# county banned? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 17, 2004, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572 "2004-05-17T11:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/61 "2004-05-17T21:25:29Z")
I don’t really have a dog in this race, haven’t really paid attention to **country** other than to note that (s)he seemed to like to get negative attention (but that’s hardly an unusual trait here). they struck me as any number of other folks who seemed to post stuff just to sound as audacious as possible, for the effect perhaps. And all of those posters seem to eventually get banned. Seems no one is claiming that **country** wasn’t going to be banned at some point (unless a radical change in posting style was done), but rather that the specific ‘last straw’ wasn’t sufficient for a last straw (some claiming it was the accumulated straws, others claim that last one wasn’t really a straw at all etc etc etc - have I run that analogy into the ground enough?? good). anyhow. wrt : the ‘quit whining’ statement comparing the gay rights movement/ civil rights movement, I would submit that to say “quit whining” to a classification claiming to have their human rights ignored, their membership subject to death, beatings, prosecution by law etc **is** all by itself ‘jerky’. The analogies submitted by our friends **Shodan** for example (about ‘get of your cross’ , and bias of the liberal media), I would suggest are not in the rhelm of ‘jerk’ to the same degree since (as far as I know), there’s not a whole lotta claim that folks are being lynched 'cause of the liberal media bias. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/62 "2004-05-17T21:25:53Z")
Here’s a [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=256145&page=2&pp=50) from 2 days ago where he was specifically warned against “being such a jerk”. Look at Lynn’s comment on the bottom of the last page. He chose to keep it up instead of taking a break, and now he’s paid the price. I believe there was another incident within the past couple of weeks in which he was specifically warned, but this is the one I could easily find while searching his post history. I may be mistaken about that, but it seems he’d gotten another “verbal” warning recently as well IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/63 "2004-05-17T21:28:58Z")
and I submit that the fact I misspelled the screen name _proves_ that I haven’t paid a whole lotta attention to him/her. (d’uh! :smack: ) ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/64 "2004-05-17T21:36:56Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Apparently so, if you’ve been warned you’re on thin ice. Bingo. Regardless of whether or not you thought this particular incident was over the line or not, he was warned, he kept it up, no one’s surprised and everyone (especially the Mods/Admins) are sick of it. So what part of that eludes you, **Shodan**? Oh, and your wild claims of “pro-gay discrimination” are ridiculous and infantile. Fuck you. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/65 "2004-05-17T21:40:12Z")
> [@LynnBodoni](#): > > **county** had a history of making the most jerkish remarks possible. I couldn’t have said it better myself. There are people who’ve been here much longer than I, but I can’t think of anybody who was more consistently and unfailingly a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/66 "2004-05-17T21:47:36Z")
I kind of think of County being banned as a lifetime achivement award. I am in no way shape or form a mod, but I assume that once a certain level of assholeish behavior has been reached, it come down to a “straw that breaks the camel’s back” situation. ``` County had no doubt reached the point where ANY assholeish behavier would have gotten him banned. He did, and got it. Can't say I'll miss him. Still :whipes away tear: I wish he had gotten to tell me to "bite" him one last time before going. :( ``` ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/67 "2004-05-17T21:50:59Z")
[James Earl Jones voice]Do we have a learning disability here?[/JEJv] > [@Shodan](#): > > So I can call someone an asshat and a fuckwad and all the rest of it. But I can’t say, “Quit whining - the civil rights movement had many of the same problems.” **That** is apparently over the line. No, that is not quite the same thing. > [@](#): > > \*Well, she has given some explanation. Apparently she and **TVblen** agreed that **county** ’s post stepped over the line. \* You have that backwards. **TVeb** reported **county** and **Lynn** agreed. IIRC, **county** received his very first warning a year ago, shortly after he joined. After that, he said he would try to improve his behavior but never really did. Now he’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/68 "2004-05-17T22:03:27Z")
