This is where complaints against admins go, right?
Not that I had much emotional attachment to this thread — but I think it’s rather harsh for Swiftysoitiz to have been banned after only 11 posts, with no apparent warning, merely for the crime of being a confused and not so well-read person. Of course there could have been something else going on behind the scenes (in email for example) that I’m not aware of. But the whole thread lived for only an hour, and Swifty’s membership here at the Board might not have been much longer.
That thread was never going to cure cancer or anything, but I was hoping Swifty would eventually reveal the question he was trying to “sell”, or at least a hint of it. Maybe the question was, “Why is there something instead of nothing?”, or “What distinguishes life from non-life?”, or that sort of thing. I knew it wasn’t going to be anything genuinely new or history-changing, but my curiosity was piqued anyway. What did he think he’d come across that no one else has ever thought of before? Especially while looking at animals?
Now I’ll never know. And that’s fine, really. I’m fine, not knowing. (“If it hadn’t been for my horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college.” Take that.) But either I or someone else in there could have answered his question, or steered him somewhere helpful — to a university library, or a particular book or author — and he might have learned something. If nothing else he might have learned that (1) pretty much everything you’ve ever experienced or thought has already been experienced and thought by others, usually centuries before you were ever born, and (2) there really is a lot that’s already known about the natural world, and you can find many of your questions answered, or at least discussed to death, in freely available books.
Sure, I was also amused like everyone else. The temptation to be sarcastic was nearly overpowering. But I think the moderator has possibly antagonized a young soul who was merely looking for some answers, and was just unclear on how to go about it. (Also unclear on the street price for vaguely described questions, but never mind that.) In my opinion, there’s nothing in that thread worth banning him for.
Meh. The guy’s either a loon or a troll. Or a loony troll. If that drivel is all he’s got to contribute, the witty and sarcastic replies will get stale pretty soon. We’re not losing much.
IMO, it was pretty clear after a few posts that he had no intention of revealing the question, and was either demented, intoxicated, or screwing around (possibly all three). In any of these cases, sarcastic replies are pretty much wasted.
When someone is banned this quickly it usually means they are a sock. While I have no definite knowledge about the circumstances, it would probably be best to e-mail a moderator if you really want to know what was going on.
i have no comment on his banning, but part of his post was i have only saw it once in 38 years, which leads me to believe his soul isn’t all that young
I just read the thread and I think you’re off base here. The OP was 1) nearly unintelligible, (which I don’t think is automatically ban-worthy or there are times when all of us would be banned), but is a bad start, 2) rude, (see comment on point 1) and 3) ultimately pointless since it appeared that Swifty wasn’t planning on revealing his/her question at all, if in fact there really was a “question.”
Perhaps all those are simply reasons to close the thread but there may have been more that we don’t know about, ie. Swifty being discovered to be a sock or something.
It could also be construed as his trying to sell something on the board (the question, if I’m reading correctly.).
Also, Shagnasty wins for the best post in that thread. I am going straight to [outmoded eternal punishment of your choice here] for laughing so damn hard at that.
Damn that thread made my head spin. I have a family member who is an alcoholic. Sometimes when he gets drunk in the middle of the night he will call a family member up and start talking random shit that would make your head esplode. He would also have “epiphanies” about certain things and he would say stuff like “Dude, you are smart. You are the smartest person I know, but no one knows I am smarter than you.” And then he would go on to extol on his newfound insight on such and such that would make you bust out laughing until he gets pissed and hangs up on you.
That sounds just like what this guy did.
I think the guy wanted someone to tell him how bumblebees are able to fly. Then again, I usually get hung up on quicker than my other family members so I could be wrong.
That’s my guess, too. I assume (s)he was talking about the old saw that science can’t explain how a bumblebee flies. (If anyone’s interested, here’s one link I came across on how that belief came about.) I suspect what I was seeing was a poster with bad spelling and grammar (sacrifices a bar of chocolate to Gaudere) and who wanted to be deliberately obscure. Whatever Swiftysoitiz was, I can’t say I’ll miss him or her.
Whoa. Just whoa. That person had like the soul of a poet and the spirit of a warrior…maybe that’s the other way around. I think he was banned because the slow minds of the straight dope weren’t hep to what that cat was speaking.
:eek:
Whoops. Sorry there. I think the thread got to me a bit. If it’s possible to be banned for being a looney toon, then that’s what happened.
