Mods, I gotta give you guys kudos on your handling of that entire shitstorm. I think you bent over backwards to be fair to him and he was just too frickin’ oblivious to see that.
If you will all leave your jackboots in the hall, I’ll polish them for you as my way of saying job well done.
I disagree.
They should have banned him for hijacking every thread that mentioned children long ago. They were appearing fair, but really, who needs fairness to that?
I agree completely.
TPTB completely and royally fucked up in the way they handled this situation.
Instead of just banning like they wanted to, they danced around the issue over and over again until the poster in question cut the life line.
There are no kudos deserved here.
I agree with the last post. He was playing this system as far as he could.
Ed warned Cesario on the 8th. On the 10th he posted this:
He was planning all along to screw with the rules, push the envelope, and get his jollies. And our administrators let him do this. All I can say is that I hope there was a lesson learned here.
It hurts to agree with the kiddie diddler, but he said they would not ban him for what he was but keep changing the rules so they would not appear to bow to mob rule. Anybody but Clothahump see anything different?
And Mr. Moto has also called this correctly. We have bumped heads before, sir, but on this we are in agreement.
:nod: I view this more of **Cesario **ending his own terms rather than TPTB choosing to handle the situation. This was plain and simple seppuku by Cesario doing that which TPTB weren’t quite willing to take the steps to do.
For once, I gotta agree with the crazy taco: There is no honor or kudos here.
Not hard to be right on this one, so I take no particular pride in it. And while I can appreciate the motives that led our administration to their decisions, they still should be ashamed to have blown this.
This was poorly-handled from beginning to end (and continuing to close down threads on a topic that posters obviously want to blow off steam about isn’t helping). I have no kudos for anyone involved (except Cesario, for some world-class trolling).
Pride, no. We can share our shame that the administration let us down, sadly.
Yeah, let’s keep the threads around about an admitted troll. Yeah, let’s give someone kudos for doing something we believe was wrong. Let’s just keep feeding him and feeding him. Let’s keep doing his trolling for him.
It’s not about the troll, it’s about how badly the troll was handled.
Hard to argue with this.
I continue to wonder why in the world it unwound the way it did… we all post at the privilege of the board and TPTB. They don’t need a reason to pull the plug on anyone, as far as I understand it.
Granted, heavy-handed moderation would have its consequences if it were to be wielded unchecked, but is this what we all saw? Why on earth did this particular poster get so much rope to hang himself with? Why bend over backward so far your collective spines snap, and then put so many restrictions on his posting that he would be bound to break them with his next post?
Why not just say “good-bye” weeks or months ago and be done with it?
The banning isn’t the issue. The way it was handled is.
Another in a long history of head-scratching behavior by TPTB.
Outrage + Google + Paedophile = Vistiors = Page Views = Ad Impressions = Revenue.
The reason for keep that troll around was transparent.
I’ll bet they were reluctant to throw the ban hammer around, but they knew they’d milked the value of it.
You aren’t suggesting that **money **played a role in stringing this along are you?
Nail, meet hammer.
I don’t care how he’s gone I’m just glad he’s gone. No more reading a thread about dating and having his sick preferences and fantasies slime you unexpectedly.
Buh bye and thanks Ed.
Me too. One of the best moments of my day was seeing BANNED under his name. Halle-freaking-lujah.
I think the point that most people in this thread are trying to make (and please correct me if I’m wrong) is that this could have (and should have) happened LONG ago. Your experience on the Dope should have never had to deal with this poster for any length of time at all.
No, I absolutely agree with the OP. The mods here handled the situation like lawyers which is exactly the way they should have handled it. Even the most odious person in the US court system is entitled to a fair trial a the legal system will bend over backwards to give them one. The reason for this is because the system is more important than any one case, no matter how icky.
It seemed pretty inevitably that Cesario would have a rocky posting history here but there was no call to ban him for what were unpleasant but not technical offenses against the board policy. Doing so would have created a chilling effect on speech here which would have been far more damaging to the board than the temporary squickiness of some of the members.
I’m putting my voice out there as personally commending the mods for making a hard decision which they will probably continue to receive abuse over for years to come. It’s not easy to stand up to public opinion for what you feel is right and it’s largely a thankless task.
I’ll finish with one of my favorite HL Mencken quotes:
These melodramatic post always ring hollow, for they miss the fact that “freedom” (and boys and girls, this is a private message board, not the NY Times) and “responsibility” are not mutually exclusive.
Any community that follows “freedom” blindly in a noble attempt to be “fair” will find itself simply bowing to a different set of masters.
Ant the fact is, even the NY Times–defender of all that is holy—wouldn’t give just anyone a soap box from which to spew their filth.
The Constitution gives Cesario the freedom to start his own message board. That same freedom allows advocacy groups like NAMBLA to exist.
It also gives the owners of this message board the freedom to establish limits------to require responsibility----if someone wishes to be part of this community.