# Marley: Gun Grabber is not restricted to the Pit. **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 13, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086 "2013-01-13T19:41:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/101 "2013-01-15T15:48:46Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > The Straight Dope Message Board–Stifling Conservatives Since 1973. Shush! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/102 "2013-01-15T15:56:07Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > The Straight Dope Message Board–Stifling Conservatives Since 1973. **Oakminster** : active on a message board that’s been stifling him since June 2006. (By the way- wow, this is an old message board!) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/103 "2013-01-15T16:08:55Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > That’s probably true. Trying to moderate every gun control thread this way would be futile because there have been too many of them over the last month. I hoped to keep this one a bit more civil; it hasn’t really worked since there have been a couple of more serious insults as the discussion went on. That’s the problem. You can’t arbitrarily and capriciously decide, with no warning or predictability, that one thread will be moderated differently than all the other similar threads. You attempted to impose an “everybody play nice” rule in one particular thread, _sua sponte_. Worse, you did it by jumping on a political opponent, which leaves you open to claims of bias. You should never do that. It’s bad policy, and blows up in your face. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/104 "2013-01-15T16:14:40Z")
Nah, I know Sue, and she’s not particularly spontaneous. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/105 "2013-01-15T16:31:56Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Worse, you did it by jumping on a political opponent, which leaves you open to claims of bias. Isn’t this phrasing a little disingenuous? By “a political opponent” you meant yourself, and by “claims of bias,” you meant claims that were brought and primarily argued by you. Of course in the same post I also moderated someone who called an anti-gun control argument “stupid” later in the thread I modded other posters who made derogatory comments about gun owners or opponents of gun control. If that’s not enough to forestall claims of bias by “political opponents,” what is? ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/106 "2013-01-15T16:39:07Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Isn’t this phrasing a little disingenuous? By “a political opponent” you meant yourself, and by “claims of bias,” you meant claims that were brought and primarily argued by you. Of course in the same post I also moderated someone who called an anti-gun control argument “stupid” later in the thread I modded other posters who made derogatory comments about gun owners or opponents of gun control. If that’s not enough to forestall claims of bias by “political opponents,” what is? Moderating “stupid” from one side of the debate cannot be compared to moderating “gun grabbers” from the other. They’re not in the same universe. The other examples you allude to, you’ll have to share. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/107 "2013-01-15T16:51:38Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Moderating “stupid” from one side of the debate cannot be compared to moderating “gun grabbers” from the other. Why not? He called the post stupid, not the poster. > [@](#): > > The other examples you allude to, you’ll have to share. > [@Gun registration](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-registration/647073/36): > > So you’re just spouting someone else’s drivel and you have no original thoughts of your own. > [@Gun registration](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-registration/647073/58): > > when we get a federal gun registration law i’ll be lapping up all of your sweet, sweet tears. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/108 "2013-01-15T17:02:51Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Isn’t this phrasing a little disingenuous? OK, let’s pretend I never typed that line. Assume I said only this: > [@Oakminster](#): > > That’s the problem. You can’t arbitrarily and capriciously decide, with no warning or predictability, that one thread will be moderated differently than all the other similar threads. You attempted to impose an “everybody play nice” rule in one particular thread, _sua sponte_. You should never do that. It’s bad policy, and blows up in your face. Respond to that, please. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/109 "2013-01-15T17:07:06Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Respond to that, please. You’re wrong. We can and do indeed moderate specific threads in an individualized way based on the course of the discussion itself. We don’t do it all the time because it’s not often necessary and when we do it we often get complaints like ‘Why are you banning this word or that word?’ or ‘Why can’t we talk about this?’ (if we’ve shut down a hijack, for instance) from people who interpret thread-specific instructions in very general ways - which in this case was encouraged by the way I worded my note. But we do this when we feel it’s necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/110 "2013-01-15T17:21:37Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > But we do this when we feel it’s necessary. So you know it doesn’t work, but you keep doing it? That’s insane. Why did you feel it was necessary to treat this one thread any differently than the umpteen other threads on the same topic? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/111 "2013-01-15T17:28:30Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > So you know it doesn’t work, but you keep doing it? That’s insane. I never said it doesn’t work. I said sometimes it requires additional explanation - moreso in this case because of my inexact wording. > [@](#): > > Why did you feel it was necessary to treat this one thread any differently than the umpteen other threads on the same topic? Because I felt it might make a difference because the thread was in its early stages. In point of fact it didn’t, but it was worth a shot. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/112 "2013-01-15T17:47:52Z")