> [@Esprix](#): > > Bingo. Regardless of whether or not you thought this particular incident was over the line or not, he was warned, he kept it up, no one’s surprised and everyone (especially the Mods/Admins) are sick of it. So what part of that eludes you, **Shodan**? The part where he goes over the line. He is warned for going over the line. Then he posts in a way that no one can show any reason to think was over the line. So he gets banned. In other words, he **didn’t** “keep it up”, and some posters **were** surprised. > [@Esprix](#): > > Oh, and your wild claims of “pro-gay discrimination” are ridiculous and infantile. Fuck you. Oh, quit whining. What? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/69 "2004-05-17T22:04:36Z")
As if any of the mods or admins give a rat’s ass as to what any of us think about anyone’s banning - nor should they. I think county’s banning was long overdue, but I don’t expect anyone to care. Nor do I particularly care what anyone else thinks. I’m certainly not likely to lose any sleep over it. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/70 "2004-05-17T22:06:19Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > The part where he goes over the line. And you don’t have “Administator” under your name, so too bad, so sad. > [@](#): > > He is warned for going over the line. Then he posts in a way that no one can show any reason to think was over the line. Yup - looks like you just don’t get it. Ah, well - more’s the pity for you. > [@](#): > > Oh, quit whining. Ooo! Now let’s see if you get banned for back-talking a queer guy! :rolleyes: Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/71 "2004-05-17T22:12:08Z")
Oh, and **Shodan** , here’s another interpretation of what **county** wrote: > [@](#): > > His point seems to be that since minorities suffer, we shouldn’t give a shit and minorities should shut up. Whether or not he deserves to be banned, he strikes me as a complete jerk. Fancy that - someone having a different interpretation than yours (and one that, at least in part, the people who run this board seem to agree with). Will wonders never cease? Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/72 "2004-05-17T22:22:22Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > There are other dickheads who are continualy jerkish, never thought provoking and always jerkisk, yet they still remain?? HE NOTICED ME! HE NOTICED ME! 😃 * * * Overheard in the public restroom: “That’ll leave a skidmark all the way to the treatment plant!” ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/73 "2004-05-17T22:47:30Z")
What I don’t understand is why that post is against any rule at all, since it was in the pit. Isn’t that what the pit is for? Surely being a jerk, at least to that very mild level, is appropriate for that forum. I see and expect far, far worse there, And yes, I know this was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, but shouldn’t the straw chosen by the mods be something that isn’t accepted and even encouraged in that particular forum? It wasn’t even a straw. The straw should be something that is clearly against the rules, no matter what the history of the poster is. If what he did in the past was so terrible, shit, ban him for that. Is there a statute of limitations or something? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/74 "2004-05-17T22:55:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > The part where he goes over the line. I don’t think it works like that, necessarily. Yes, there is a line one can cross upon which banning is more or less instantaneous. “I am going to find out where you live and then burn down your house and crowbar your children to death” is an instant banning. “Blacks and Jews are inferior creatures and it is the duty of the pure Whites to enslave or kill them” is an instant banning. “I am going to sue the Chicago Reader for my $4.95” is an instant banning, plus a collective belly laugh. But it’s quite possible to nudge right up to that line, get a warning, and back off. It’s a gray area on this side of the behavioral border where we all recognize the words and actions as obnoxious, but where no individual act is a clear transgression. However, over time, it can become clear that some people love to play in that gray area, and a few never leave it. They get warned that they are _approaching_ the line, and instead of backing off to a safe distance, they play the game of getting as close to it as they can without crossing over. I can think of several individuals who were banned not because there’s a single banworthy violation but because cumulatively their material added up to disregard for the standards of the community. It is necessarily arbitrary, and there will always be people who chafe under a hazy, non-defined regulation, exactly because of cases like this, where it cannot be clearly and specifically shown that Rule 1 was violated by Text 2. Or to use a somewhat labored metaphor, you’re in a hypothetical college course where excellence is demanded, and a flunked test means the instructor invites you to drop the class; but after a succession of D-minuses, the instructor decides to ease you out anyway. Same sort of thing. You’re tilting at windmills if you want to nail this down to a specific act that “crossed the line,” because I don’t think the “line” is the complete story. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/75 "2004-05-17T23:22:59Z")
