I keep running into references to this guy, as if he is a legend of some sort. I did a search on his posts, but, haven’t come up with anything ‘bad’. Could someone point me in the direction of some of his posts that got him banned?
No cite, but IIRC it was for repeatedly posting medical advice he wasn’t qualified to give. He was warned for this several times befroe he was banned. Again IIRC.
It was more of a pattern than a single post. He tended to drop fairly innaccurate guesses in GQ threads. Simply an annoyance most of the time, but when he started (or continued) handing out medical advice that was possibly dangerously innaccurate, the administration said enough.
Even a mistake every now or then, or a joke, or an occassional hijack wouldn’t have been that bad. But, here was a poster with a huge post count, which some people mistakenly equate with having a clue (see mine, for instance). And that made his medical diagnosing posts a possible liability in some people’s eyes.
Was it fair? Beats me. Lots of stuff happens on this board on either side of what I consider fair. But, he was first given warning. Then, he continued in his pattern. So, no more Handy.
As NoClueBoy says, it was lots of little offences over a period of time rather than one clanger. This, though, is the ‘banning thread’.
At the time of his banning, handy had the largest post count on the board, IIRC something like 17,000. However, it was achieved by means of a lot of brief, nearly content-free posts, which often provided blatant misinformation, repeated an answer someone else had already given, or just suggested the OP google the answer themselves. handy appeared to be posting mainly to boost his post count, rather than to actually provide information. He was pitted a number of times for this behavior, but never altered it. As has been said, he was specifically barred from posting in medical threads, which got him banned when he ignored this as well.
Not to correct a SDSAB member or anything, but handy also had a habit of typing something into google and posting the first link he came to. Usually something totally at odds with whatever the op was asking.
Back in those days, we didn’t post the reasons for people being banned. We thought that it was an invasion of their privacy to discuss it, and especially since they were banned, they couldn’t respond. We have a different approach now, but we still don’t believe it’s appropriate to have disussions about people who are unable to post in their defense.
Hence, the end of this thread.
If anyone has overwhelming curiousity about a past banned member, I recommend that you email a moderator and ask privately.