Originally Posted by Mowicz

So let's ban matches as we set fire to the kitchen with torches?

HUH? You still fail to see the argument its not matches vs torches. Unless its the same maroons/alumni mob who are then going to get drunk and litter bottles all over Westdale/Ainslewood this weekend. There is a HUGE group of people who aren't putting up the signs and will be taking part in the homecoming keggers/festivities/whatever :S Nvrmind....

Edit: I'm prettyy sure it isn't $50 Andd I'm sort of sure the people who want to get shitefaced at Homecoming already know its homecoming from weeks ago. For a good number of people the actual sporting events are just a sideshow

I don't particularly care either way about the signs, I'm pretty neutral on the topic. The amount of signs I see about homecoming will not affect whether or not I attend, so .. meh.

I just wanted to point out .. when people comment that the signs are more "environmentally friendly" simply because they are made of recyclable material .. that makes as much sense as saying that it's okay to drink excessive amounts of bottled water, because bottled water is made of plastic, which is also recyclable. And because bottled water comes from recyclable plastic, we can drink huge unnecessary amounts of it, because it is a guarantee that the plastic ends up at a recycling plant, possibly by some magnetic force. I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure the general consensus is that drinking bottled water is pretty terrible for the environment. Sure, the signs are recyclable, but that is no guarantee that the people taking them down (whether it is taking them down from campus or from off campus housing) are actually going to recycle them.

This isn't really of any relevance, and I still don't really give a shit about whether or not there are 1000 signs on campus .. it doesn't affect me really .. I just wanted to say that I think that the whole "the signs are environmentally friendly" argument doesn't really make any sense to me. I mean at least they are made of recyclable material instead of something else .. but just because they are made of such a material doesn't mean that it's an excuse for making like hundreds of them.

My sister is an alumni herself (she's way older than me lol), and when she came down to Mac the other day to visit a retiring prof, she was pretty pissed off with the signs and thought it was wasteful. She said she would have been more impressed by a couple large and creative signs rather than a million annoying little signs that were flying around campus in the wind. But clearly that is just her opinion. She still donates anyway I'm pretty sure, even though she gets annoyed as hell by the people from Mac who call her all the time asking for donations lol.

Anyway that's just my additional rambling and completely unnecessary two cents .. on this very random topic lol .. either way, homecoming will be awesome !

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Who cares if 50 dollars of the advertising budget goes to 'excessive signs,' instead of other means? I bet you every single student now knows about homecoming: it got the job done.

A) you don't actually know how much or what money went toward producing the signs and B) I bet you most students already knew about home coming prior to the signs being posted.

That's not even the point though, the point is students could have been informed about home coming with LESS signs.

That's my only point. I'm not anti-sign, I'm anti an excessive amount of the same sign all over campus.

I think I finally see the discrepancy here...let me know if I'm wrong, but you guys think it's a poor financial decision, which I thought was more of a moot point. I on the other hand was saying from a purely environmental standpoint, if you actually wanted to make a difference you'd have to boycott Homecoming in the first place.

(And again I emphasize: This isn't what I think...I'm all for homecoming, and I'm not phased by the excessive signs for this reason).

Originally Posted by sew12

A) you don't actually know how much or what money went toward producing the signs and

No, I don't...the $50 figure doesn't actually matter, the meat of my post doesn't really change. ie. However much it was, it didn't exceed the advertising budget: it was money allocated to advertising homecoming. That's the relevant point, they've repositioned funds.

B) I bet you most students already knew about home coming prior to the signs being posted.

If you have issues with how the MSU is spending their money, that's fine and good, I'm certainly not saying it was a wise decision from a financial standpoint (instead I'm saying from an environmental standpoint...it's the lesser of two evils).

That's not even the point though, the point is students could have been informed about home coming with LESS signs.

x budget dollars went into advertising. If they spent that same x number of dollars on 5 guys with megaphones, how would that change things? It wouldn't except...environmenta lly. (And perhaps it wouldn't have gotten the point across as effectively) That's why I figured that was the primary concern.

Originally Posted by ladyh

I just wanted to point out .. when people comment that the signs are more "environmentally friendly" simply because they are made of recyclable material .. that makes as much sense as saying that it's okay to drink excessive amounts of bottled water, because bottled water is made of plastic, which is also recyclable.

