Do You "Plonk" in Real Life?

I have been interested hearing why people "Plonk" on internet forums and as I have said I would never do it. But it got me to thinking, do you Plonk in real life too?

Do you screen your calls? Do you block calls? Do you refuse to answer e-mails? Do you block e-mails?

Now, I understand that most people would tend to block telemarketers or SPAM on e-mail but I am talking about a legitimate call or e-mail from someone you know.

It was not too long ago that none of us had the ability to do this and my question is this? If you do "plonk" in real life do you do so because you don't like confrontation? Do you think that by becoming dependent on this type of "plonking" you are making your "confrontation muscles" flabby?

Plonk means wine in australia.
So yes.

Yes, on rare occasions, I have plonked people in real life.

There was this annoying ex-girlfriend with a meth problem that kept calling me, asking to borrow money to fix her car. Only her car never got running again, and she kept getting thinner. Plonked.

Oh, and there was this guy that sometimes played in our Jyhad group back in Year 1 (aka 1994). He and his wife also played in my Cyberpunk campaign for a while. They even had me in their wedding party when they legally got married. I was the guy who stands next to the guy who stands next to the Best Man.

Anyway, I invited the married couple over to play some boardgames with some other friends of mine, and an hour after they arrived, we all ordered pizza. In order to get more pizza for their money, they kept eating half of their pizza, then calling the pizza place to complain that the pizza was cold or undercooked or whatever bullshit reason. After the third time the pizza guy brought out a replacement pizza, I knew that I could never call that place for pizza again, at least not from that phone number or address, without getting spit on my food. Oh, and Mister and Missus gamer were also cheaters and rules lawyer jerks. So I plonked them.

Real-life plonking was hard back then, you had to screen calls with your answering machine. By the time I was dealing with my ex, the meth addict, I had caller ID. And now people can only reach me by cell phone or e-mail, so plonking is that much easier.

Plonking is your friend. Doesn't everybody do this?

If a friend is being a jerk, then I'd have it out with them. But other people, frankly, aren't worth the effort. Why waste time with them? Plonk them and be done with it.

Bullwinkle wrote:

Plonking is your friend. Doesn't everybody do this?

If a friend is being a jerk, then I'd have it out with them. But other people, frankly, aren't worth the effort. Why waste time with them? Plonk them and be done with it.

Plonk is wine in Australia? It's "cheap ass jug wine" in the US. You aussies might want to work on that perception considering the size of your wine industry

I absolutely Plonk in real life--screen all calls and I will avoid situations populated with people I don't want to deal with [and not to sound too autistic here, once ya get yourself an ex-wife, you'll rapidly develop a human "kill-file" ]

Related tangent:

I dont know if this is common, but I *always* have my cell set to vibrate. The reason is that I enjoy real life interactions and hate folks who are always distracted by their phone ringing. I guess it's sort of my courtesy to keep it on vib, then if someone calls, I can seemlessly check it and IF it's someone important that I'd need to speak to RIGHT THEN, I can take the call. Otherwise, no one even knows I had a call.

Guess I knew a lot of people who would ALWAYS answer their cell no matter what. Came off as rude.


Anyway. Yeah I screen.

Guess I knew a lot of people who would ALWAYS answer their cell no matter what. Came off as rude.

It is rude, especially during a gaming session.

Plonking is a way to mark someone as an idiot for future reference. I always read their crap anyway, but I'm not surprised by anything I read from plonked users because "Hidden User [show]" means the same thing as "This user has been an idiot in the past [read their crap anyway]".

Yes I plonk in real life. Some people just aren't worth dealing with.

If the plonkees are using the wonders of modern technology to be an irritant in your life, why not use the wonders of modern technology to thwart them?

I don't plonk on forums or in real life. I'm pretty easygoing and it's hard to rile me up. I usually just shrug and ignore jerks. (Note: This is NOT a challenge!) It amazes me how some people like to argue a point TO THE DEATH on internet forums.

I do make good use out of caller ID and choose not to answer for certain people , usually because I'm busy or not in the mood to talk to that person. Or, I'm hoping they leave a message so I know why they called in the first place and I'm prepared when I call them back.

SusanR wrote:

It amazes me how some people like to argue a point TO THE DEATH on internet forums.

I like the way Kevin Smith phrased it, "I can't go to sleep yet, somebody on the internet is wrong."

Shellhead wrote:

I like the way Kevin Smith phrased it, "I can't go to sleep yet, somebody on the internet is wrong."

I thought that came from xkcd:

Kevin Smith was probably quoting that cartoon, and I read somebody else quoting Smith as saying it. It's like a game of Eat Poop You Cat, only with fewer cartoons.