# Ed, WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-wtf/482650 "2009-01-23T15:46:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 248
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-wtf/482650/248 "2009-02-04T00:10:59Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > You can’t be serious. Is this a whoosh? Well, it wasn’t really a joke, but you did miss my point. My point was that just about any insult can be considered a threat, especially if the threat is so broadly defined as: > [@Quick, Giraffe, before some asshole locks this.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-giraffe-before-some-asshole-locks-this/481949/82): > > We don’t draw distinctions between real threats, implied threats, hypothetical threats, metaphorical threats, or any other kind of threat. There are few lines you can’t cross in the Pit but this is one of them. No threats. If there’s really no difference between physical threats, hypothetical threats and metaphorical threats, then just about any insult is a threat because it’s intended to threaten someone with humiliation or loss of reputation. It can also be taken literally in ways that weren’t intended as we’ve seen with this example. > [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > Assuming you’re serious about all this nonsense, it’s because you and **Opal** have a similar problem: you need to grow a thicker skin or the big bad Internets is just going to break you down. If that’s the case, then why would ‘3. Buckeyes’ be verboten outside the Pit? If the rule is that people should get a thicker skin, then it should be applied uniformly. > [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > If you can’t handle my comparatively mild insults, you should consider selling your computer and spending your newfound free time watching knitting shows on TV. I use my computer for other things besides hanging out in the Pit and/or having discussions with you. Which knitting shows on TV are you watching? I haven’t found any. > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Because you touch yourself at night. And you know this, how? :dubious: > [@What\_Exit](#): > > Hey guys, you “won the thread” on this one. What did we win? Personally, I think we’ve lost a great deal here. Unlike **Sapo** , I do care about this place and the quality of the posts that get posted here. And with this warning, and several other warnings that **Ed** has given recently (some of which have been reversed), I’m seeing a trend of random decisions favoring mods. That wasn’t the case before. In the past, if some mod made a bad decision, they’d go to the Pit and have the same community standards applied to them as anyone else.\* Some of the recent decisions have shown that authority can be and will be used to protect the mods regardless of their actions. If that really is the case, I think it has the potential to change the dynamic here. I used to post at a message board where the mods made some inane and ridiculous posts. But if there was ever a dispute between a member and a mod, the owner would show up to give the member a warning, often randomly. It stifled the membership down to a whisper. Although this is a much bigger message board, I would be saddened to see that happen here to the extent that members would be hesitant to disagree with the mods. \*Yeah, I know that this wasn’t always true and especially in some cases before I got here, but I’m hoping that it’s not moving that way again. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-wtf/482650)._