I never rebutted, or intended to rebut, either of guinnog’s points. I was seeking clarification; he gave it.
The discourse here can become unbearably twee - thanks to guinnog for pointing this out.
What really should be a warnable offence is hijacking threads with pathetic jokes, which then become pile-on jokefests, which are even more pathetic than the original “witticism”. Moderators are unlikely to issue warnings about this, as they are offenders too.
If the rules are going to be applied fairly and without favouritism, a) the moderators need to transfer duties to other mods when they are dealing with someone they don’t care for (not a reference to the mod in guinnog’s case), b) they should look back, see who initiated the hijack/inappropriate direction of a non-debating thread - not **guinnog ** in the WWII Remembrance thread - and then c) they should tell the “offender(s)” to take it to GD or the Pit, rather than warning them.
This should apply to all threads equally. WWII threads should not be sacrosanct. We truly dishonour those who took part in all its very operations by making it so. They don’t need our validation.
On a personal note to guinnog, I take your point re the Scottish jokes, but reserve my right to tell a few more if you guys become unbearably “other”!
Good question. I just didn’t like his tone. I particularly didn’t like “this thread is a years-old tradition on the SDMB; I don’t want you popping in to start a debate about it” as that was not flagged in the thread title. It sounds a bit too fucking Maoist to me, to be honest. A secret years-old tradition that I was warned for. What is this, the Masonic Handshake?
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! I hate making “be quiet newbie” comments, but how thick do you have to be to not realize by now that yes, this community has been around for a while, and yes, we have certain traditions and expectations, and yes, the other members will correct you if you transgress them. Throwing comments like “war-worship” into your faux-apology shows that you have not gained the slightest comprehension of any of those things.
If you want to make a name and reputation as a bomb-thrower or Enfant provocateur, you’re going about it in the right way.
Just beause you don’t like or approve of something doesn’t give you carte blanche to flap your gums. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to keep your piehole shut.
“War-worship”?
That thread is full of ancedotes from people whose families participated in wars, people who met former Holocaust survivors and people who have had good experiences with Europeans who were grateful for the liberation of their countries.
Where do you get war-worship out of that? If you’ve been lurking here for more than a year it should obvious to you that most people on this board are not at all in favor of violence, even state-sanctioned violence. The simple fact is that WWII was a dark time in the lives of man and an overwhelming display of sacrifice by many to overthrow a disturbed, evil man. Everyone can make an argument for a different course of action in hindsight. The problem is that in that thread, people are honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Your political feelings aren’t warranted there, as you’ve acknowledged here already. Saying that the thread is akin to “war-worship” is an insult to everyone who posted about their family members and the sacrifices those people made.
Jesus, man, it’s just a warning. You’re acting like you received some huge, stinging punishment, and all you got was the messageboard equivalent of a cop telling you to “move along.” Just about everyone gets one every now and then. You posted something you thought it was okay to post. You were told it was not okay to post. You don’t post like that again. What’s the big deal?
They can be very touchy, these Americans who never suffered diddley-squat compared to the Russians, the German civilians and hell, even the British civilians. We lost more civilians in WW2 than the Yanks lost in Vietnam.
To those of us who warfare has touched, the mindless celebration of wars gone by can seem a little twee. The outrage that bringing a war-related issue into a war-related thread can cause is noted.
Some of you guys seem like war-porn appreciators.
Would I be correct in saying that the prevailing mood in the board is against remembering Russians and German civilians? Which was my OP.
Um… jackass… you’re supposed to read the rules before posting.
But if you don’t want to, well, using ignorance as a defense against reproach on a board that has a stated purpose of fighting igorance is a bit…
If you guys want this to be like joining the Catholic Church, you could at least write down the rules of propriety. The level of outrage I’ve aroused by talking about war in a war thread is bizarre. As are your antiquated insults.
Well, the thing is…that thread ISN’T a warfest. It is a thread celebrating the men and women who gave their lives in an attempt to combat the evil that was the Third Reich. They were risking their lives to protect other people from harm, to attempt to rescue some of those people. Whether or not they had all the facts isn’t really relevent. Whether or not something should have been done differently isn’t relevent. Quite probably it SHOULD have been done differently. But these men and women fought and died because they believed it would make a difference. And whether or not you agree with how this war was handled, they DID make a difference. It may have been later than it should have been, but these men and women who gave their lives weren’t privy to the executive decisions that sent them there. Not the "when,"and not the “where.” All they knew was the “WHY.”
Ordinary people, fighting and in too many cases dying…because they believed it was necessary for the greater good.
They are generally unsung heros.
I don’t blame you for your frustration over what SHOULD have been done. I know little about what happened before the USA entered the war, but I do recognize that something should perhaps have been done long before it WAS done. But this thread wasn’t the place to discuss it.
IOW, [sub]probably too many words,[/sub] I don’t think you were being a jerk. I just think you joined a thread when you should have been starting a thread. It has nothing to do with a “long-standing tradition” of THIS thread, it has to do with “This isn’t the place, it isn’t the time” thing. It may have been the time, but it was definitely not the place.
OTOH, I have always thought that Skippy was kind of “elfin,” so if you use Miller’s definition…
So, when are y’all planning on pulling down Nelson’s Column?
No, you’d be a fucking moron for saying that.
You aroused precisely zero outrage for talking about war in a war zone. The grief you are getting now come from you acting like a total choad because you got a slap on the wrist for not reading forum descriptions.
Big words, considering how often you’ve used the word “twee” in this thread.
Frankly, the thread was five years-old and seven pages long when you chose poorly by attempting to start a debate in it. The tone of both the OP and the posts preceding yours (in addition to the forum description) should have provided enough clues that a debate was not appropriate. When called upon it by another Doper, you again chose poorly and responded like a jerk. Had you, instead, decided to take your debate to another thread in the appropriate forum as advised, your warning could have been avoided.
I’m sorry you made some bad decisions, guinnog, but it happens; posters are warned and life goes on. I’m sure you’ll be more careful in the future.
If I had been the mod in question*, I would have bounced your ass out of here for your final comment in that thread
*I am not a mod, or a junior mod, or a wantbe mod. They have a tough job, with too little thanks. I am glad that we have mods, and I like the work they do.
