway due to.. industrial action, over running engineering works, introduction of new time tables, signal breakdowns or shortage of rolling stock.
But no, rather than be pragmatic about it my fellow cohort banged on for 5 months about the injustice of the OU not being able to be more specific than ' first week in June'....
Anyway i have not rage quit this years facebook group yet.... and it is day 2 of the new academic year.
#toughingitout
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I wonder of 'people intolerance' counts as a disability?
I feel a custom T-shirt order coming on:
I am not prejudiced.
I'm just people intolerant.
I wonder how many hermits and gurus through the ages who, when presented with a philosophical conundrum by some footsore weary traveller in their remote island cave or lonely snowy mountain top, simply responded with Father Jack style "Feck off!".
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Fantastic idea Simon.
You need to start a campaign/support group (preferably on facebook) where we can discuss the effects, prejudices and discrimination against those of us that bear the burden of being 'people intolerant'.... actually that sounds like too much hard work, effort and having to put up with other people !
The T-shirt is a much better idea.
The next time someone in work tells me i am grumpy, i shall rise up, all righteous in tone and tell them that i am not grumpy, i am suffering from P.I.S... ( People Intolerance Syndrome ) and how dare they discriminate against my condition
People Intolerance Syndrome Society
You're onto something here, Mr Gumbrell.
We need a People Intolerance Syndrome Society to raise awareness and create nurturing culture for people like us. I suggest P.I.S.S. UP! as the rallying cry for our regular meetings.
And badges for we victims of the syndrome to warn others of the symptoms of the complaint, saying perhaps People Intolerance Syndrome Sufferer - Offends Fairly Frequently. It'll need shortening though to fit on a badge.
We'll need an informational newsletter, the People Intolerance Syndrome Subscriber. To get it stocked in shops, so we'll have to go round newspaper vendors and newsagents asking "Are you taking the P.I.S.S?" and "Well, do you want some?". I am sure that will go down well.
Are you serious about a Facebook group? It would probably be very popular. There is one called Narrowboat Moaners and Ranters which is of a similar vein and very active. The standard opening greeting there to newcomers is "Bog off!" which sets the tone nicely. A P.I.S.S. group on Facebook could probably come up with something similar, though I cannot imagine what.
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Ah. I've hit a stumbling block already.
Facebook won't let you create a group unless you invite a friend to join it. A friend? How very People Intolerance Syndrome intolerant of them.
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Great work Simon.
I like a good P.I.S.S UP and i am very fond of taking the P.I.S.S.
If you add me on Facebook i am ' happy ' to be the surrogate 'friend' to join and get the group rolling...
I can probably find 50 or so people from my facebook 'friend' list who would join in with the P.I.S.S up group in a heartbeat.
People who post saying they can't be bothered to Google
Another for the list of annoying people on Facebook. Exchange edited for brevity:
"When was the module film made? It refers to project XYZ which seems too resourced to exist under austerity. Does anybody know how to find out?"
I replied with the lifespan of project XYZ and when the module films were made (it says in the module film introduction). I also threw in the standard "Google is your friend" since I got the answer about project XYZ on the first hit from Google.
Their response to my answering their questions:
"So project XYZ doesn't exist any longer ? What is in its place? I suppose I could do a google search myself but I'm busy"
No 'thank you' or anything like that. I cannot think of a response other than "You are a bone-idle, piss-taking, ungrateful toe-rag. How did you get to level 3? Was it all done by having slaves do your research for you on Facebook?" so I have not responded at all.
I cannot comprehend the behaviour that makes someone post a query on Facebook and wait for a response when it would have been easier for them to just Google 'project XYZ' and get the answer straight away. So 'stupid' or 'clueless' could be added to 'bone-idle' and 'ungrateful'. Or is it something to do with getting other people to do things, a power trip thing? Or does Facebook bring out the psychotic sociopath in people?
Or is it just my People Intolerance Syndrome showing?
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I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed reading this exchange. Congratulations to both of you.