I thought the SDMB serial killer was a cool idea.
Now what’s more important? Dogmatically upholding a message board policy that voted for Bush in the last election and would screw it’s own grandmother if it got half a chance; or holding your head high and proclaiming a victory for creativity in a confident tone – allowing all men and womyn and chycks to unite under a banner of solidarity and drink the milk of human kindness until they slowly get bumped off one by one?
Er, Doc:
“There’s only one thing I don’t understand. And that’s everything you just said.”
Here is the link.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61470
Wow, I haven’t seen anyone on such a gleeful ride toward bandom since peace… or maybe Origato.
It’s been fun, Dr. P.
And why couldn’t Voice of Reason have asked permission first?
Look, all I seen the last few days is an influx of people whining about how they can’t bend rules “just that little bit”, and whine more when the law comes down.
Being a poster on the SDMB isn’t a damn right, it’s a privilege! It’s a community, right? Doesn’t a real community have guidelines? Things you really shouldn’t do because it pisses people off?
Okay, so it was fun. But it also involved sock puppetry, however innocent. Leave Coldfire alone on this one, okay?
Why? Because:
a) I thought the idea was cool
b) Coldfire is sleeping restlessly
c) The message board policy should be enforced without exception because it is a codified policy
d) The use of the word “chycks” is degrading towards womyn… depending on the context it is used in?
Please don’t compare me to Peace. Logical arguments on the SDMB have often changed my viewpoints.
Ah. Well, kewl or not, the fool showed his hand, or more to the point, his sock, and paid the ultimate price. Justice is blind.
And, yes, it looked like fun.
Dang. Ice Wolf got in there before my reply.
For the record, I do think Voice of Reason could and should have asked permission. I do understand Coldfire’s view. I’m not really upset that the thread was closed, but I’ll be damned if, like some posters, I’m going to use the fershlugginer :rolleyes; every time I say something sarcastic or ironic.
But, you know, it was a popular thread and Coldfire could have simply changed the name from the SDMB serial killer. Nor do I do not think Voice was particularly coy in hiding his identity. I don’t usually read threads whining about mods, so I don’t have personal knowledge of your bending the rules thing.
I’m on call right now and twenty minutes or so ago I just delivered a baby from stem to stern; the senior obstetricians were tied up doing a Caesarean section. The mother really wanted Dad to “deliver the baby” (which is a bad idea) or at least be the first to fondle the head. I was all for getting him to put on a pair of gloves and letting him briefly touch the head on the way out. Pretty harmless and would have made mom and dad happy. The nurse wouldn’t allow it and gave me a big lecture on hospital policy. And she’s right. I let Dad cut the cord, but I’m not about to transgress hospital policy if the nurse wants to be dogmatic about it. But I don’t think letting Dad play a small role in the delivery (although he did cut the cord) would have made much difference. Are these situations that different? I don’t think any rule should always be enforced and this is part of my personality and belief system. I do see why an administrator would strongly disagree with this view.
Dr_Paprika, you have my apologies about the “whining” reference. That’s not your style. Sorry, but I’ve just seen a drama over “rules” in another Pit thread and I saw red. I admire your posting style, and would have no wish to slam you in any way.
Trouble is – while bending rules is flexible and “thinking on your feet” – it’s always a gamble. Will that little rule there be noticed lying twitching on the floor after being shredded, or will it bring the house down around your ears?
Coldfire won’t sleep restlessly. He’s too cool, and well armed.
I agree there is risk about letting things slide and your point is well taken – which is why as a resident I was not about to ignore the senior obstetrics nurse and let dad touch his kid regardless of how innocuous it is – just not worth the potential trouble.
And Coldfire is too cool and well-armed to let this sort of thing bother him. He was probably expecting it and re-armed with Super Soakers and such.
I think you are missing the point Dr P…it explictly states in the user sign up that only one name per member is permitted.
If they allowed such on this board, with as many members as we have, it would be used and abused by socks, trolls and the like.
Voice may have attempted to do such in fun, as others have done in the past, but honestly, this is the SDMB and we all agree to the rules and regulations when signing up. This isn’t a place for “rights” for we are guests here, we are here upon our free will and should be smart enough to honor the rules set forth by the Chicago Reader or leave and find another message board that is more our style.
It’s really simple, the Chicago Reader puts up the SDMB for our enjoyment, if we break a rule they have all rights to ban, dismiss or punt said poster out.
I’m not disagreeing with anything you said, techchick but I think most of it is self-evident, including the fact that allowing sock puppetry on a regular basis is open to all forms of abuse. And surely Voice should have asked permission, and not been surprised if it was denied. Heck, even the reason why he/she really needed to be anonymous in the first place is a little beyond me.
The Chicago Reader certainly may impose whatever it wants to, users have certainly agreed to the conditions and, as you say, users only have the outlined rights to repost their own material. I’m less sure they are obliged to stop any activity that transgresses their rules although they certainly can take any action they see fit. I’m not asking specifically for an exception in this case either, and who am I to do so, but I will say what I think. The SDMB is, as you say, about entertainment and clearly so was the spirit of the thread. Don’t interpret my responses here as feeling all that strongly about the subject, I’m pedantic and enjoy arguing, but I think you may be missing my point (such as it is) despite Voice’s poor judgement.
FTR I want to state, I agree and I agree…
It was a fun thread…
But, just because I liked that one, who’s to say if the next one will be as puzzling or even have a pointat all?
Voice SHOULD have asked for permission,etc. However, I hope he will not be banned for this transgression. I understand why the thread was closed and the SDMBSK will be banned from further postings, but Voice didn’t intend harm, IMHO.
