# Mhendo's suspension **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 28, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142 "2012-09-28T15:18:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/81 "2012-09-28T21:00:39Z")
Again, this thread is not for justification of the suspension. If you want to post that you thought it was a good call, please make your own thread and not hijack this one. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/82 "2012-09-28T21:04:17Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Again, this thread is not for justification of the suspension. You called this thread “Mhendo’s suspension” and said in the OP that the suspension was “bullshit.” If you didn’t want to discuss those things, you did it wrong, so please just post your concerns (whatever they are) without telling people where to post. In any event there is now a whole separate thread about **Czarcasm** and junior-modding, so you can post there if you want to discuss that topic. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/83 "2012-09-28T21:07:49Z")
I fail to see how this is any different from telling people they can’t discuss czarcasm’s posting style in this thread. Either this thread is about his suspension and the factors leading up to it or it is about exactly what is in the op. Either way, it’s not in great debates so there shouldn’t be any arguing. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/84 "2012-09-28T21:14:51Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I fail to see how this is any different from telling people they can’t discuss czarcasm’s posting style in this thread. One difference: that didn’t happen. I said a couple of times that insults of **Czarcasm** (or any other poster) aren’t allowed in this thread. I never said you can’t talk about his posting style. Discussing the topic is fine, namecalling is not. > [@](#): > > Either this thread is about his suspension and the factors leading up to it or it is about exactly what is in the op. I thought it was about both. > [@](#): > > Either way, it’s not in great debates so there shouldn’t be any arguing. It looks like you’re now posting nonsense. Make your argument, whatever else there is of it, and stop telling other posters what they can post and where they can post it. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/85 "2012-09-28T21:22:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > \I think she’s discussing the principle. If I’m convinced there’s a reason to post the PMs, then I’ll do so. But for now I won’t because I don’t want to hear from someone else later on that they don’t want to discuss some issue with the staff because “you posted **mhendo** ’s private messages!” Aye! You are kinda damned if you do, and damned if you don’t, in a way! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/86 "2012-09-28T21:26:48Z")
Note: I’m making no call for a release of private messages or conversations. I am stating that a call to accept any moderating decision based on hidden factors is not a call that I will simply agree with, not given the history of some members of this moderating team. There’s a difference between “I’m not going to accept everything you say at face value when I have seen evidence that your judgment and mine are not similar” and “RELEASE YOUR TAX RECORDS… um… RELEASE THE PMS OR I WILL DESTROY YOU MWAHAHA!” Er, for the record, the former is what I’m saying. At least out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/87 "2012-09-28T21:37:07Z")
As I noted in the thread that **mhendo** allegedly personally insulted czarcasm, if **mhendo’s** post could be construed as a personal insult warranting a warning, then Czarcasm’s “I know you are” response deserves the same. I also reported Czarcasm’s post. Notwithstanding the number of moderators that posted to that and this thread subsequently, I haven’t had the courtesy of a response. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/88 "2012-09-28T21:44:25Z")
> [@Krav\_Manga](#): > > As I noted in the thread that **mhendo** allegedly personally insulted czarcasm, if **mhendo’s** post could be construed as a personal insult warranting a warning, then Czarcasm’s “I know you are” response deserves the same. > > I also reported Czarcasm’s post. > > Notwithstanding the number of moderators that posted to that and this thread subsequently, I haven’t had the courtesy of a response. Actually, I responded: > [@Why is Diamonds02 limited to starting one new thread per week?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-diamonds02-limited-to-starting-one-new-thread-per-week/635934/93): > > In my opinion, calling someone “self-righteously condescending” and saying he has an “unwarranted sense of superiority” is insulting. > > I really don’t see a way in which such a remark would _not_ be intended to insult the person to whom it was addressed. > > Thus I gave **mhendo** a warning for personal insults. > > In my opinion, saying “I am not junior modding” is not an insult, therefore I did not give a warning for this. > > Any further discussion of this is off-topic in this thread, which is about **Diamonds02** ; feel free to start a new thread. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/89 "2012-09-28T21:51:51Z")
