# A thread disappeared **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 14, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981 "2009-09-14T00:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/21 "2009-09-14T01:33:25Z")
**runner pat** how does that not bar every possible thing? ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/22 "2009-09-14T01:34:02Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Big T, you should be more civil about this. Shouting is not useful and is abusive. This is not the Pit. I’m not shouting at you and I’m not being rude, you too should likewise be courteous. > > And there is this: > > [Straight Dope Message Board Registration Agreement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=423183) > > Throwing scripts up that we don’t know about and have not approved in advance is potentially abuse of the site; we don’t know about it, we don’t know what’s in it. This is a moderated board and we require that you ask permission for everything out of the ordinary and that includes strange scripts from people we don’t know. It’s not an excessive request and has been in place as long as we’ve been here. Right, right, I get that. But from what wieederon said, it seems like the script would be on the user’s computer, and not directly affect the SDMB any more than Ad-Block Plus does. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/23 "2009-09-14T01:35:13Z")
Snarky comment: So, strange scripts from people you do know, would be OK? Non-snarky comment: You should modify the registration agreement to specify that users should get admin approval before posting any scripts, because it honestly would not have occurred to me that a script that changed the browser experience would count as something that was “vandalism, tampering, or other abuse of the site.” It’s not doing anything to the site. So if your policy is that any script is suspect because you don’t know what it does, then that’s what should be in the registration agreement. I am being serious and not snarky. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/24 "2009-09-14T01:37:06Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Big T, you should be more civil about this. Shouting is not useful and is abusive. This is not the Pit. I’m not shouting at you and I’m not being rude, you too should likewise be courteous. > > And there is this: > > [Straight Dope Message Board Registration Agreement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=423183) > > Throwing scripts up that we don’t know about and have not approved in advance is potentially abuse of the site; we don’t know about it, we don’t know what’s in it. This is a moderated board and we require that you ask permission for everything out of the ordinary and that includes strange scripts from people we don’t know. It’s not an excessive request and has been in place as long as we’ve been here. It doesn’t affect the site at all. Anyone who doesn’t install the script will see the site as it is. This script is no different then a pair of sunglasses. Sunglass don’t actually make the world darker, they just make it appear darker for someone who puts them on. The script just works in their browser alone. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/25 "2009-09-14T01:39:58Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Big T, you should be more civil about this. Shouting is not useful and is abusive. This is not the Pit. I’m not shouting at you and I’m not being rude, you too should likewise be courteous. > > And there is this: > > [Straight Dope Message Board Registration Agreement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=423183) > > Throwing scripts up that we don’t know about and have not approved in advance is potentially abuse of the site; we don’t know about it, we don’t know what’s in it. This is a moderated board and we require that you ask permission for everything out of the ordinary and that includes strange scripts from people we don’t know. It’s not an excessive request and has been in place as long as we’ve been here. You weren’t yelling, but you were accusing wierdaaron of doing something he obviously didn’t. Why is it his fault that you guys don’t know what a greasemonkey script is? Why should you have expected him to ask your permission, when it doesn’t in any way change anything on your side? As I suggested before, I believe that whoever removed this thread did not know enough about the subject to have responded to it. You have given me no indication otherwise. You have, however been quite condescending by assuming that weirdaaron knew you were going to freak out about this. And, frankly, this is the Pit when talking to Mods as mods. It’s all we’ve got. I wanted to make sure the sentence I wrote got your attention. It seems to have worked. I didn’t violate any rules in this forum (as far as I know), although I really, really wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/26 "2009-09-14T01:40:16Z")
But it’s being offered on our site. If we had just said “sure, yeah, okay” without some vetting and it turned out to be something malicious you’d then be screaming at us for not taking precautions. An email to any one of us asking a simple question and letting us vet it would have saved an awful lot of agita here. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/27 "2009-09-14T01:41:57Z")