Perhaps this will help: [ > [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > We are not a court of law. In a court of law, procedures such as those suggested by **AHunter** are appropriate – one does not pass judgement based on prior offensive behaviors. > > But we’re not a court of law. We’re trying to hold a party, with different conversations in different rooms, and wanting everyone to have a good time. The offense of “being a jerk” is cumulative. Someone at dinner can belch once, and be embarrassed, and we shrug. It happens. But when someone belches over and over and over and over, then the behavior is deliberately offensive, and that person is a jerk… even though the last straw was just another belch. ]([http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4868573#post4868573](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4868573#post4868573)) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/76 "2004-05-18T02:42:30Z")
**Lynn Bodini** , I’m sorry. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/77 "2004-05-18T02:45:20Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > As I mentioned, compared to the level of invective I have heard from some of our more hysterical Dopers - especially certain of our gay Dopers - this is so minor as to be laughable. And God knows conservatives such as myself have been told to “stop whining” or “get down off the cross” or whatever more than once when we complain of what appears to be liberal bias. > > And yet, oddly enough, **county** is banned, for saying the same thing - to a gay Doper. > > Funny, that. > > Regards, > Shodan **Shodan** , I’m right with you in defense of absolute freedom of speech, but if you are attempting to portray gay dopers as some sort of protected class that may not be contradicted without peril, you are way, way, waaaaayyyy off base. I’m a total Kinsey 6, dude, and my ass gets contradicted up in here every damn day. I’d appreciate if you’d back right off the gay thing, aiight? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/78 "2004-05-18T02:52:40Z")
Oooops, sorry again **Lynn Bodoni**. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/79 "2004-05-18T03:19:00Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > At least County admitted when he was wrong. Sure he did. Yeah, right. I can’t believe people are going to the mattresses for this guy. Really, it boggles the mind. I have never read a post by county that brightened a day or offered anything other than antagonism. But that’s MY blanket statement, and probably not accurate, but hey, I’m glad he’s gone, so that’s just me. The hullaballoo about “oh, we’re all on thin ice” is silly-- no one else who posted to this thread has approached the utter jerkishness of **county**. You’re not on thin ice, you just liked the guy for some reason that escapes me, and want to bitch and give Lynn shit. Please. Let me be the first to say, thank you **Lynn Bodoni** and **TVeblen** , for making this board a better place by banning **county**. Thank you. Someone should say it. He was certainly asking for it and you did the right thing. Am I biased? Hell yes. **county** called me a vicious bitch less than a week ago. I couldn’t figure out why he was insisting on distorting my motivations and the outcomes of my actions, despite my repeated explications, and then dawn broke over Marblehead and I got it– \*\*county \*\* is just an extremely unpleasant person who likes to say malicious, assholish things to people just to throw gasoline on a fire or hurt a feeling. I think he enjoyed it and did it on purpose, because he certainly ignored everything I and other said and all logic in order to continue driving home his fallacious point and saying hurtful things, even escalating hostilities in an already crappy thread. He made a straw man outta me and proceeded to drop a match; Lynn told him to stop being a jerk, and then he was a jerk again in another thread. What’s so hard to understand here? I for one applaud Lynn and TVeblen for finally getting sick of his continuous jerkishness. He was JUST WARNED a week ago for the same kind of behavior; should he keep getting a pass for that kind of mean-spiritedness? Were his redeeming qualities so fabulous that they overshadow the continuous nastiness? You’re entitled to your opinion, but I say no way and good riddance. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572/80 "2004-05-18T03:28:44Z")
Just found this quote in the thread that got him banned, for all the county apologists–his mission statement, which he lived to the fullest. If this isn’t the mindset of a professional jerk, I don’t know what is: **ggurl** said, "It’s unfortunate that some folks’ idea of “fighting ignorance” consists of insulting everyone who doesn’t think the same way they do. " **county** responded, “Why is that “unfortunate?” Assuming that the individual doing the ‘insulting’ is, in fact, right thinking.” There you go, that says it all about him. With that, I’m done talking about him and going to try to forget him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-banned/245572.md?page=5)