Long-term posters already get lots of deference. If he’d actually been socking, a ban would have been appropriate.
But he wasn’t, so it’s good that the decision was reversed. I’m not glad he’s back, but I’m glad the mods are applying rules fairly.
If anything, a long term poster, who knows better, and has seen other posters removed for such things, should have zero excuses.
But this remains correct. I think it’s safe to say my actual opinions of S_S being back are far loss positive than “I’m not glad he’s back” but I want them gone for actual reasons, rather than a misunderstanding caused by a third party.
Yes. Let justice be done.
I enjoy Good Sam. I don’t much care for Bad Sam. The ratio of the two is not great and I fear as it gets to be election season in the country Sam’s not from, things will get real shrill around here which will trigger a lot of shrillness in return.
Sam isn’t a USAian, true, but his political craziness has been authentically absorbed by osmosis from his home province of Alberta. A plurality – maybe even a majority – of Albertans are so far to the political right that they’re certifiably nuts. It’s a cold version of Texas. Look who Sam’s fellow citizens elected as Alberta’s current premier – a woman so batshit crazy that she’s stated as a matter of policy that Alberta has the right to ignore any federal legislation it doesn’t like, and is currently trying to sabotage our national pension plan.
Sam went over to the Giraffe Boards to explain the situation. He said that his son, who lives with him, made an account and shortly thereafter made a post. The management thought that this was a sock but apparently either believed him or couldn’t prove otherwise. The new not sock account is burn which led to some of the confusion because it was interpreted as a “burner” account.
I’m pretty sure whoever set up the “burn” account intended it to be a burner account.
I’m not ready to make that conclusion but admittedly I haven’t seen all of the information that you have.
My guess would be that it was an intention to be visibly anonymous . Not to troll or anything, but my son is fanatic about internet security. Degrees in math and comp sci, and a focus on computer security. He uses Protonmail, and puts as little identifying information out on the internet as he can.
But I didn’t pry into his motives. He’s an adult, he did nothing wrong, his one post wasn’t inflammatory or trollish or anything like that. He just posted, then the account got closed along with mine. I was sleeping when all this went down.
I don’t know if he would have continued to use ‘burn’ or not. Given the response and what it cost me, at this point I don’t think he’ll ever come back here. Too bad, as he’s a really smart and thoughtful person. And he doesn’t share my politics, so you would have liked him.
There must surely be some rational policy for allowing multiple individuals from the same IP address to participate on the board. Your son sounds like an interesting person and I’d love to have him participate here.
Could we possibly arrange a trade?
KIDDING, Sam! Glad you’re back. Hope you can talk your son into going legit and chiming in.
It’s not against the rules for two posters to post from the same IP address. But 99% of the time when two posters have the same IP address, it’s because they made a sock, so when Sam’s son made an account, we heard hooves and assumed horses.
Yeah, if he ever did decide to come back, I think we’d be fine if I just notified the mods in advance and warned them that a third account from our IP will be signing up before he did it.
But honestly, this situation freaked him out. He knew I was on the board, but didn’t know my username or anything and had no idea he’d bring the ban hamer down on me. He’s already told me he has no intention of coming back here.
Again, not blaming the mods. I get where they were coming from. The only thing I would suggest is that in the future when they see something like this from a long-time poster with no history of such shenanigans they should probably reach out first in case there is a good explanation before dropping the ban hammer. Kicking someone out of a community they’ve been in for 24 years should not be done lightly. As we all get older and retired, some of us may not have much else than the SDMB.
Sooo…he would be Son_of_Sam??
C’mon, it was right there…
His friends call him “Pebble.”
Oh, Sam, my dear. It’s not your politics that makes you unlikable.
Speak for yourself.
Welcome back Sam.
Believe it or not, Sam was one of the sane ones following the contested Bush/Gore election of 2000. I can’t speak to his current posting, as I don’t dwell on it too much.
I speculate that he thinks his perspective is valuable because it’s conservative and besides lots of posters fact check their own work less than he does. That’s… not a scientific perspective. An astrological perspective doesn’t help when discussing the precession of the perihelion of Mercury. A chiropractic perspective doesn’t help when discussing pandemics. I’m not claiming that all conservative discourse is that bad. I’m just pointing out that differing perspectives aren’t especially helpful per se.
Also that it’s entirely possible for a perspective to be rotten from top to bottom. MAGA.
Do some perspectives have blind spots? Sure. Probably all. But the treatment for that is to have awareness of those blindspots, and apply fact-checked opposing thoughts accordingly. Another treatment is to favor perspectives with built-in introspection, and to show heightened skepticism towards those without.
Above all, beware of dopamine addiction, an attraction to ideas that give you a charge. I try not to traffic in false equivalence but this one is chronic on both sides of the aisle, IMHO.
That seems unlikely given that he does not fact check his work at all.
Again, another thing that Sam simply does not do.
Facts and truth, at least in political threads, are irrelevant to Sam.
Let’s not pretend you’re a member in good standing, Sam. You lie and misrepresent your own cites when you actually bother to read them past the headline.
Jesus Christ, I knew your relationship with this board was an unhealthy, toxic, and codependent one, but this is just over the top. How recently did you have a meltdown accusing ‘the board’ of driving you to suicide by mod? Take some responsibility for your actions, the consequences of them, and your unhealthy relationship with this board.
I have to say, I really am perplexed by the number of people who seem to think that merely being a conservative voice, for the sake of being a conservative voice and nothing else, is value added.
If I wanted to read made up bull shit, I’d write a short story and then proofread it or, if feeling particularly masochistic, read an article in The New York Post. I don’t need token conservative posters for that.