As someone who has disagreed more than mildly with some of the moderation hereabouts, I will chime in as being surprised by three things [ol][li]That anyone would consider calling someone “condescending” and having an “unwarranted sense of superiority” as not being insulting [_]Expecting not to suffer some kind of sanction when you sending abusive PMs to the mods, and [_]That it came from **mhendo** , who struck me as a fairly reasonable poster.[/ol]FWIW, namely, not much.[/li] Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/90 "2012-09-28T21:57:24Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Actually, I responded: Actually, you didn’t respond to my complaint about the personal insult. How does calling **mhendo** “pot” (the pot calling the kettle black) = I’m not junior modding? ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/91 "2012-09-28T22:00:19Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I think you’re onto something! If you want to insult someone, start a Pit thread and do it to your heart’s content. Don’t do it in ATMB. I was so hoping someone would. But I looked and there was nothing there. There’s so much that needs to be said and, unfortunately, **mhendo** isn’t here to add to it. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/92 "2012-09-28T22:27:01Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Again, this thread is not for justification of the suspension. If you want to post that you thought it was a good call, please make your own thread and not hijack this one. If Czarcasm wrote that I am sure the words “junior mod” would follow quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/93 "2012-09-28T23:52:47Z")
…I think the problem is that the mods have allowed the line about what was allowed to be said in ATMB to be crossed several times recently without stepping in: even when reported. I think that [this thread exemplifies that:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=660084&page=2) these were the sort of comments that were not only allowed but when reported the mods did nothing: > [@](#): > > Wow. You’re still doing your stupid catch phrase? > > Snowboarder Bo, you’ve made it abundantly clear you don’t care that others are annoyed by your catchphrase. Given that, I have a hard time getting worked up about you getting called out for it, especially as the mods have explained that what was posted wasn’t against the rules. The “fighting a good fight” argument is a strawman: why do you keep persisting in it? > > Maybe nobody wants to go to bat for you on this issue because you’re wrong, and the catchphrase you’re defending is annoying? It’s worth asking yourself. > > “Hey, I’m acting like a jackass and people are calling me a jackass! How are they allowed to do this?” > > One of the great mysteries of the Universe. > In a Pit thread titled Fuck Cacti, there’s a fair chance someone will be told to go fuck a cactus. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the desert. > This may be the stupidest thread ever. > > (Sigh) Fuck you Ed. You cunt. > > Now it’s the stupidest thread ever. Five words. > Nah, the quarry thing is far more stupid, you should have gone with that. > > I agree though. I’d be embarrassed on behalf of my ancestors had I started this thread, its pretty retarded. > No shit. And the OP got off easy. Colibri shouldn’t have told him to go fuck a cactus, he should have banned him. > > Oh my God. Dude. Be for real. > > And seriously, your catchphrase is not “innocuous,” it is fucking annoying. It is functionally equivalent to your little brother holding his finger .00000001 millimeters away from you and saying, “I’m not touching you!” “I’m not touching you!” and then you complain to your parents and he says “WHAT! I’m not touching her! I’m not doing anything wrong!” And then you tell him to go fuck a cactus. > > Maybe because most people would take a hint that it’s incredibly annoying and not funny, which you haven’t done? It was suggested you use it as your signature instead. But that wasn’t good enough. Well, you annoy enough people, they tell you to piss off, and you whine about it. > You don’t seem to understand the difference between “annoyed” and “thin-skinned”. > > It’s more of a “Oh, not again, Jesus, is he ever going to shut the fuck up with that thing?” rather than, “SHUT UP, BO, YOU SUCK I HATE YOU FOR THAT DIE DIE DIE!!!” > Children latch onto the strangest things. > My god, man. If this thread isn’t about the insults it means that your entire purpose for starting this is to argue for stricter language rules in the pit. Is that really what you want? > > You are responsible for the your own incivility. > > Okay, either you’re as autistic as some of my students (they have absolutely no ability to draw cause-and-effect between their actions and consequences). Or you’ve crossed the line into asshole territory. > > You can not honestly be saying “I want to be a jerk to everyone else, and then call them on ‘incivility’.” All clearly off topic: all of them at least the same as mhendo’s comment and many, IMHO, worse, and yet none of them were actioned even though I know some were reported. The thread was clearly about insults in the pit: it was hijacked into a discussion of Bo’s catchphrase. Many of the insults to Bo were about his intentions for starting the thread: yet the moderators only responded a couple of times and they answered it to Bo’s satisfaction. If the comments and the insults of Bo are allowed in ATMB: then so should mhendo’s. And if you are going to warn mhendo for his comments then you guys need to take a tighter reign on this forum and cut out the nonsense. If people don’t actually know where the line is drawn they will keep pushing the boundaries: and if you warn mhendo because he insulted a mod but don’t warn a huge group of posters attacking and insulting a poster then don’t be surprised when you get people upset at how you guys are doing business here. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/94 "2012-09-29T02:51:51Z")
> [@Krav\_Manga](#): > > Actually, you didn’t respond to my complaint about the personal insult. > > How does calling **mhendo** “pot” (the pot calling the kettle black) = I’m not junior modding? What he said, in full, was: > [@Why is Diamonds02 limited to starting one new thread per week?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-diamonds02-limited-to-starting-one-new-thread-per-week/635934/58): > > Just pointing out the obvious, Pot. It doesn’t take a “junior mod” to see something that happened just a couple posts prior to yours. “It doesn’t take a junior mod” = “although you are calling me a junior mod, I am not one.” I do not see that as being the equivalent in any way as telling someone they have an “unwarranted sense of superiority.” ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/95 "2012-09-29T03:00:09Z")
