I was just thinking about things (mainly because DrainBead and Satan attended the recent Oh Dope)… What do most people think about banned posters being at dopefests?
Personally, I think that just because you meet someone on a message board, that doesn’t mean that your friendship is terminated because that someone gets banned. And I don’t see a problem with groups of friends meeting each other for a gathering.
But it occurred to me that it’s sort of a strange situation, and was curious about how people felt.
There has been at least one banned member at the Chance Estate. Mountain Dope I, I believe.
AS the sticky thread says…there is NO connection between gatherings of members for recreational purposes (hereafter called ‘Dopefests’) and the SDMB, Cecil Adams, et al…
Therefore all can be welcome.
Could be different, I suppose, if the Reader through a Dopefest. But that would be silly.
It’s no big deal if it’s a larger fest. If it were a smaller fest, having a mod (or mods) and the banned poster there would probably be no more awkward than having any other people there who weren’t particularly fond of each other. At a big fest, it’s easy enough to avoid people; at a smaller one, it’s impossible.
I met Satan at OhDope. He was quite interesting. He mentioned that he had been banned, I asked why, and he said it was a long story but basically he was a jerk. Refreshing attitude. He was NOT a jerk in person, quite the opposite.
Had it been someone who WAS a jerk in person I might have had a much different opinion.
It certainly wouldn’t bother me to see banned posters at a Dopefest. Satan, Silo, and some others that I can’t think of right now, would be welcome at any party of mine.
And Satan and Drain Bead were at OhDope. FWIW, Euty was there as well and no sparks flew. Satan’s a different kinda guy in person. For anyone who’s met pldennison in person and on the boards, it’s kinda like that. Plus usually GD doesn’t spill over in person;)
Newer members at OhDope asked why Satan had been banned, and the general discussion was “yeah, I was a jerk”. At one point someone (I honestly forget who it was) wanted to know what the thread was that broke Zotti’s back, but beyond light discussion of that, it was cool.
Important thing to remember is that dopefests really are rather different from the way the boards work. It’s VERY hard to keep up with every conversation that’s going on at a dopefest unless you’re one of two people there and the other doesn’t have a cell-phone. And the atmosphere is much more MPSIMS (sometimes a light IMHO) than GD or Pit. If people wanted to get together and trade ad hominems, we’d probably leave them to their devices and go do something else:)
Oh, I don’t know. I’ve had discussions about the US’s role in WW2, a priori knowledge and Conservative politics at dopefests. They’re just conversations I can think of off-hand. Us Londopers are a challenging bunch
I’d be more than happy to see Satan and Drain Bead at a fest. And lots of other banned posters, too. There are some posters who were valuable contributors and community members, but ended up getting banned for one reason or another. Doesn’t mean I don’t still care about them.
I take the same POV as others. The Board is official (to an extent), and the mods and admins have the right to ban certain individuals for breaches of Board rules, etc.
But these gatherings are different, mainly because of the disclaimer we all know and love. The Board and the Reader have distanced themselves from official sanction of the Fests, therefore they have no say in who attends. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, non-dopers (such as the wonderful Mrs. RTFirefly) have attended Fests. So why not banned dopers?
And, Zev, I don’t remember Sweet Willy. He must have done something pretty awful to make a nice man like you shun him utterly.
Yeah, 'cause Silo’s would have meant an automatic banning of you by the hotel moderato–er, management. And the chuckles of irony would have never ended.
True. He even attempted to socialize. Asked me if he was the first banned poster I ever met. I said yeah.
I think that was our entire conversation for that weekend. Just not a lot in common, I guess.
Banned posters can go to as many DopeFests as they want, let me be clear about that. I don’t understand why they would, in some cases, but that’s another thing.
They’re gonna get married and all that stuff.