In this thread,shadowofneo and his apparent sock got banned in almost no time.
10 months later, it was brought to my attention, shadowofneo posted a video complaining about the bannings (YouTube link here — time 1:42), and attempting to prove his fiancée (tink222) and him are indeed individuals who happen to be using the same IP.
Now, the video doesn’t prove a thing, since she was out bra shopping with her mom (yuh, I know… bare with me), but the circumstance doesn’t quite pass the “beyond a shadow of a doubt” test, unless I’m not privvy to some information the mods had at the time to zorch their accounts.
Besides, I’m currently pitting him over the video, but things and rules are starting to blur and I’m afraid it’ll collapse into a black hole in the basement of the SDMB.
If someone feels they have been banned in error, they need to e-mail an administrator, not post a complaint on YouTube.
However, even if the original ban was in error, considering the nature of his posts and the fact that he went public with his complaint I can’t imagine that we’d let him back in even if he requested it.
This person sounds like a nut. And in any case this happened almost a year ago and he found the time to post a 10-minute YouTube rant but (as far as I can tell) couldn’t find the time to email the mods about the misunderstanding. I don’t think we need more people like that. Even if there was no socking, this was not someone who was going to last very long around here.
I’m reopening this thread since there is apparently more interest in this ban than you might’ve expected, so maybe there is more to discuss.
To update everyone: these posters may have been banned in error, but we’re not reversing the ban. Objectively it’s unlikely these posters were going to last very long anyway, and the bits I saw from that 10-minute YouTube complaint confirm that these aren’t people we need hanging around here. While shadowofneo says he asked the mods to reverse the ban, TubaDiva looked through the webmaster email and could not find any emails about it. Whenever any banned poster asks to be reinstated, the mods discuss the idea. Perhaps the email got lost in the ether, but a second email would have been a better, saner option than a long YouTube video.
Marley, the guy sounds a little nuts, but assuming their was no sock, what reason would there have been for the banning? You’ve presented an opinion that these aren’t the kind of people we need hanging around here, or that he wouldn’t have lasted long anyway, but I didn’t see anything but some odd opinions from this guy that would have disqualified him if not for the sock suspicion. Understandably, he did sound like he might react badly to the scorn he received, but that’s putting the cart before the horse.
Also, doesn’t this sock issue arise in other cases where people in the same household post on the Dope? If my wife decided to join the fray it I think it would show a different IP because she wouldn’t be using the VPN that I do, but this must have occurred in other cases.
As I said earlier somewhere else it’s not unusual for people on the Dope to share IP numbers … this includes family members, roommates, cow-orkers, etc. Sometimes total strangers; we’ve had cases where people worked at the same company or lived in the same building or attended the same college, they were both Dopers, nobody knew.
It’s not purely IP numbers that make us consider a ban for socking but it is a factor in determining the issue.
We’ve accidentally banned people before for supposed socking. It’ll probably happen again. An email inquiry usually sets things right. However, we can’t handle complaints from YouTube.
TubaDiva, I hear ya. I don’t think anyone actually expects that poster to come back here. If he sent an email as he claimed, and he didn’t get a response, I’m pretty sure he is over it and has moved on.
But some of us are simply fascinated by what went wrong in the first place…just pure curiosity. It seems unlikely to me that it was a sock. The guy seemed like he might have made an interesting poster. If he just slipped through the cracks after a mistaken banning, then cool. But Marley’s remarks seemed odd. As if he just didn’t think this guy was “our kind of people” or something. What the hell?
I think I liked the ‘I’m gonna make my own message board with blackjack and hookers’ bit the best. If you got banned here, would you make a 10-minute YouTube video to rehash your argument and complain about the unfairness of it all? If not, why not? (Also, did you read his thread?)
People who are crazy or who believe they’ve come up with a theory of everything while baked don’t take criticism very well. I’ve observed that many times around here.
Sorry I’m so fixated on the customer service aspect of it … because that’s what I DO.
And I’m not calling this guy’s bona fides in question because I don’t know.
I don’t know where he sent that email, either. Because even people that don’t get reinstated get told why. One way or the other they get a response.
Over the years I’ve been forwarded email from all over the Straight Dope/Chicago Reader including editorial offices. I find no record of anything from anyone cited in this situation.
Someone who feels motivated enough to do all this because of a situation that could have been repaired with an email … man, that’s some direction of energy. I would think more “maniac” than reasonable person too.