Wow, are you being deliberately obtuse? Czarcasm’s second sentence did not modify the first when he referred to **mhendo** as “pot”. By referring to **mhendo** as pot, Czarcasm wasn’t saying ‘I’m not junior modding’, he was directly insulting (by your standards) **mhendo**. Please pay attention. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/96 "2012-09-29T03:02:04Z")
Perhaps I can make it easier for you. Let’s say Poster A calls Poster B a fuck-knuckle outside the Pit. Poster B responds “That’s the pot calling the kettle black”. Poster A is warned. Does not Poster B deserve a similar sanction? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/97 "2012-09-29T03:29:41Z")
**mhendo’s** suspension has me stewing. It wasn’t that long ago that he called me a fucking moron in a Pit thread (undeserved, of course) but I respect the guy and the suspension was undeserved. So we have Marley telling people they can be stupid and wrong, they just can’t be a “jerk”. What the fuck is a jerk? Isn’t a Holocaust denier a jerk? How about a racist? That’s okay, share your ignorance, we’ll not only tolerate it, we’ll slap the hands of anyone who “insults” you. Oh, they can insult you in the Pit, but you don’t have to worry about that, because most of the people you’ve assaulted with your ignorance don’t dare to even go there. That’s just so stupid, not being able to call an asshole an asshole on a board that’s not even sponsored by the fucking Disney Channel. Oh, but the suspension wasn’t because of the insult, it was because of abusive PM’s. Choices: Ignore it, respond in kind, or get off the fucking internet. The new rules have fucked this board royally. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/98 "2012-09-29T04:28:57Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I do not see that as being the equivalent in any way as telling someone they have an “unwarranted sense of superiority.” I haven’t participated in any of these threads, just read them. And I can’t believe that you _still_ continue to fail at reading comprehension after multiple people have explained it. Jesus Christ. Look: > [@](#): > > Czarcasm: > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by mhendo > > > > Do you have to practice to be so self-righteously condescending in these threads, or does it come naturally?\
> > > > Why don’t you just beg for your old job back, already? It’s clear that you can’t get by without it; at least then you’d have some institutional justification for your unwarranted sense of superiority. > > Just pointing out the obvious, **Pot**. It doesn’t take a “junior mod” to see something that happened just a couple posts prior to yours. “Pot”, here, refers to “the pot calling the kettle black”. Maybe you aren’t familiar with the phrase, even though it’s a pretty popular phrase here. [Let’s take a look here, shall we?](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_the_kettle_black) > [@](#): > > The phrase “The pot calling the kettle black” is an idiom used **to claim that a person is guilty of the very thing of which they accuse another.** > > … > > As generally understood, **the person accusing (the “pot”) is understood to share some quality with the target of their accusation** (the “kettle”). The pot is mocking the kettle for a little soot when the pot itself is thoroughly covered in the same. So, by calling **mhendo** “Pot”, **czarcasm** was stating that **mhendo** shares the same qualities that he accused **czarcasm** of having. And since you yourself said that **mhendo** ’s accusations (being self-righteously condescending and having an unwarranted sense of superiority) constituted an insult, then it’s pretty fucking obvious that **czarcasm** _insulted **mhendo** as well_. Derrrrr? And the alternate interpretation of the phrase would make an even stronger case that **czarcasm** also insulted a poster: > [@](#): > > An alternative interpretation, recognised by some, but not all, sources is that the pot is sooty (being placed on a fire), while the kettle is clean and shiny (being placed on coals only), and hence when the pot accuses the kettle of being black, it is the pot’s own sooty reflection that it sees: \*\*the pot accuses the kettle of a fault that only the pot has, rather than one that they share. \*\* I’m seriously flabbergasted that you still don’t understand this. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/99 "2012-09-29T06:12:40Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > I’m seriously flabbergasted that you still don’t understand this. IANAMod, IMHO, etc., But if poster A writes: _You’re a repulsive, slimy, arrogant, nugget of dog shit; you’re a cancer in the board’s body and a oozing pustule on the board’s privates; the world would be better if your mother had flushed you down the gas station stall you were born in…_ that would be an insult. If poster B responds: _You too, bub_; and the then poster B gets back to the issues at hand in rational fashion… that barely registers on the insult meter. There’s no abusive language and possibly no escalation of hostilities. The two posts are not equally insulting, except in a completely abstract and mathematical sense. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142/100 "2012-09-29T09:18:38Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > What he said, in full, was: > “It doesn’t take a junior mod” = “although you are calling me a junior mod, I am not one.” > > I do not see that as being the equivalent in any way as telling someone they have an “unwarranted sense of superiority.” …can you explain why mhendo’s comments were moderated: but the list of off topic comments and insults to Snowboarder Bo (after being reported) that I listed above were not? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mhendos-suspension/636142.md?page=6)