C K Dexter Haven, can you help me?

I got this warning in this thread:

Well, okay. I’d be happy to comply with that. But I don’t see how I personally insulted someone or questioned their motives.

The guy came to a thread and said ‘I don’t care about what’s going on in this thread’. I thought it was funny and I was genuinely curious how he then ended up here, and I asked in a way I thought would be also funny. How was I being rude and unreasonably ill-mannered? If I was, how was I being so any more than Zebra was?

I certainly wasn’t trying to imply that he secretly does care about people who care about whether Tom Cruise is gay. I definitely wasn’t calling him a troll; it never occured to me. I was just asking a question in a silly way. So I’m cool with the warning, but I need it explained to me better in what way I triggered it.

Maybe my dumb little joke just came off the wrong way. There was no hostility in it, and if I offended Zebra I apologize. It almost seemed like his comment was a near-deliberate set-up for exactly that kind of jocular response, but I may have been mistaken.

I thought that was odd, too. I don’t see you making any kind of an insult nor would I consider your post the least bit discourteous. In fact, if you hadn’t posted that, I would probably have asked Evil Captor if we should assume that he cares deeply about each and every thread topic unless he posts otherwise.

Maybe Dex is still hung over from New year’s. I agree that was an unnecessarily harsh warning for what was clearly a post meant in jest. C’mon, lighten up, Dex! Sheesh.

And Zebra seemed to get the gist of your post - replying with a joke in kind.

If the very same post had been made, with an attached big grin smilie, there would have been no warning. One can get away with a lot more on this board if one uses smilies than if one doesn’t, which is an excellent reason IMHO to abolish them.

But only after Dex made his comment.

“Smiley when you say that, Podnuh!” :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, yeah. But Zebra’s good people. Errr…striped equine, rather. I can see him making the same kind of off-the-cuff reply even if Dex hadn’t posted.

And isn’t that messed up, that the default assumption is malice unless it’s perfectly clear that it’s not. In such cases where it’s not that clear, maybe the moderator should have waited for Zebra to hit the REPORT BAD POST button in the event he was feeling aggrieved.

Hmm. In that case, maybe I shouldn’t take any chances with this one here…

:cool:

I can kinda see where it looked like a dig. That said, I thought it was friggin’ hilarious.

cthiax,

please refrain from using so many smilies in a single post. :stuck_out_tongue:

A. Maybe he did.
B. This “no smileys = no humor” mindset is retarded

My eyes! The googles-- they do nothing!

Likewise, if anyone is stealing candies from the checkout line, don’t do that, it’s stealing. Not that anyone is, but I’m just saying. Also, should anyone be coveting their neighbor’s wife, I would advise against that as well. Not that anyone is, just covering the bases.

Actually, the comment was directed toward Zebra though I suppose I could be included there, too, by implication. Not that it matters.

I deleted the post with the offensive comment, which was not directed at Zebra. Sorry if I was unclear: I thought that people could see a blank post that indicated it had been deleted. That must be only what Mods see.

I have amended my comment to be more clear. I’m sorry for any confusion.

I made no deleted post directed at EC or anyone else.

Seems to me that we can normally see any deleted comments as a “post deleted by…Reason:Duplicate Post” or something like that.

Yay me. Way to shut off the smileys. :smack: