# It's time for the Valteron rule **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 11, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978 "2011-02-11T02:21:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/1 "2011-02-11T02:21:53Z")
There has, through my years on the SDMB, once in a while been a rule pointed at one specific poster. The **Handy** rule prohibited that poster from offering medical advice; the **Reeder** rule limited that poster from every day starting threads attacking Bush; and others. It is now, in my opinion, time for the **Valteron** rule: shut the fuck up. In his latest 102 posts (since 12/10/2010) he has posted 13 times in his thread [Is this Muslim cleric justifying lying for his religion?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=596656) attacking Islam. 25 times in his thread [Has the British Prime Minister grown a pair?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=595904) attacking Islam. 12 times in his thread [Are we being naive about the possibility of Egyptian “democracy”?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=595848) attacking Islam. 28 times in his thread [Well, well … has Tony Blair become a delusional Islamophobe bigot like me?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=594152) attacking Islam. 8 times in his thread [Will 2011 be a banner year for neo-confederate revisionist history?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=590974) NOT attacking Islam. 12 times in his thread[I pitt he asshol;es who called me a racist while my back was turned.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=588708) defending his attacking of Islam. 4 times in threads that were not started by him. 97% of his posts are in his own threads. 88% of his posts are devoted to his paranoia of Islam. **Valteron** is only here to push his agenda, and he is damaging the board. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/2 "2011-02-11T02:23:50Z")
Shut up, towelhead. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/3 "2011-02-11T02:29:10Z")
Yeah, but criticize him and the usual suspects will jump all over you, calling you a homophobe. Well, not really. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/4 "2011-02-11T02:33:31Z")
My **Valteron** rule is to take a sip of whiskey every time he posts something derogatory towards Islam. I’b nemmer ben so sheetfassed. _falls out of chair_ ---
**Author:** ![Cort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@Cort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cort)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/5 "2011-02-11T02:37:06Z")
Personally, I think people should be allowed to post as many threads as they like, on whatever topics they like. People can always choose to ignore them, and ‘offenders’ would probably stop posting so much if their threads stopped generating responses. I only ask that people put some effort into their OP’s. There are a couple of posters I can think of who I’d like to ban from starting GD OP’s with a single sentence intro and an Op-Ed link, even though they don’t actually start threads that often. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/6 "2011-02-11T02:40:16Z")
I got pitted once for not starting enough threads! ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/7 "2011-02-11T02:43:24Z")
I’ve never been Pitted. Just don’t have what it takes, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/8 "2011-02-11T02:47:14Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I got pitted once for not starting enough threads! Serious? Good heavens. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/9 "2011-02-11T02:51:54Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > Personally, I think people should be allowed to post as many threads as they like, on whatever topics they like. People can always choose to ignore them, and ‘offenders’ would probably stop posting so much if their threads stopped generating responses. The SDMB has never been ruled by the invisible hand of the market. The admins and mods work very hard at maintaining the content and tone of the board. One-trick ponies have never been encouraged here. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/10 "2011-02-11T02:59:28Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Serious? Good heavens. Well, actually, the gist of that person’s complaint was that I had no business posting to GD threads when (up to that point) I’d only ever started _one._ ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/11 "2011-02-11T03:25:25Z")
Well, to be fair, he’s attacked _all sorts_ of Muslims, so it’s totally unfair to pigeonhole him as a one-trick pony. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/12 "2011-02-11T03:51:59Z")
Wait, he’s doing what with that pony? I remember what “pigeonholing” used to mean… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/13 "2011-02-11T03:58:09Z")
And all of a sudden there’s a bunch of them, venemous bigotry-cooties. WTF? And several of them have very similar grammar, syntax, word usage. I’d say “style”, but I won’t. Its as if they all studied Invective 101 at the same community college in Bumfuck, Nebraska. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/14 "2011-02-11T04:03:23Z")
My favorite **Valteron** thread was when he flipped out over the Gideon Bible in his hotel room. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/15 "2011-02-11T04:08:45Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > Personally, I think people should be allowed to post as many threads as they like, on whatever topics they like. People can always choose to ignore them, and ‘offenders’ would probably stop posting so much if their threads stopped generating responses. Well, no. From what I’ve seen elsewhere it’s more likely you’d end up with a few people posting large numbers of threads and driving everyone else off the front page. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/16 "2011-02-11T04:09:50Z")
Given that he pretty much limits his anti-Islam hysteria to his own threads I don’t have much of a problem with it. If he were hijacking every thread even tangentially related to Islam with his breathless worries about how the rest of us aren’t scared enough of Arabs, then I’d get behind a Valteron rule. As it is, all it takes to avoid him is to not open threads he starts. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/17 "2011-02-11T04:14:16Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’ve never been Pitted. Just don’t have what it takes, I guess. It’s not that hard, actually. I could give you some tips if you’d like - your best bet is going non-PC. That switch is pretty flippable around here. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/18 "2011-02-11T04:18:07Z")
If I recall correctly **Handy** was dispensing particularly crappy, possibly dangerous advice and kept doing so when told to ease up. **Reeder** was clogging the board with a bazillion unnecessary new threads on his favorite topic, causing other threads to be “prematurely” bumped off the front page. **Evil Captor** I think it was, was injecting _his_ pet passion into barely related threads to the point where it was essentially constantly hijacking to an off-putting extent. **Valteron** _is_ rather monomaniacal and I personally find his polemics, gotchas and overall debating pattern pretty tiresome. But he isn’t harming anyone, blitzing the board with new threads or hijacking that excessively far as I can tell. As tedious as his propagandizing is, I’d probably give him a pass at this point. Though I reserve the right to change my mind if I’m feeling more irritable tomorrow ;). ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/19 "2011-02-11T04:19:30Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > It’s not that hard, actually. I could give you some tips if you’d like - your best bet is going non-PC. That switch is pretty flippable around here. You mean being tactless? No, I prefer something with a bit more, er, artistry to it. But thanks for the offer. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978/20 "2011-02-11T04:20:14Z")
For what it’s worth, he’s done some good: thanks to his threads, I’ve read enlightening posts by **Ibn Warraq** and **Tamerlane** (quoting **collounsbury** ) regarding the possibility that MEMRI is rather less objective than it purports to me. My degree is in foreign policy, with a focus on Arab affairs, and I had never known about that before. So thanks, **Valteron**. ETA: …and **Tamerlane** , too. Yes, you, up there! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-the-valteron-rule/570978.md?page=2)