I have noticed a marked increase in ‘assholeness’ on the part of some of our newer dopers and having quite the 'tude when someone suggests they check out the ‘About This Message Board.’ I was thinking, that maybe in addition to having ATMB, we should also have a BANNED forum with links to whatever it was that got all those idiots banned, so the new idiots can see what NOT to do. 'Course I may end up in the BANNED forum because for the life of me, I never know if my OP’s are in the correct forum. But then again, I’m an idiot…if you don’t believe me ask Vix. I’m sure she’ll be happy to tell you about the drunk moron in bunny ears, patting the head of a Chicago cop in an attempt to get a ride to the bar.
I dunno …
You see, although I seem to fit in well (at least the majority of the time) in The Straight Dope Message Board, the paramedics had to carry me out of a dating-related vBulletin board I started participating in at about the same time I started in the SDMB, last November or thereabouts. I suffered third degree burns there; it seems as if I wasn’t extremely careful about the way I worded something, and someone felt the least bit offended, I got ganged up on with flamethrowers ablaze. I just didn’t fit in, and the regulars made it perfectly clear. When I tried to defend myself or apologize for the way I worded something, I got beat up more. I started to get flamed for for nonconsequential posts that would have been ignored if posted by other people; that fact that it came from me was enough to render the post suspicious and deserving of hard criticism. Things spiraled downward fast, and I eventually left in a huff – pretty immature of me, thinking back on it, but still, I don’t know how else to handle it at the time.
I’ll still have a look at that board every now and then. To this day, they’re STILL ragging on me, ten months after I made my last post there. It’s the equivalent of high schoolers that continue to make fun of the unpopular kid, years after he or she transferred to another school where the kids actually like him or her; it’s not a pleasant experience.
Someone who is BANNED here might do well on a different bulletin board. Their only crime may just be clashing with the group dynamic around here. I don’t think that’s deserving of the scarlet letter. I’ve banned people and entire ISPs from my [url=“http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/”]bulletin board. Excepting chain letters, which deserve public ridicule, I try to clear out as many of the banned member’s posts as possible without tearing threads to bits, and then let things get back to normal.
For BANNED members here, I say just let 'em go – don’t let the SDMB become a petty, cliquish place where gruges are held. We’re supposed to “fight ignorance,” and we should be better than that.
Typo. Forgot to close the URL above. If I’m banned for anything around here, it should be excessive typos. Then again, if I was back on that other bulletin board, I’d also be accoused of post padding for a message like this, labeled a klutz, and … well, I give up.
good heavens man, I’m not suggesting we hold grudges.
Just some examples for new dopers on what sort of things will/can get you banned. Course that might give some ignotzes ideas, but it was just a thought
I was banned because some troll stuck waterj@rpi.edu into his profile as his email address (mine was waterj2@rpi.edu). Took a whole ten minutes to clear up with the mods. Or was that not what this thread was for…?
It depends on who your friends are, who’s butt you kiss and how long you’ve been here.
Simple, really.
That’s correct-it has absolutely nothing to do with following the rules. 
I’m moving this puppy to ATMB.
An interesting suggestion, Miss C, although I vote against it, for two reasons:
(1) It seems sorta like telling kids, “Don’t put beans in your ears.” Why give them ideas?
(2) We do our best here to move on, rather than wallow in the past. And often, the misdeeds are deleted (like porno links, racist rants, etc.) I don’t see that links to past “situations” will do much, other than continue to raise the “It seems to me that TXK133 was unjustly banned back in October of 1997, just because of mild porno links.” We don’t need those kind of discussions.
(3) The Rules are what dominate, not the case law. Often, there were behind-the-scenes interactions that provided additional evidence that someone needed to be banned. We don’t need stuff like, “Hey, TXK133 wasn’t banned until his third porno link, and Ferd was banned on his first porno link, it isn’t fair.”
If someone really doesn’t understand the Rules, and stumbles into an awkward situation by inadvertence, they are usually given a second chance – sometimes a third and fourth chance. The Rules are pretty simple, and pretty simply stated. I dunno that links to past bad behaviours are gonna help understand them any better.
OK, three, three reasons.
Miss Creant, it’s an often discussed subject, but if you read the Rules (no, not that silly book), it says it all.
If you haven’t read them, in short it says, ‘don’t be a jerk’.
Hey Miss Creant, I thought that whole cop incident was a hoot! There’s nothing idiotic about nearly scoring us a ride with the Chicago PD!
But to address the topic at hand, I don’t think we need a separate forum. I’m usually quite satisifed with the Pit thread that pop up to uh, explain the banning.
Please tell me you’re being facetious.
CK Dexter I did think of that. I didn’t say it was a good idea, just an idea.
Handy I think the OP was more an observation on the increase in ‘assholeness’ by people who haven’t read any of ATMB.
Vix I love you, man!!!
He was. It was a facetious, sarcastic, flippant and mildly derisive reply to Silly Rabbit’s silly comment.
There was an independent forum similar to the one you described, called Socks. It went out when it’s free service went dot.gone.
But the mods were quite down on it, so I think that’s your answer.
Silly, but true.
Sometimes the truth is silly.
and sometimes, it’s not even true!
I’ll have to agree with that. There’s a lot of cliquishness here, despite Czarcasm’s assurances. The thing that gets me is that it’s really only a few, but they seem to live here. It’s like passing a vacant house, where mangy stray dogs grab your leg and won’t let go. It’s not the fault of the whole neighborhood, but there’s still something wrong with it.
Well, one of the reasons we were down on it was because there was quite a bit of inaccurate information posted on it. Some of this information might have been innocent mistakes, but some was pure maliciousness. I did get a few giggles out of the total cluelessness of some people. Oh, and I know that at least one mod was impersonated over there. That is, someone used a name at Socks which was the name of a mod here…but that someone was NOT the mod.
That Girl said:
Look, there are groups of people who know each other, that’s all–it’s no more evil than that. And I say this as someone who can’t possibly be accused of being in a “clique”–if I abruptly dropped dead and never posted again I doubt anybody here would notice.
(To anyone about to suggest I try it so we can see: go away.)
I don’t mean to attack you here, really, but I tend to read accusations of “cliquishness” as “I’m not popular.” If being popular here is important to you, then go read and absorb MPSIMS–it’s not that hard to figure out how to achieve it. If you like, you could gather some more newbies and start your own circle of friends–you too can be an Evil Clique to future generations of new Dopers. But if you’re waiting for The Board Hoards to be stunned by your goodness on the basis of your username and a relative handfull of posts, you’re going to have a long wait.
Er…never mind the “newbie” part, I misread your reg date.
I can read most of the time…really, I can.