I can't speak for anyone else...but when I was making an argument like this, I wasn't saying 'it's ok that they did this' like you seem to be interpretting here.

No, what I was saying is that it's essentially easier (and more likely to happen) to clean up the signs and deal with them appropriately, than it will be to clean up after homecoming.

So on an environmentalist level, it really is like I was saying before:

We're banning matches (relatively smaller/less damaging problem: the signs) while we burn the kitchen down with torches (relatively larger/more damaging problem: homecoming itself).



As for finances, I'm not about to defend it on a financial level...but I don't really care much about finances.

Originally Posted by Mowicz

If you have issues with how the MSU is spending their money, that's fine and good, I'm certainly not saying it was a wise decision from a financial standpoint (instead I'm saying from an environmental standpoint...it's the lesser of two evils).

Let me be clear, the MSU isn't spending any money on this. It's Ath & Rec (note the Mauraders logo on the sign) and Alumni (note the Alumni logo on the sign). The Maroons are participating in putting signs up, but it's their job to pump up the school for events like this (i.e. they're not putting money into it).

Let me be clear and say my issue isn't with the money spent on the signs. Sure its probably wasteful but just as you don't know how much they cost, neither do I.

This isn't really a financial issue. I just saw all the signs and felt it was excessive, tacky, wasteful and useless in general.

The same message could have been got out to the students with far less signs cluttering up far less of the campus and it would have been apt and not tacky, excessive etc.

Originally Posted by sew12

Let me be clear and say my issue isn't with the money spent on the signs. Sure its probably wasteful but just as you don't know how much they cost, neither do I.

This isn't really a financial issue. I just saw all the signs and felt it was excessive, tacky, wasteful and useless in general.

The same message could have been got out to the students with far less signs cluttering up far less of the campus and it would have been apt and not tacky, excessive etc.

I'd rather my tuition money not be spent on the computers that are in Multimedia lab and are closed off to me, but I'm not making a big fuss about it.

Originally Posted by Mowicz

I can't speak for anyone else...but when I was making an argument like this, I wasn't saying 'it's ok that they did this' like you seem to be interpretting here.

No, what I was saying is that it's essentially easier (and more likely to happen) to clean up the signs and deal with them appropriately, than it will be to clean up after homecoming.

So on an environmentalist level, it really is like I was saying before:

We're banning matches (relatively smaller/less damaging problem: the signs) while we burn the kitchen down with torches (relatively larger/more damaging problem: homecoming itself).

That makes sense, though I wasn't referring to any specific posts on macinsiders .. many people I have talked to about the signs (who are pro-sign lololol) have argued that it's ok to make lots of them because they're made of recyclable material. Not sure if anybody else on MI has said the same thing on this thread, but it seems to be a popular opinion out of the people I have actually had conversations with about this! I completely disagree with their argument so I figured I'd make a post here about it =P

Either way .. again .. I don't particularly care .. ahaha.

Originally Posted by deadpool

I'd rather my tuition money not be spent on the computers that are in Multimedia lab and are closed off to me, but I'm not making a big fuss about it.

This comment is so ridiculous. You have your own program and your own resources that you pay for with your tuition. I pay tuition for my program and to use the resources available with my program.

Also there are lots of other computer labs on campus with faculty specific software on them.

As if excessive signs for home coming and program/faculty specific resources are the same thing.

This is like me saying I'd rather not have my tuition money go towards the Health Sci library because Health Science students get access to the study rooms in there first above all other students.

Bad example.

Originally Posted by sew12

This comment is so ridiculous. You have your own program and your own resources that you pay for with your tuition. I pay tuition for my program and to use the resources available with my program.

Also there are lots of other computer labs on campus with faculty specific software on them.

As if excessive signs for home coming and program/faculty specific resources are the same thing.

This is like me saying I'd rather not have my tuition money go towards the Health Sci library because Health Science students get access to the study rooms in there first above all other students.

Bad example.

My point is lost on you. It is that there are SO many things that money is wasted on and you are sitting here whining about a few signs that cost a couple hundred dollars (and yes, I know how much they cost).

