Not a rant but I think this is where these discussions are supposed to go(?)
I realize that there is such thing as the straw the broke the camel’s back, and there has to be consequences for warnings or they don’t mean anything, but I don’t think the punishment fits the crime here. A guy who collects a few warnings for minor things over the course of many years and thousands of posts should not be permanently banned. I understand Dave could be abrasive sometimes but I thought his contributing posts and different point of view more than compensated for it.
IMO, a suspension would be more in order, even knowing he’s already been suspended once. I think lifetime bans should be reserved for major offenses, people who are relatively new and commit frequent minor offenses, and people who contribute nothing worthwhile on balance.
I thought since the ATMB thread was already locked discussion wasn’t wanted in this forum. Don’t those threads usually say “please take further discussion to the pit?”
Weirddave could definitely be abrasive, but I admit my jaw dropped when I saw that pop up in ATMB. I had thought that long-time members like him have, in the past, racked up more than one suspension before being banned. I’m just very surprised and disappointed.
Actually, About This Message Board is “For all general questions and concerns about the SDMB. This is the place for suggestions, complaints, and other discussions regarding rules, administration, and moderator decisions.” Moving it there from the Pit.
However, this Forum is for discussing the decision, not for piling on with flames. Even if you feel the need to approve the staff actions, it would be more appropriate to omit the insults toward the departed.
I, uh, stopped reading Weirddave’s posts a couple years ago, so I won’t notice his absence much. Except maybe a little less empty gray space in some threads.
A celebratory post or coming in here to take a shot at Weirddave (who can’t defend himself) is inappropriate. This thread is meant for the discussion of the staff’s decision to ban Weirddave and not dancing on his grave.
You obviously knew talking about who’s on your ignore list isn’t allowed, so I’m not sure why you thought this post would fly. Knock it off.
Actually, it wasn’t. It had been moved about three minutes before his post. But, given the nature of how people read the board and posts, it’s not surprising to not realize where it was/is.
Seriously, it’s the ‘colourful’ characters, the people who give us the shits, those whose opinions so directly challenge our own, those who spout ignorance and bigotry who give the SDMB the variety and the spice of life to go on. Damn, if I want a lukewarm messageboard, the internet is in no shortage of candidates. Having people like Weirddave, despite the fact I disagree so vehemently with him 99.9% of the time, adds to all that makes the SDMB a vibrant and interesting community.
Sure, he’s a snide and snarky bugger at times…aren’t we all? The mods counting offences until the quota is reached is just so friggin’ reactionary (just like Dave really :D) that it’s a bit ironic, don’tcha think?
Banning Weirddave is wrong. Count me in with Cisco.
You’ve been here for quite a while. Remember collounsbury? Long time,valuable poster. Abrasive?–sure. Contributing posts?–you betcha. Different point of view?–often. Did he need banning? Yep.
If my memory is still awake, collounsbury was allowed back (kinda of like being suspended for a time. I don’t think we had that option in the old days). Collounsbury came back, didn’t change his ways, and was banned.
Weirddave was reluctantly suspended, came back, and didn’t change his ways.
Weirddave wasn’t banned for disagreeing with people; nor was he banned for being ‘colorful’. He was banned because he kept breaking the rules despite having been suspended once before, and continued breaking the rules after he’d been informed he was close to the edge.
Well, there’s no quota, and the process leading to a banning certainly isn’t reactionary. Not unless you count a suspension, multiple warnings and a recent e-mail sent to him telling him that he was on the verge of being kicked out as “reactionary”.
I see SkipMagic just posted about this, but this is not accurate at all. Five isn’t a magic number for banning - and that was only the number Dave had received in the last year and a half - that was just the number he happened to have. There is no quota and no magic number. The banning happened because regardless of a suspension, warnings on a regular basis, and even being told last month that more warnings might lead to a ban, he never got the message. It sucks but it isn’t reactionary.
Honestly, I don’t think the mods ban enough people. I am tired or posting an opinion and receiving a personal attack and insult as a response. It happend to me in the last couple of days, but I see it among other posters every damn day it seems.
And IMO, because a thread is on the Pit doesn’t justify that kind of behavior either, in most cases. Someone pits something, a second poster chimes in with an opinion, and the 3rd poster calls the second poster a douchebag. And then the trainwreck really starts.
Having looked at all the comments and warnings in the now-locked ATMB thread, and especially the last, I can’t imagine not banning Weirddave.
He’s , imho, just talking about who he’s ignored - not who is on his super secret “ignore list”*.
The last couple TubaDiva linked show a nut-jobberish hatred of Dio, but I think a 30 day suspension might sufficiently cool him out. What’s the rush to permanently get rid of a long time member?
I bet Diogenes and him could agree to a complete cease fire for 6 months upon his return from said suspension. No responding at all to each other’s posts. Dio doesn’t obviously have any need to agree to this but I would bet he would do it out of sportsmanship.
I don’t know if this can work Mods, but if it can’t? What chance Peace in the Middle East?
Eh, he was warned, he couldn’t stop breaking fairly simple, easy to follow rules - this one doesn’t seem like much of a contentious issue to me. I don’t much like it when old, familiar names get banned, but old, familiar posters should know the rules by now.