I really don’t get the banning of well established posters, like Coll. And when they DO ban somebody with a couple of thousand posts, I really do think they can explain themselves, or even open up the decision to public debate. Sure, many bannings are for socks or trolls, and they “just are”, but when you ban one of the “biggies”, it’s different.
If they had started a thread- “should we ban Collounsbury for being a jerk”, and pro & con dudes had argued it out- what would be the harm?
I will miss reading Collounsbury’s posts. I know he was rude at times. Still, I respected his knowledge. I was amazed by how informed he was, especially regarding the Middle East. I think he wanted to be banned for some reason. I mean, a man as intelligent as he, had to recognize that he was skating on thin ice.
I think he was pretty patient with me. It seemed to me, based on reading a small portion of his work, that if a poster challenged his superior mind-set, he responded in a way that was mean-spirited. We can’t know why this was the pattern. Honestly, there were times when it would have been impossible for him to be more of a jerk.
I respect the decision made. I know this was best for the SDMB. I will miss reading his stuff.
I know he went after a number of good folks in a relentlessly disrespectful style. Not thinking of those good folks, made it possible for me to shake my head and chuckle when I read some of his stuff. This appeals to my lower self. I am glad to see this community has a higher standard.
DrDeth, I have very little patience for drooling idiocy. That thread, “should we ban Collounsbury for being a jerk”, has been done and I linked to it in my previous post. By the way, I didn’t mean to suggest you were a drooling idiot. Those who debated this very topic know what I’m talking about.
Oh for crying out loud. If anything, those who have been here awhile should KNOW BETTER.
For you to suggest that people who are “the biggies” should get special treatment is assinine. If anything, it would give the trolls more ammunition that we play favorites and it would give people more excuses to break the fucking rules.
He KNEW the rules, he was warned, and there WAS a big long thread about it. If the rule is, you get banned for being a jerk, why have a debate about it?
:rolleyes:
We had one of those here in the pit a month or so ago. It was a rollicking fun-fest for all participants. Too bad Collounsbury couldn’t grok the relevant take home messages. Perhaps he’ll take this new opportunity to reevaluate, and actually take steps to become that cheesemaker he was always wishing to be.
I agree that he deserved a banning, but I’d like to chime in and say that banning somebody like him, who has contributed so much, deserves more special consideration than banning a 5 post troll or sock puppet.
if by ‘special consideration’, you mean ‘careful thinking, and consultation of staff’, I believe that happened.
Well, he did get two thousand-plus posts’ worth of consideration.
Interesting, yes, but busting out the F-bomb? We don’t play with those toys in GD!
While it may be true that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar, most people overlook the fact that you can catch even more flies with a big steaming pile of shit. I’m not sure what this means, except perhaps that some cliches are stupider than others.
Sorry for the hijack, but that saying has always bothered me.
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:: Hands Jojo an award for The Single Stupidest Thing Said in the Last Week ::
Are you seriously suggesting that you’ll change people’s minds and convince them to give up long-standing prejudices (not that I conceed that there’s that many Dopers all that ignorant of Middle Eastern cuture) by calling them Fucktards?
Uh-huh.
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And the way to bridge that gap is to attack people asking honest questions? Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Fenris
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Soooo…you’re saying you want there to be a clique???
In any case, Coll was warned at least twice that I can think of, which given the outrageous nature of his offenses and given his long tenure to learn the rules was more than many might have gotten.
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I may take back that award for “Worst idea of the Week” from Jojo and give it here.
The level of ugliness a “Should we ban him or not? We want YOUR opinions” would generate is mind-boggling. I humbly request that if I’m ever banned the Admins just ban me without a thread like this.
Besides, you’re suggesting that our opinion matters regarding banning issues. It doesn’t. We have no say whatsoever. To pull out the time-honored cliche “It’s not your Board”.
Fenris
I found it vaguely noteworthy that these two statements by Jojo appeared successively:
I guess by “you’ve arrived” you mean “you’ve arrived in the land of people who make ignorant assertations”.
As far as the degree of bigdealness of the banning of C.: we’re here discussing it, aren’t we? People don’t even blink when a troll is banned. It’s not worth talking about. This is.
I find it amazing that people can defend obnoxious behavior.
Obnoxious behavior is never justifiable. A well-reasoned, well-considered reply to a question is always better than a snotty put down that only serves to belittle and intimidate.
AAAhhh, go fuck yourself, you asshole or I’ll verbally kick your ass from here to next week.
See? :eek: See how mean that was? If my pal dantheman wasn’t such a stunning specimen of masculinity and Doperhood, those words coulda made him cry!!!
Fenris
And THAT, boys and girls, is the only way to get noticed by Fenris!
Mourning the loss of Collounsbury. As one who has often served in the trenches in the Middle East/Islam threads, I appreciated the information he brought.
Strangely enough, I never read a thread in which Collounsbury was being rude, until I read Eyer8’s link. It totally surprised the heck out of me. I guess I should hang out here more often.
I’m with Jojo, he should promise to be good and ask to be reinstated. BTW, are there any cases of a banned person promising to be good and then being reinstated?
I also agree with the person who said one Collounsbury is worth a hundred Kalts.
Collounsbury: a true fighter of ignorance.
Just to chime in…I’ll miss Coll. I think he and I were newbies around the same time, and I’ll choose to remember him from back then as being intellegent and amusingly abrasive.
Well, I guess it’s obvious I’m going to miss his presence here.
I have in fact disagreed with him a couple of times on minor issues and although I think the majority of the times the targets of his ire have deserved it, there were also times when they definitely did not. No, it doesn’t surprise me the staff got fed up. And truly, as Truthseeker alluded, I get the impression that some the more recent discussions have been quite frustrating for him and I think it may be he is not completely lamenting no longer being in a position to get caught up in more of the same. Really it is not such a huge thing - It is just a posting board, albeit among the best.
But I, for one, learned a lot from him. A truly learned and clever man with a wealth of life experience in certain areas that it is likely I’ll never equal. Folks like Edwino can make up for his loss in the genetics/race arguments. But I’m a piss-poor substitute in the ME discussions. I don’t have his fluency in Arabic and command of the Arab media or his intimate real world connection to that region. He knows the people, local politics and regional culture far, far better than I. It’s not even a contest. The only area where I might have been said to compeititive is history. Which is helpful at understanding things from a distance, but is no substitute for first-hand experience.
Also, as others have said, when he wasn’t wound up or being challenged in an aggressive way, he could be very good at carefully explaining complex topics. Heck - I even found him charming on occasion ;).
So, yeah it’s a loss. At least from my standpoint.
But again, I don’t have any quibble with the moderator’s/administrator’s decision on this matter. It’s been coming for awhile now.