I’m dealing with this with TubDiva in PM-land, so it’s probably best that I stay out of this. However… If I resize my browser window back and forth really fast, is that vandalizing the forum? Because doing that has the same effect on the site, the server, the database, and every other user as does a greasemonkey script. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/28 "2009-09-14T01:44:01Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > But it’s being offered on our site. If we had just said “sure, yeah, okay” without some vetting and it turned out to be something malicious you’d then be screaming at us for not taking precautions. > > An email to any one of us asking a simple question and letting us vet it would have saved an awful lot of agita here. So what you’re saying is, if people download it and it’s malicious, people will blame you because the person they downloaded it from just happened to post here about it? ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/29 "2009-09-14T01:47:39Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You weren’t yelling, but you were accusing wierdaaron of doing something he obviously didn’t. Why is it his fault that you guys don’t know what a greasemonkey script is? Why should you have expected him to ask your permission, when it doesn’t in any way change anything on your side? > > As I suggested before, I believe that whoever removed this thread did not know enough about the subject to have responded to it. You have given me no indication otherwise. You have, however been quite condescending by assuming that weirdaaron knew you were going to freak out about this. > > And, frankly, this is the Pit when talking to Mods as mods. It’s all we’ve got. I wanted to make sure the sentence I wrote got your attention. It seems to have worked. We’re not accusing him of anything. We don’t know and we’re cautious. It’s not personal and I told him that. I have never been able to understand why being polite and answering questions is seen as condescending. If you’re determined to find fault in what I do and you want to be offended I guess that’s a good fallback, “She answered my questions . . . but she was being condescending.” It’s a no-win situation. No, this is NOT the Pit. And you can talk to us as staffers politely, as we talk to you. This is a place for civil discourse; it’s not place to bring bad attitude and it’s not a place to be abusive. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/30 "2009-09-14T01:50:48Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > “She answered my questions . . . but she was being condescending.” It’s a no-win situation. Now see, this is exactly the sort of thing that the script would be useful for. If the gender of every poster was available for me to see, I wouldn’t be having these constant ‘you’re a she?’ moments. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/31 "2009-09-14T01:54:25Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > If the gender of every poster was available for me to see, I wouldn’t be having these constant ‘you’re a she?’ moments. I planned to add tha— I mean… the _raain_ in _spaaaiiinn_… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/32 "2009-09-14T01:55:26Z")
Having said all I said, I do want to apologize for my anger; even though I tried my best to channel it to the appropriate level, I’m sure I overshot. Also, I was unaware that **wierdaaron** provided any actual links. If he did, I could see the problem. Seeing as I had to ask to beta test it, I assumed there weren’t any. Still, if that’s the case, breaking the links would have made more sense. And left a note saying you wanted to check it out first, so no one would be tempted to use it. Oh, and at least I’m smart enough to know that you guys can’t be held responsible for a script written by someone else. Finally, I can understand you guys are probably in the “nuke it first, ask questions later” camp. I still assume you weren’t quite sure what a greasemonkey script was, but that you were afraid it might be bad, and thought you’d ask around to make sure. I just wish you guys would let us all know that at the same time as when you act, instead of making people ask. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/33 "2009-09-14T02:01:04Z")
There weren’t any links. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/34 "2009-09-14T02:09:44Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > We’re not accusing him of anything. We don’t know and we’re cautious. It’s not personal and I told him that. > > I have never been able to understand why being polite and answering questions is seen as condescending. If you’re determined to find fault in what I do and you want to be offended I guess that’s a good fallback, “She answered my questions . . . but she was being condescending.” It’s a no-win situation. > > No, this is NOT the Pit. And you can talk to us as staffers politely, as we talk to you. This is a place for civil discourse; it’s not place to bring bad attitude and it’s not a place to be abusive. “If you’d have asked us like you were supposed to…” is inherently condescending. It’s acting like the person should know a rule applies when it was unspecific. It is not being polite, it is being snarky. I, for once, let that get to me, instead of just realizing that’s the way Tuba talks. I’m sorry for my anger, but not what I said. I am unaware of any rule governing what size text I am allowed to use in this forum, and, thus, I used it to express my anger without violating the insult rules. If that is not acceptable, I can probably find another way. What do you suggest that would express Size 7 anger? Could I use the smileys? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/35 "2009-09-14T02:20:47Z")