Stop whining about stuff for the sake of whining. You've changed your reasons for being against the signs from "they are an eyesore" to "they cost too much". It's homecoming.

I like Mac and I like having school spirit, and yeah, there may be too many signs outside of BSB and JHE but that doesn't compare to the amount of students who sit on their ass and say "Queens' homecoming was better".

All this misanthropy is just impeding the spirit of the weekend. I know that a lot of people have exams and stuff, but it's a great weekend and one with a lot of tradition. Let's make our school fun, stop worrying about a bunch of maroon signs and make it good.

Originally Posted by deadpool

My point is lost on you. It is that there are SO many things that money is wasted on and you are sitting here whining about a few signs that cost a couple hundred dollars (and yes, I know how much they cost).

Stop whining about stuff for the sake of whining. You've changed your reasons for being against the signs from "they are an eyesore" to "they cost too much". It's homecoming.

I like Mac and I like having school spirit, and yeah, there may be too many signs outside of BSB and JHE but that doesn't compare to the amount of students who sit on their ass and say "Queens' homecoming was better".

All this misanthropy is just impeding the spirit of the weekend. I know that a lot of people have exams and stuff, but it's a great weekend and one with a lot of tradition. Let's make our school fun, stop worrying about a bunch of maroon signs and make it good.

My point is lost on you.

Resources used for education at the University are not a waste of money and don't say your tuition money is paying for something completely unrelated to your program when all of us in this program pay tuition and the lab in the first place was donated by a Hamilton couple.

Again I also clearly said my view point isn't really based on the cost of the signs because I don't know how much they cost and I imagine it probably wasn't that much. I just found them to be tacky, excessive and unnecessary which I clearly stated.

Last time I checked this was a forum to express opinions and ask questions about McMaster. That's all I did. All you did was make a completely idiotic, false comment to try and prove some point you're trying to make to me.

Clearly you're just picking and choosing what you want out of this thread. I never said anything negative about home coming, just about the signs.

Originally Posted by sew12

Let me be clear and say my issue isn't with the money spent on the signs. Sure its probably wasteful but just as you don't know how much they cost, neither do I.

This isn't really a financial issue. I just saw all the signs and felt it was excessive, tacky, wasteful and useless in general.

The same message could have been got out to the students with far less signs cluttering up far less of the campus and it would have been apt and not tacky, excessive etc.

Let me be clear and say my issue is that you've spent a semi rediculous amount of time on a forum complaining about some signs you have to walk by on your way to campus. I feel your posts are excessive, tacky, wasteful and useless in general , since repetitively complaining on this forum will accomplish nothing.

You could have gotten your discontenet out in one clear message with far less cluttering, it would have been apt and less tacky.

your posts are just as bad if not worse then the homecomming ones, except I dont plan on getting drunk and having fun with you this weekend.

I don't know whether to laugh or roll my eyes at that post, I guess I'm sort of doing both.

Yeah, cost-benefit analysis must be a strong suit of yours.

You're comparing apples to oranges and pretendign that the price of oranges are the same as the price of apples.

When Ath and Rec is budgetted a certain amount for promotion of something, it is well within a promotion manager's right to spend within that limit. Ath and Rec is doing so. I love the signs, they are ridiculous, and altogether cheap.

If you have a problem with the cost of these signs, consider the financial benefits of Alumni donating to the school because they feel as if they return to the school is Welcome. The few hundreds spent on signs pales in comparison to the millions brought in.

This is like an argument over whether Peter George deserves a $425,000 salary when he on average brings in endowments of $2,000,000 a year to Mac.

At the end of the day, Homecoming supports the operations of our University and the programs it runs, including the niche programs. Learn to be thankful and respectful for those alum who actually donate to their alma mater.

Originally Posted by deadpool

Yeah, cost-benefit analysis must be a strong suit of yours.

You're comparing apples to oranges and pretendign that the price of oranges are the same as the price of apples.

Why do you continue to say I have a problem with the cost of the signs?

You must lack reading comprehension skills of something, or you're just ignoring my posts completely and trying to pick a fight.

I laughed out loud when I saw that you accused someone else of comparing apples to oranges. Pot meet kettle, seriously. Go back up and read your stupid comment about your tuition paying for my program resources and then lecture other people on comparing apples to oranges that don't even exist.