I think just about anyone would agree freak is a negatively charged word.
However in this thread I was given a warning. Yet bricker who called me a freak was not.
I just want clarification. Are some posters above the rules or is freak an okay word for Great Debates? Can I, or any other poster, call posters out as freaks in Great Debates?
Or is that privileged of only certain favorite members? I’d like clarification from above.
Thanks for your time.
If anything we hold SDSAB members to a bit of a higher standard. Tom can explain the warning, but I’d say Bricker wasn’t really calling you a freak for having two middle names.
I hope I’m not playing Junior Mod here but the mods are not going to catch everything so if someone calls you a name outside of the pit then YOU need to report the post by clicking on the little red triangle in the upper right hand corner of that post.
So just what was he calling me? He clearly knew it was a charged word because of the ().
You could have asked if I reported the post already. Which I did already two nights ago. The night I came home from work and found that warning infact.
Nada came as a result so this thread. I hope you don’t feel too silly now. Well I actually I kinda hope you do.
I’ll bring this thread to tomndebb’s attention so he can answer. If it’d been me moderating there, I would say that “two-middle-name-freak” wasn’t intended as a personal insult because it’s just too silly to take seriously. Tom may have a different reason, though.
Tahssa made an incorrect assumption about the report but was trying to be helpful.
Maybe the all-cap “YOU” was unnecessary.
Anyone can call me a freak. Because I am. I’m not offended. We freaks need attention, too!
One clarification, by the way - you were not given a formal warning, The Second Stone. You were told to knock it off, but not officially warned.
You were not given a Warning–an act that is always accompanied by a note in the post saying that the mod is issuing a Warning. You were told to back away from personal insults.
I am not going to pretend that “freak” is an entirely neutral word, but I did not happen to read it as a direct insult so much as an exasperated response using freak in its most technically accurate expression*. It is entirely possible that I should have spoken sternly to Bricker, as well.
Why is this post in this thread?
That’s kinda what set me off, but my response was a bit unnecessary too.
Sounds like middle road. I’ll meet ya half way and agree with that. Well no warnings, so no worries. Thanks for your time. You too Marley23
(psst I think you have me confused with someone else!)
Just a screwup on my part. Obviously I meant The Tao’s Revenge.
Easy mistake to make. 
Personally, I always get The Chao Goes Mu confused with Sam Stone.
I took Bricker’s use of the term in the following sense.
It’s not opprobrious at all.
(Definition from OED)
This is not true.
The Tao’s Revenge: I think you’re thin-skinned and you have the rather odd notion that being a freak is something to be ashamed of.
Having two middle names is just about the least of the reasons I’m a freak, and ‘freak’ is one of the least offensive things you can call me. I suspect most people feel about the same as I do.
It certainly wasn’t intended as opprobrious; neither was that quite the sense I meant it, either. I simply sought to indicate that having two middle names was a statistical outlier, an odd enough happenstance that very few people shared it.
I’m not the New Guy anymore. Shouldn’t you be sassing Invisible Wombat? 
Colibri is probably having trouble finding Wombat, seeing as how he’s invisible and all. 