Q.E.D. is not a moderator or administrator for the SDMB. He may weigh in as to his opinions about the rules, but they are not intended to be considered as from “staff”.
Wait, I don’t strictly see that as an insult though. It’s a statement of Opal’s opinion. If she had tacked on “…You monkey raping shit bucket” at the end, then it becomes an insult. YMMV.
I think OpalCat seems to be a pretty cool poster in general, but I read that as an insult as well, and was also shocked that she wasn’t called on it. The first two sentences seems to be written specifically to be able to call the OP of that thread a “sub-human” who makes her want to vomit in a weaselly way to avoid triggering the “direct insult” claim. I’d further argue she failed to avoid that trigger with the last two sentences: “I hope to god I never meet you or anyone like you. [Addressed to the OP, who sickens me on every possible level.]”
I would also like to see something specifically stated on this, since clearly there was Mod action involved here, and she was not called on that. Are we to thus infer that statements like that are acceptable in all forums?
Normally all insults, no matter how veiled or buried behind semantic wiggling, are not allowed. Pretty much like Dex himself said here. “Personal insults, however thinly veiled, are not permitted in this forum.”
The short story is that TPTB agreed with OpalCat in her comments and decided to give it a pass. The involved parties will not be available to respond to this thread, some other will pop up to make tangential comments and soon enough, these will not be the droids you are looking for. Business as usual.
The “SDSAB” label can be momentarily daunting. But it’s like when you’re hanging around some kiddie playground in an apartment complex at 4:00 in the morning, drinking beer and smoking dope, and someone whom you think is a cop walks up and shines a flashlight in your face and asks for your ID. You’re scared at first, but then you notice his badge says “Security Patrol” and he’s not armed. So you say “yeah, EAT me!” and then knee him in the acorns with all your strength and run like hell. Basically like that.
Same here. I know there’s always been a line between comments that are insulting (“your opinion on this matter is idiotic and ill-informed”) and direct insults (“you are ugly”), but I’m probably the least qualified mod to comment on where exactly it is.
That’s interesting, because we’ve been told that moderators are free to moderate any forum at all, and that complaints about such moderation are invalid. If that is not the case, can we protest when a moderator changes venue, so to speak? Or is the moderator the sole judge of whether he or she can weigh in? If so, is that on a case by case basis, or is it more of a general rule?