You are ignoring some really basic shit, here, Tom. Any given poster can be disruptive at times, but Liberal is disruptive a very high percentage of times.
To repeat and clarify, there will always be a certain amount of disruption on the boards brought about by the community as a whole. But Liberal causes an inordinate proportion of that entire disruption.
Another fundamental mistake you are making, not just here but in your overall moderation vis-a-vis Liberal, is that you think the cause of Liberal’s “voodoo” (as you put it) must be completely explicated before you or other mods can do anything about it. Is he clearly breaking a rule in this instance? Is he, in reality, manifesting as a “jerk”–or not? And so on you worry and fret, while the poster in question rides roughshod over the boards for both the short term and the long.
Surely you are aware of the concept of the “red face test” in marketing? If, after all your careful and sophisticated analysis and experimentation, the conclusions you have reached make you blush with embarrassment (e.g., new formula Coke), you have to go with common sense and deem your conclusion incorrect.
I think other posters share my frustration with the mods’ consistent ignoring of the red face test results concerning Lib. He disrupts the boards, he hijacks, he whines, whinges, and plays the martyr with gusto. Yet still the mods stroke their beards and opine, “Hmm, can’t see how he’s done anything really against the rules.”
No joke! Because the man is a master of what he does. Can’t you see you’re being played, man? He will always dance along the borders of the Kingdom of Rules and whine to the Princes thereof when a dragon dares to stick his snout within.
Really, the only difference between Liberal and many a banned poster is that he never lays his full house of hostility toward the board and the mods on the table. His craftiness and dishonesty make him worse than the majority of the banned, IMO.
No, it’s a skill. What can’t you accept that?
And in those nine months there have been plenty of pittings and one suspension.
OK, let’s run with that logic. Reeder posts a bunch of inane one-line threads about Bush. Just ignore them. Lissener starts getting hostile about Showgirls in cafe and says “fuck you” to a poster. Ignore it–you don’t need the mods to protect you from that shit, do you? SnakeSpirit gets argumentative and fesity in GD. Hey, you know the drill.
Why, may I ask, do we ever ban anyone? After all, it is not the duty of the staff to protect posters from posts they find irritating, or to hold their hands and prevent them from responding.
And are you willing to admit that he’s a master hijacker and the most disruptive and despised poster on the board?
Even so, who gives a shit, right? Why ban anyone, right?
Such disingenous (yeah, and I think I’m using the word properly) reasoning.
Oh bullshit. Why don’t you, as mod, have any real curiosity as to how the phenomenon works? Liberal doesn’t enter a thread and simply yell “Hijack!” Typically, he makes a point that is off-center but not completely off-topic; further, this point is one about which many posters are bound to disagree. Newbies or simply the easily-baited chomp down on that and are now arguing with each other. Then the wiser say, “Fuck off, Liberal, that’s off-topic.” Now we have the argument about the point Lib tossed in, an argument about Lib’s behavior, and perhaps even an argument about whether the point was off-topic. Naturally, all the while Lib is fanning whatever flame pops up, making sure that his ultimate goal is fulfilled: making the whole fucking thread about himself.
So, to sum up, this is how Liberal does it, and this why he is not easily ignored:
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He makes a controversial, baiting, off-center point.
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Newbies or the easily baited take the bait.
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Wiser, more experienced posters chastise his behavior.
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Liberal continues to argue the original argument, argue the point he threw in, and argue about his own behavior.
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He pursues whatever course of argument that is viable and about himself or his POV.
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If he’s lucky, a Pit thread will be started about him, and now he can feed like a pig at the trough of his own ego.
No shit, Sherlock!
Staw man, everywhere your logic is rotten with self-serving (or “peace”-serving) fallacies. People don’t just “dislike” Liberal. They hate his constant disrupting the board and turning it into his ego trip. He ruins good threads on a consistent basis.
Of course not. Any poster that stirs shit up so well is going to have a following. By this logic, why ban Satan?
I call bullshit on this, too. Some people like him for who he is, and, personally, I don’t dislike him at all for his writing style, beliefs, or worldview. I don’t even mind so much his snipiness and grumpiness. It’s his hijacking, whining, and egotism manifested in many, many ruined or highly disrupted threads that I find intolerable.
Verily, if you can figure out how to deal with Liberal (and I am not necessarily gunning for a banning, though he deserves it if anyone), then you will advance the nascent Science of Moderation a great deal. Why not actually ponder these matters, Tom, instead of taking the easy way out with the bullshit you’ve offered in this thread?
