I think we’ve seen enough, thank you very much.
what is that supposed to mean?
well you’re doing a poor job of holding to it!
Racheellogram
Why not post on one of the thousands of other online forums that agrees with your approach to human interactions? This one is obviously ill-suited to you.
Lefthandofdarkness:
And your defense of “BUT IT’S TEH TROOOOTH!!!” is one of the lamest and most tired overused defenses of people breaking messageboard rules in the history of people breaking messageboard rules. Give it a rest, wouldja?
VinylTurnip:
I’m seldom effusive in my praise, but he does have a firm command of the rules of capitalization.
IvoryTowerDenizen:
One of the first things taught kindergarteners is not to call names.
ChefGuy:
“Stupid” is inflammatory, “misinformed” is not. “Liar” is inflammatory, “mistaken” is not. It’s how the the language works. I’m confident that you, as a native speaker, are fully aware of this distinction, which makes your protest here a fool’s errand.
Loach:The rules may be weird to you (despite a join date of 2005) but they are reasonably clear. And you don’t have to memorize them, they are right there at the top of this forum in a stickied thread. No one’s fault but yours if you decided not to read them.
Talk about a Pyrrhic victory here. Any point made has been destroyed by the legions of flames which were ignited behind it.
Or as Bill Cosby put it: Mine! Mine! Mine!
…
Or someone hacked a rarely used password and decided to use it to mess with us.
Good luck!
he’s going to need it!
We’re all counting on you.
Robert, you have made it abundantly clear that you disagree with the standards and rules of this message board, as well as how they are enforced. That’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, those things are not going to change because you disagree with them. You’ve had your say. Having been a member here for over a decade and having seen hundreds of people with similar attitudes come and go, I can tell you that you have two options here:
1 - suck it up, deal with the fact that things here are run wrongly, and stick to the rules anyway.
2 - plant your flag on this hill, fight until the death defending your point of view, and get banned in a week or so when everyone gets tired of arguing with you.
Your call.
To the posters whose handles I’ve italicized, above, and to the two mods: thank you for your comments here, which have been, without exception intelligent, non-inflammatory, germane and true. Additional thanks for not having chips on your shoulders and bugs up your asses. It has been a pleasure to read you 
In fact, it used to be MUCH more common, especially from mods. I will warn you, however, that there’s a long-standing tradition of mods blurring that line. The rule you’re trying to skirt is “no direct insults”, but you will eventually run up against “don’t be a jerk” if you skirt “no direct insults” too closely too often.
The sad part, IMHO, is how you’ve completely mischaracterized the folks on this board.
I have seen incredible support for posters through marriages, divorces, births of children and deaths of children, parents and spouses. I’ve seen posters stay up all night to help someone through a rough time. I’ve seen posters bicker and argue and then reach out and and back each other up. I’ve seen posters completely reverse their position after really listening and understanding a complex argument and seen people passionately fight for something and not give in.
The strict rules defining what you can criticize and what you cannot is what makes this place, most of the time, civilized. If you can’t see past the nuanced expectations here, then I’m afraid you’re going to be missing all the good stuff.
Robert, when it’s you on the one side, and everyone else on the other, you are probably the problem…
I was taken aback by his response to these comments. While I understand that it’s difficult or even impossible to read inflection or intent into the written word, his responses seemed to be a determined effort to interpret them all as personal attacks of some sort. If you translate mine to a possible real life encounter, calling someone “stupid” may result in a busted lip. Telling someone they’re misinformed is more likely to result in a puzzled look. My point was just that it’s human nature to find some words inflammatory, so why use them unless you’re spoiling for a fight?
As far as I can tell the OP believes:
[ul][li]That as a newbie he deserves special consideration,[/li][li]though he joined in 2005,[/li][li]and made some 130 posts in 2012,[/li][li]which is far back enough so that he shouldn’t be expected to remember the rules.[/li][li]Furthermore he argues that the rules are ill-conceived,[/li][li]and argues the point vociferously,[/li][li]over many posts,[/li][li]though he is a newbie,[/li][li]who deserves special consideration. [/li][li]In particular he believes he has been treated in a condescending fashion,[/li][li]which he thinks is wrong,[/li][li]so he calls other posters stupid,[/li][li]outside of the BBQ pit,[/li][li]using non-standard punctuation,[/li][li]and believes such labels properly apply to other posters.[/li][li]So he should be permitted to call other posters stupid outside of the BBQ pit,[/li][li]and barring that he will endeavor to skirt the rules.[/li][/ul] I opine that knowledge of oneself is a virtue.
I’m surprised that after post #41 the hammer has not yet come down.
It’s almost a poem. Needs more cranes and cherry trees, IMO.
That reminds me, I have to clean out the shower drain.