Yes; “if you’d just followed the rules we wouldn’t have had this problem” is condescending and not particularly polite. No, it’s not outrageously rude. But it’s not very polite, either. Especially when, like I said earlier, this rule is not really that obvious, especially to someone who’s only been on the site for a month. I guess I’m feeling a little defensive on this topic because I would really like for us NOT to shoo off the few cool newbies that we happen to get these days. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/36 "2009-09-14T02:36:42Z")
**wierdaaron** ’s script is a local script that runs on a user’s local machine and does not add any load to the SDMB servers, does not modify any server-side code, and does not in any way affect or interfere with the serving of SDMB pages to the rest of the community that doesn’t have the local script installed. This does not qualify as “Vandalism, tampering, or any other abuse of the site is grounds for immediate banning”, and does not violate any SDMB rules that I am aware of. As such, regardless of what you discuss or decide, users do not need permission from the SDMB to use this script on their local machines. There are many sites that have been customized by users using greasemonkey scripts, including Google, Facebook and many other popular websites. The only thing you may decide to allow or disallow is the discussion of **wierdaaron** ’s script on the SDMB. And if you do choose to disallow such discussion, there is nothing to stop users from discussing the script on another board and using it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/37 "2009-09-14T02:39:00Z")
I’ve been visiting this place less and less because it’s simply too complicated to understand the rules. You guys know that you have most of us by the short-hairs, because we have friendships here, that are vulnerable to being severed by being banned from this board. This has led to obvious abuse and manipulation by the moderators here. I mean it, in the most constructive way; please get some clarity and consistency in how this place is run. > [@What was the last album on 8-track?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-album-on-8-track/55824/5): > > Big T, you should be more civil about this. Shouting is not useful and is abusive. This is not the Pit. I’m not shouting at you and I’m not being rude, you too should likewise be courteous. Then, From **C K Dexter Haven** Now, GODDAM IT PAY ATTENTION! This is ATMB. I understand that this quote is from the "Can moderator ignore the rules ..blah, blah? Well, they certainly have ignored the _decorum_! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/38 "2009-09-14T02:56:00Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > I’ve been visiting this place less and less because it’s simply too complicated to understand the rules. You guys know that you have most of us by the short-hairs, because we have friendships here, that are vulnerable to being severed by being banned from this board. This has led to obvious abuse and manipulation by the moderators here. I mean it, in the most constructive way; please get some clarity and consistency in how this place is run. > > Then, From **C K Dexter Haven** > Now, GODDAM IT PAY ATTENTION! > This is ATMB. > > I understand that this quote is from the "Can moderator ignore the rules ..blah, blah? Well, they certainly have ignored the _decorum_! Well, I could give an obvious out, but I’ll wait to see if Tuba figures it out. 😛 But I’m not mad anymore, anyways. Next time, I’ll use “:mad:x7” (no I won’t actually repeat them, as that could be considered rude, too.) My plan has always been to give them as little reason as possible to ban me, whether I agree with the rules or not. If I had my way, we’d have even stricter rules… ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/39 "2009-09-14T02:57:03Z")
@TubaDiva I think there might have been an innocent misunderstanding on the part of the staff. What wierdaaron conceived and offered does not in any way affect the SDMB or its server. The script runs on local machines. It’s nothing insidious or in any way threatening to you or to the computer that runs the boards. It’s script that is hosted by users who choose to use it. Remember this thread, [Could we change the default font](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=426908&highlight=font)? In it, Dead Badger posted instructions on how to individually change our font styles and colors to make the sight more easy for us to read? It’s the same sort of thing. Quite honestly, y’all should be thanking him for all his hard work and effort, since you have no risk associated with it, and the membership at large could greatly benefit from it. But just disappearing it like he was teaching us how to hack the site was wrongheaded and mal-informed. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981/40 "2009-09-14T08:02:52Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > But it’s being offered on our site. If we had just said “sure, yeah, okay” without some vetting and it turned out to be something malicious you’d then be screaming at us for not taking precautions. I have posted many scripts here helping people solve problems they were asking about. Any of my scripts could have turned out to be malicious too. Was I breaking rules and just “got away with it” because nobody noticed? If the answer is yes, then **you have never been clear about that, ever, and maybe it deserves special mention in the rules**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-thread-disappeared/509981.md?page=3)