I know, as if if the way “I feel” counts for anything…but felt the need to toss it in here…
Apparently Voice’s main user name hasn’t been affected. It’s a slap on the wrist this time, maybe because there was no malice intended.
Say what you think, cool, but is it necessary to point out every issue people have with moderators decisions with a thread? (this goes further than just this thread)
I mean honestly Dr. P, I appreciate what you are saying but on the second hand, does pointing this issue out, if you agree or understand where I am coming from, do anyone any good?
Coldfire did exactly what I would have done in the same circumstance. A member broke the rules and the thread was closed and Lynn banned the name but not the original member. I know of other boards that will tolerate second, third or even fourth screen names in the sake of fun but the SDMB doesn’t. It’s really that simple.
I guess there are times when I look at the situation from their eyes and look at the pit threads that pop up and shake my head because there are reasons behind such decisions and a good majority of the time their decisions are warranted.
As a matter of fact, I opened the thread briefly to hand out a warning.
Dr_Paprika, if we let ONE person do this, we have to let everyone do this. Some people use sock puppets for fun and games. I had one myself, rarely dragged him out, but just about everyone thought it was funny. I had people asking after him. HOWEVER, when the “One Username Per Person” rule came into effect, I stuffed him into a drawer and closed it firmly. I haven’t dragged him out since, even though there are situations that just cry out for it. If I don’t get to use a sock, nobody does. And believe me, there are plenty of people who WOULD whine and moan and bitch if we allowed people to use socks for fun, but didn’t allow them to be used in other instances. So we pretty much have to have a strict rule in place.
I can understand that you would like for our rules to be more flexible. So would we. However, we’ve found that in certain circumstances, people will abuse things if we allow flexibility. For instance, when we got rid of graphics, it wasn’t because the pics hogged server resources (though that would certainly be a consideration NOW) it was because way, way too many people were posting copyrighted and/or huge pics. We begged and pleaded with people not to post such pics, just to post small uncopyrighted graphics, please. But our pleas fell on deaf ears (sorry, Handy) and we still had problems with people posting unacceptable pics. We had neither the time nor inclination to be the image police. So, we removed the [img] code ability. It’s a pity, most people were using images responsibly and creatively. Hell, just in the past week or so TubaDiva removed the ability to email a thread to another person, because it was being abused. You can still copy and paste the URL into an email, but the ability to email directly from the thread has been removed, because it was abused too much.
We don’t necessarily like being harsh in our enforcement of rules, but we’ve learned from experience.
And, by the way, I voted for Gore, even though my vote wouldn’t make a difference in that race(I’m in Texas, which was going for Bush anyway).
Lynn
Everything you say makes a lot of sense. I realize that once you make one exception the floodgates are open and hard to close, and that it usually isn’t worth it in the long run. Experience is a good teacher… really, it’s the only teacher. I respect the fact that the moderators obey the rules themselves. If I am whining (and I’m not really convinced I am), I don’t expect it to “do anyone any good” (as techchick puts it) – is that really the purpose of Pit threads?
Anyway, why did Voice need another name? Not like the thread would have been changed in any way…
[ul][li]I slept just fine, thanks.[/li][li]Multiple usernames are bad, m’kay?[/li][li]The thread may have been fun, but it could have been fun without using a second username.[/li]Starting a Pit thread about a moderator who is merely carrying out a board rule that is clearly stated in the registration agreement is, well, not smart. You’re not whining, but this makes little sense.[/ul]
I have been pondering this for a long time now and still unclear as to what the issue is with what I said Dr P.
It is whining, you whined about it with your first post, otherwise it wouldn’t have been a pit thread to begin with.
I still stand behind Lynn and Coldfire with the events that took place. They did what they felt was right considering the circumstances.
I am not a moderator/admin kiss ass but I often wonder why things like this become an issue when people take things beyond the member rules. Coldfire did what he had to do despite recent Pit threads that call him ugly names. I also believe that some of us members, when we see obvious results of the SDMB rules being taken advantage of, will take matters into our own hands and alarm or alert the moderators/admins when we see things that are stretched.
Again, Voice may have been taking the situation as a fun little thing that many of us might like to do. However, most of us hold back on that because we don’t want to see the word “banned” under our names. The majority of us will figure out a way to create a thread that will be within the boundries set upon us.
Please, Dr P, if you must question a mod, you might take it to email first. I do think that on some level it is good for the the general public to see the process in action, aka Lynn and Coldy’s offerings to this thread but on the other hand I often wonder why people must take every little action, so it seems lately, that a mod/admin takes and make it a public thing as though the world will end, for the world to see.
Mods and Admins on the SDMB have VERY difficult choices in every move they make. They really take a lot of shit for the work that they do. I just hate to see yet one more mod/admin-you-piss-me-off thread when the boards are this large in scope. They spend a hell of a lot of time just reading through the garbage as it is. And believe me, there’s a lot of garbage to be weeding through.
I feel very strong about helping out the mods/admins when the time warrants it. I also feel that it is up to us to ensure this board remains the board we know it, a fun and safe place to be. I also expect that my fellow members uphold their terms of service agreements and follow the rules that we have agreed to. Without us members this board doesn’t exist, without the mods and admins this place will not only not exist but become a free for all for those that have no sense other than to be assholes.
So, to end this long tale of my whining, your first post was a whine and hell, at least you had sense to bring it up in the pit…for that I commend you but I still believe that there is a time for taking things out of the general populace and it’s time to email rather than whine on the boards.
…yeah, we noticed. In fact, seems like that’s a mission of yours. Give it a rest please.