I’ll repeat a suggestion I made years ago: if someone is just edging over the line, rather than leaping over it, a great response would be to ban them from the thread. That thread, IIRC, had some really interesting conversation in it; I was talking with **JXJohns** and **Algher** , both of whom I disagree with on the issue of gun registration, and our conversation was respectful and cited, and we were all responding to each other’s points, and it was what I’d love to have more of in GD. If a bunch of people are using the thread to blow raspberries at one another, I see no reason to give them a second chance: banning them from the thread would reduce its length and drastically increase the thread’s signal-to-noise ratio. It might also act as an object lesson to other posters: if you want to stay in that thread, keep it respectful. It might even act as an object lesson to the raspberry-blowers. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/113 "2013-01-15T18:01:36Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’ll repeat a suggestion I made years ago: if someone is just edging over the line, rather than leaping over it, a great response would be to ban them from the thread. That thread, IIRC, had some really interesting conversation in it; I was talking with **JXJohns** and **Algher** , both of whom I disagree with on the issue of gun registration, and our conversation was respectful and cited, and we were all responding to each other’s points, and it was what I’d love to have more of in GD. > > If a bunch of people are using the thread to blow raspberries at one another, I see no reason to give them a second chance: banning them from the thread would reduce its length and drastically increase the thread’s signal-to-noise ratio. It might also act as an object lesson to other posters: if you want to stay in that thread, keep it respectful. It might even act as an object lesson to the raspberry-blowers. This is a reasonable proposal. However, the way that it would end up being implemented is mostly the conservative posters would be the ones getting banned from threads. Moving in this direction, you might as well just skip this intermediate step and go straight the Democratic Underground approach: Inform up front that only Progressive viewpoints are welcome and ban all posters at the first sight of conservative thought. That’s the way the board is heading. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/114 "2013-01-15T18:03:43Z")
I’ve used that tactic in a relatively small number of threads, and I do like it. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/115 "2013-01-15T18:08:09Z")
Funny simul-post. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/116 "2013-01-15T18:11:46Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Funny simul-post. It was a rebuttal, not a simulpost: I’ve used the tactic that worried you and I don’t think we’re any more doomed or horrible than we were a year or two ago. I probably don’t use that instruction as often as **Left Hand of Dorkness** would like, since I only use it for people who are not only breaking the rules but who don’t seem to be interested in the thread topic in the first place. But in those situations it’s a useful tool, and since we have enough useless tools as it is, having another useful one doesn’t hurt. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/117 "2013-01-15T18:16:58Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Moving in this direction, you might as well just skip this intermediate step and go straight the Democratic Underground approach: Inform up front that only Progressive viewpoints are welcome and ban all posters at the first sight of conservative thought. > > That’s the way the board is heading. Has it _ever_ occurred to you that it isn’t the viewpoint that is being critiqued-it’s the methods used to push the viewpoint? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/118 "2013-01-15T18:19:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Has it _ever_ occurred to you that it isn’t the viewpoint that is being critiqued-it’s the methods used to push the viewpoint? The problem is that the same methods from the left do not receive the same treatment from the mods. You were a prime example of this when you were a mod, and I called you on it several times. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/119 "2013-01-15T18:30:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Has it _ever_ occurred to you that it isn’t the viewpoint that is being critiqued-it’s the methods used to push the viewpoint? Ask yourself honestly: If **Der Thris** and some of our other more obnoxious liberal posters were conservative how long ago would they have been banned? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086/120 "2013-01-15T18:31:45Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > However, the way that it would end up being implemented is mostly the conservative posters would be the ones getting banned from threads. > > Moving in this direction, you might as well just skip this intermediate step and go straight the Democratic Underground approach: Inform up front that only Progressive viewpoints are welcome and ban all posters at the first sight of conservative thought. > > That’s the way the board is heading. The legendary SDMB anticonservative pogrom. Forever just around the corner, never quite here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marley-gun-grabber-is-not-restricted-to-the-pit/647086.md?page=7)