Re-wording the thread title: “A serious question about Sam Stone and Factual Errors: Can he change?”
We have over 2000 posts in this thread, more in other semi-related Pit threads, and all sorts of speculation. Whether you consider him a deliberate troll, or just so lost in wanting to Win for his Team (for those that bother with the difference) that he attempts to hijack any thread to his hobbyhorse and willfully misrepresent his own cites, he has, as mentioned in the suspension notice kept pushing despite well meaning posters trying to correct him, and the mods stepping in and telling him to stop.
My own opinion on his motivations doesn’t bare repeating, especially while he’s not here to defend himself, but regardless of his motivation for doing so, no, I don’t think he can. For whatever reason, his politically-linked issues are so important to him that I think he’ll keep doing it, although I also think he’ll seize upon any tiny, plausible pretext a thread gives him to defend himself.
Sure, he’ll probably be better for a few weeks/months, but… especially if the mods are, as reported, watching him more closely, and that future episodes where once he skated with a mod-note may no longer be given freely.
Just for the record, I took him off ignore to review his quality, and thoughtful support in the VR Maven’s thread, and do appreciate what some other posters see in him. But I think that his other tendencies (which, IMHO have been getting worse not better) put him firmly on the “more trouble than he’s worth” side of the scales.
Of course, if this wakes him up and he dramatically improves, let me know, and I’ll apologize. Being wrong on the internet is so low on my give-a-damn list as to be a negligible concern.
