The offense I’m going to be banned for will be “disobeying moderator instructions”. Specifically, the instruction not to discuss the additional restrictions on posting that have been heaped on me.
This most recent ruling, detailed here prohibits me (and only me) from posting about, “anything … remotely related to children, sex, the law, [or] relationships”. Beyond these incredibly broad categories (no discussing DUI law, no discussion of drug laws, no discussion of illegal immigration, no discussion of intellectual property laws, and that’s just the narrowest interpretation of only one of the prohibited categories, not even getting into “remotely related”), the new ruling also requires me to be a mind reader, since I’m further prohibited from posting “anything else in that in the opinion of the SDMB staff is an excuse to air your personal obsession”.
While I believe our illustrious administrator believes it himself when he claims he does this “in the interest of fairness”, I simply cannot see it the same way.
The fact is that the previous ruling denying me the ability to discuss pedophilia was meant to be a de-facto ban because the staff here didn’t want to get involved with the dirty business of banning someone just because they were squicked out and he was unpopular. While attempting to avoid having your actions influenced by your own prejudices and popular opinion is admirable, it is only admirable so long as you don’t let your actions be influenced. Here, the influence is undeniable. While I was not arbitrarily banned as a result of moderator or administrator fiat, the unique restrictions placed on me (starting with the prior censorship of the “ask a …” thread months ago, and concluding with the most recent ruling) came into existence only to give an excuse for the actions the staff intended to take all along.
In many ways, an arbitrary ban predicated on prejudice would have spoken more highly of you. It would, if nothing else, have been honest, and whatever backlash resulted would have blown over quickly enough. This continuing redrawing the playing field and moving the goalposts that you have engaged in instead has done nothing but sap your credibility with both the people who support me, as well as the people who hate me.
I recognize that in the course of this dance, the mental acrobatics you’ve been performing have been as much about deceiving yourselves as it has been about deceiving me and the rest of the board members, so I won’t go so far as to accuse you of outright lying, but I will say that having been honest with yourselves at least about your motivations would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.
I presume that when the ban comes for me posting this thread in direct violation of Ed Zotti’s instructions, the parts of his ruling about “baiting” me will no longer be in effect, since as I’ll be banned, there will be no risk of me rising to whatever lies, provocations, and invectives anyone cares to toss in my general direction.
The one regret I have from my time here is that I have been far to accommodating to the liars and bigots who’ve been my opposition. It has been carefully staying within the bright lines drawn for me that has resulted in the box being drawn so narrow as to guarantee it is impossible to stay within it. Lesson learned.