Manhattan performed the surgery indicated above, and closed the thread with this reply:
I just want to point out that the SDMB Poster Known As “The Bad Astronomer” has links to his web page in his profile and his sig line. On that web page he pretty openly gives his name (which confirms that he is, in fact, the author of the MSNBC article–and since manhattan left the link to the article intact, I’m not entirely sure what good it did to delete the article author’s name from the post).
I guess I could see three moderatorial issues here:
[list=1]
[li]Just as a matter of principle, public “outing” of SDMB members should not be encouraged.[/li]
[li]General Questions wouldn’t be the place to do it anyway.[/li]
[li]Given the ease with which I came up with this information, astro should have been able to do this by himself, without cluttering up General Questions.[/li][/list=1]
It seems that manhattan was primarily concerned with issue one. It also seems to me that The Bad Astronomer is sort of a public figure (and is not usually shy about letting the world know that he’s managed to strike another blow against astronomical ignorance in Major Media outlets). I could see closing it or moving it as something that’s not really a GQ thread, but it just seemed to me that manhattan’s response was maybe a little over the top with the implication that some terrible breach of privacy had occured.
So what is it that you’re asking here? A separate policy for each of the 16,000+ members here, depending on how much information they’ve chosen to distribute? A search to confirm our recollections of how much information that was?
Sorry, we’re a little short of time for that.
I didn’t see this as heavy handed at all. No warning, no chastisment, just closing the thread and reminding folks that each member chooses how much to reveal.
I’m not takin’ the rap on this one.
And I’m a Nazi, dammit! Coldfire is also a Nazi. I think either Beer or Winkelreid is the communist. And the mind-control rays are still in beta.
It’s an, errr, what’s the English word? Ya know, a training range, with climbing walls, mudpits with barb wire over’em, pipes to crawl through… that sort of thing.
So, once again the Lone Voice of the Brave Dissenter Crying in the Wilderness and Standing Up for Justice is stifled by the Secret Inner Circle of the SDMB Clique™ of Running Dog Moderator Lackeys brazenly hijacking the thread and sending it off on some tangent.
By the way, it’s Obersturmbannfuehrer. So obviously Coldfire is a Communist, not a Nazi.
Good to hear. Cos they’re all going MENTAL OVER HERE. Could you adopt them? Ban them from Scotland or something? Only my downstairs neighbour has had his window put in two nights running, and frankly I need some sleep. Plus the drunk guy who hangs out round the corner may give me less hassle for wearing blue.
ps: is Ruadh as beautiful as she looks on the PeoplePages? I’m only asking from an artistic perspective, obv.
MEBuckner, sorry for assisting in the hijack, my mind just goes on tangents sometimes. As for opinion on your post, I guess that extremism in defense of privacy/identity is no vice.
I think ‘we’ confine ‘obstacle courses’ to school stuff (like leaping over things and under other things in the gym) but grown up’s tend to adopt a military disposition to do the same kind of thing so it has to have a grown up name. Might well be different in the New World.
Shame Ajax aren’t the side they were. It’ll come good again. Thank goodness the season’s around the corner !
Not sure what was being hijacked here but apologies anyway.
