I agree with this, but the banning coming now, on his terms, probably wasn’t the best idea – it’s made him the martyr he set out to become; only in his mind, of course, but that’s all he needs to keep spinning his protective cocoon of delusions around himself. Not that much that could have been said or done on here could have pierced that in the first place, but well, I think this situation could definitely have been handled better.
I think the mods did an ok job with it. We have rules, protocol and decorum here. We don’t just ban people willynilly. This isn’t the Giraffe Boards with the “I can box/suspend/ban whomever I want” clause. They gave him opportunities to clear his name, put limits on what he can/cannot do, etc. and he still disobeyed.
Should it have happened sooner? Probably. Were they giving him a just, fair trial? Probably, too.
Did he deserve a just fair trial, probably not. But I feel better knowing that they do give people time and the opportunity to correct themselves. I wouldn’t want to post something, have it taken wrong and the next day find out I’m banned…
No, the mods didn’t do an ok job, they did a completely, par for the course, shitty job.
Ultimately Cesario hung himself. But let’s not pretend that TPTB didn’t hand him the rope and point him to a tall tree instead of just taking care of it as they wanted to.
I agree with everything you’ve said - apart from the bolded part. Ed Zotti and TubaDiva have repeatedly said that they can, if they want, ban anyone for any - or no - reason. Which is, IMO, how it should be. Although I support their generally democratic stance, I just wish they’d used the willy-nilly ban hammer earlier in this case. Not really for his views, but mainly because of his arrogant, slimy, defiant, goading, repetitive and provocative stance.
Talk about melodramatic. What masters do you fear we bow to now?
I don’t think there was any blindness in the staff’s efforts to allow free speech here. Perhaps the restrictions placed on Cesario should have come quicker allowing the martyr play/banning to have happened a while back, but other than that I think they did what they needed to do to try to preserve the image of free speech with limits they allow here (like say in Australia or China 
). I figure they took the best middle line they could between the extremes on this issue.
I never advocated for a ban, but it seems clear that much of TPTB actions were designed to keep feeding Cesario just enough rope so they would have to eventually ban him. It would have been better to just do it instead of letting this drama spill all over the board.
Oh sure, there would have been howls of protest from the Stalward Defenders of Free Speech™ but that may have been preferable to having so many people so worked up over one poster.
So you never advocated for a ban, but simply restricting his comments on children was giving him rope to hang himself. So do you hold any actual position other than “You suck, staff”?
There really wasn’t a good or easy way to handle this; it’s all third rail stuff. Sorry it had to go down, but I don’t see any better alternatives once it’s reached this point.
What’s everyone pissing and moaning about? We got a good couple of months recreational outrage, some pretty heated Pit threads, a lot of good entertainment for our trouble … and now **Cesario **is gone.
Win - win.
Possibly, but it was also one last chance to prove he wasn’t a one trick pedo and just someone who was being an OTP because he could.
FWIW, I think this would’ve been a great opportunity to trot out “Don’t be a jerk.” It’s exactly the sort of situation in which such a nebulous rule serves its purpose best.
Absolutely. Why just look at the way they treat each other. Constantly insulting. Smug condescension; sanctimonious asshats the lot of them. And the administration! Capricious rulings, banning of long time board members, openly derisive of the posters. They’re constantly under fire, every decision they make is the wrong one no matter what they do…wait, which board are we talking about again?
Since they wanted him gone, they should have just made him gone.
Do I need to use smaller words?
Stop fellating TPTB.
Most situations can be handled better in hindsight.
I disagree that this was on his terms and knowing how his mind works I don’t care if he thinks he’s a martyr, to be honest. He didn’t “win” in any way from where I sit.
To me he proved that he was only here to talk about pedo stuff. If TPTB said I could never post in another discussion about a subject it wouldn’t be hard for me to find other things to talk about. I’m sure the same would be true for you or pretty much anyone else here. He wanted to pretend that it would be impossible for him to participate in a discussion because somewhere, somehow in the comments the mere mention of a child would cause him trouble.
It only works if people buy it. I don’t.
I wish they had banned him before he slimed us all in different threads, but they didn’t. He’s gone now and that’s good enough for me.
As I was unable to remind people of this Onion headline in Cesario’s “Youth Rights - Criminal Responsibility” GD trollathon before it was locked, I shall do so now.
Ahem.
“Pederast Judge Tries 12 Year Old As Adult”.
Thank you.
(I also liked “Jurisprudence Fetishist Gets Off On Technicality”. I always think of Bricker with that one).
I know, I know.
You’ll be here all week. Try the veal and don’t forget to tip the waitstaff.
I do believe that point’s been made. If advocating a position that makes the majority of humanity want to tear your nuts off isn’t being a jerk, I’m not sure what is.
That said, I’m glad it’s over. We’ve had provocative posters we hated whose presence, in retrospect, really did make us think–I’ll admit I miss SmashTheState, for example. This wasn’t one of those cases.
Drawing the line between trolling and simply espousing an unpopular opinion is not so easy as some of you seem to assume. If we banned everyone who held an unpopular opinion on the grounds of trolling, this would be a pretty boring place.
We handled this one the same way that we’ve handled other posters who seem to have an agenda (political, sexual, religious, …) We tell them that we don’t want one-trick ponies, and we give them an opportunity to prove that they are valuable posters, not just zealouts for their particular point of view. Some of them get through this just fine, understand what we’re saying, and remain as valued members of the community (however unpopular their particular cause.) Others are unable to comply with this, and get the boot.
However, the process takes time and the build up of evidence. A couple of posts in a short period of time is not necessarily convincing evidence.
The concept of banning someone simply for advocating minority opinions: such as legalizing marijuana or allowing same-sex marriages or nuking Iran or joining the Pink Unicorn Cult for Ethics (PUKE) … well, we don’t want to be doing that. And we don’t think most of you would want us doing that. And drawing the line is … tricky.
I think the mods did fine on this one. Cesario was very good at dancing juuuuuuust on this side of the rules. I’ve been on other message boards that were incapable of dealing with people like this. Here, however, the admin stepped in, laid down some guidelines, Cesario violated them, and now he’s gone. I have no complaints.
Not smaller words, just make sense with the ones you do use. You never advocated a ban, but they should have just banned him because they wanted to ban him? No, they didn’t want him talking about a child’s sexual rights, so they tried to restrict that.
I am hardly a serial PTB fellator, I just take a thoughtful position on individual topics. It’s a little more challenging than being a thoughtless contrarian, but I like it.