When I was a kid, my Uncle Chuck used to be able to make a half dollar appear from my external ear canal. I have since tried reaching into my own as well as others’ ears, and come up with nothing but wax and dirty looks. How’d he do it?
In case you don’t know, I’ve reposted the question on the Crazy Man’s Handcuffs magic trick. It has been allowed.
In fact, I’ve gotten an extemely helpful response from Dragwyr who is actually…get this…a magician.
Anyway, I think we can put the Magicgate Scandal to bed. I don’t anticipate there will be any retraction, apology, or change of policy.
Go forth, Dopers. Post!
Bull. The question was answered by email, with the rest of us wallowing in ignorance (or at least slightly curious).
If the actual instructions were posted, would they have been deleted as before?
I see that TubaDiva has expanded on her decision in the actual “Crazy Man Handcuffs” thread that TubaDiva has just re-opened.
Props to TubaDiva and the staff for making the right choice.
An observation: for better or for worse, I get the impression that had Hampshire not mentioned “not caring to pay for it”, his OP would not have gotten a second look.
Just a note regarding my post in the original thread - I gave an explanation of how to do the trick. It was in my own words, from my own knowledge - it most certainly was not copied from anywhere.
I see now the topic has been re-opened and Jayrot has provided a link with an explanation.
[sup]Did you ever figure out the “Pull my finger” trick?[/sup]
This has been a very interesting discussion(s). But, while I agree with everyone’s efforts to explain what and how information can and can not be distributed, I must say that I feel for TubaDiva. Based on this thread alone, if I were her I might feel somewhat shell-shocked. So, if I may, I’d just like to say on behalf of the Straight Dope community that we still love you TB. 
Anyhoo…
I think you meant TD. I’m not willing to declare my affection for an infection. 
What bugged me (as well as others, I think) about this whole thing was that for a while it seemed that the administration would use false pretenses (the shoddy IP arguments coupled with bad analogies) to do something they have the right to do without any reason.
Now, nobody would enjoy it if they acted capriciously. They have never done so in the past, and they are quite honestly better than that. They do not, however, need to resort to a line of BS to justify something they are dead set on doing anyway. We feel insulted enough when a government does that.
I love how this turned out, and I greatly respect TubaDiva and the rest of the staff. I respect them all even more for how responsive they were to our reasoning and research. I hope they continue to be just the way they are.
I can’t believe I missed that, because I actually noticed while typing the post that “TB” was short for tuberculosis. I just thought it was a coincidence that TubaDiva had the same initials as the disease. I totally spaced out on what her initials actually were. :smack: :smack: (That’s definitely worth two “smacks”.)
Anyhoo…
I understand that being a moderator here can be a difficult and thankless job, and concerns about lawsuits cannot be treated lightly. And I appreciate the work the moderators do, usually with style, fairness, and aplomb. But frankly I’m disappointed that reopening the original thread is the closest any moderator has come to apologizing for this incident.
I was surprised and annoyed when a link I had posted and Trigonal Planar’s original description of the trick were removed from the followup thread. These edits, as much as the closing of the original thread, were what led to the outraged reaction that followed, and AFAIK, no one has expressed any regret for them, or for relying on biased and interested parties for “expert” opinion.
I suppose that this might make me look a little petulant, but I’m not mentioning it to get a personal apology. I’m the least aggrieved party here. IMO Trigonal Planar and the whole SDMB are owed an apology for a hasty and ill-conceived, if well-meaning, reaction.
Let me try and respond to your points.
The link that you posted and Trigonal Planar’s explanation in his own words were removed from that thread based on the information we had at the time. At the time we believed the information to be complete and accurate. However, following those actions, members posted some very convincing arguments and cites in an attempt to prove that the decision taken by the staff was incorrect.
Our initial understanding was that magic tricks, and their explanations, were the intellectual property of an individual or company, and therefore could not be reproduced here without violating some law. It was our concern that allowing you to do so would bring legal headaches to the SDMB/CR. It was with this understanding that the link and post were deleted.
The arguments and cites offered in threads following the incident gave us sufficient reason to believe that our decision was in error, and we moved towards reversing the decision.
While it took us more than a day to overturn the decision, I hope you understand that modmail was deluged with arguments and counter-arguments, both from members and mods/admins, and arriving at a consensus took us more time than our membership would have liked.
After the decision to overturn had been made final, the thread was reopened and discussion and explanation of the trick(s) were allowed.
Please note that the deletion of your link and the editing of the explanation meant that we retained no record of the information, and therefore could not reverse that even if we had wanted to. Subsequent explanations in the Magic Trick (Redux) thread rendered such action redundant.
I apologize if that upset you, but we didn’t see it as necessary since the question as posted in GQ was thoroughly and accurately answered.
I’ll take this opportunity to once again thank the entire community for offering us valid cites and arguments to help us make a more informed decision, rather than just ranting about our incorrect actions.
-xash
General Questions Moderator