It’s all unfortunate, really; we want most everybody to come here and have a good time, hang out and post and stuff and I’m sorry this didn’t come out right.
Saying he was incoherent is charitable. If you could make head or tails of his posts, you’re doing better than most. Then this from one of his last posts, as well as his posting the YouTube video to call the OP a douchebag, indicates that he wasn’t likely to engage in productive discussion:
[QUOTE=shadowofneo]
If uninterested move on like normal people do not standing at a gate like a naked troll shouting fus ro da just because you think these message boards are sitting here like a dungeon waiting to be conquered, and like the battle mage some times does over steps his bounds and turned it into chess then into checkers just for fun, small minded prick with no real opinion. <see a period but not here> hmm
[/QUOTE]
We do ban clear nutters all the time. This guy got more posts off than most.
I didn’t really expect him to come back either. However, despite the cray-cray on display, I didn’t believe his banning was, in principle, fair or merited.
I mean, we’ve kept bonafide, outspoken racists on this board for eons. Some still around. In general, I’d rather the ban hammer come down on someone because of their actions and behavior against board rules, not through some cursory, presumptuous judgement like this is some intolerant, snobby country club.
Shit, the dood was calling me a douchebag and I still think his banning was unfair after watching the video. Ahh well, agreed it’s probably moot now, as this ship has sailed and sunk to the bottom anyhow.
Not to reopen that discussion for the millionth time, but if we felt they were consistently breaking the rules, they wouldn’t be here. There’s nothing intolerant or country club-ish about my comments. I was saying, as someone who has more than a little experience modding this board and dealing with Internet crazies, that I don’t think this guy would have lasted very long without breaking the Jerk rule and getting banned. And I was trying to avoid saying the YouTube video makes him sound like an obsessive lunatic, but it does. The fact that he’s also an Alex Jones fan kind of confirms that to me. That’s the reason we’re not going back and reversing the ban at this late date.
It has, yes. There’s nothing from him in the webmaster mail, Idle Thoughts says the guy didn’t contact him, and as far as I can tell none of the mods heard from him individually either.
The reason why this board has existed successfully for all these years is because the participants all want a relatively friendly place to post their ideas. Our moderators have the unpleasant job of determining who can play well with others and who can’t. There are thousands of participants here. I can imagine a circumstance where I was in charge of 20 kindergarteners. Not my favorite imagining, but manageable. Expanding that to 200 … maybe 2000 active people? Egads! I would be most wroth, most of the time. Those who keep this place running should be lauded.
Know that I’m not trying to come down harsh on anyone’s modding here. I realize it’s a mostly thankless (and voluntary) job.
Anything I’ve said here was only coming out of the principle of the matter way more than any real emotion or anything else. Well except maybe my little Freudian slip there, which Earl was so gracious to point out. You’re all good peeps.
Sorry, but that’s absolute bull. If they wanted a friendly place, there wouldn’t be a Pit, and a lot of posters wouldn’t be able to get away with being actively hostile in other threads. (Yes, including me sometimes.)
The point here is simple. The mods shouldn’t be able to decide that someone gets banned because they don’t like them. That’s what they are saying here at this point. They are offended by the YouTube video, so they will not reinstate the guy even if he asks. They are taking offboard considerations in deciding how to handle a poster.
I’ll point out that another poster who has not been banned despite having a blog where he used to call out board members for breaking his “rules.” There is also one board and one forum where poster are free to go and gripe and complain about this board and and all its members. Sure, the board is anonymous, but the forum is not.
For it to be okay to refuse this guy, it would have to be okay to ban all the participants in that forum. There is no difference between making a vlog about something and posting about it.
The assumption that the mods deserve respect requires that they are doing a good job. If they are arbitrarily deciding to treat people differently for no good reason, they aren’t doing a good job. If the mods are the type of people who constantly need affirmations on everything they do right, this isn’t the job for them.
Now, I personally think they are not being arbitrary, but have just slipped in this one issue and need correction. But no matter how good a job I think they are doing, I’m not going to sit by and let them make a mistake without doing what I can to prevent it. In fact, it would be a sign of disrespect if I refused to try and help.
You are just about completely wrong here. What’s more, you are not helping at all.
You have certain ideas about how the SDMB should be run. However, you don’t own it, you don’t run it, and most of your ideas are either unworkable or just wrong. You might think that you are speaking truth to power, but in fact you are just getting up on your soapbox and ranting.
