I saw in the Pit thread that you banned him earlier today, but I didn’t see that a reason was given. I then checked here and didn’t see the usual “XXXXXXX has been banned”.
I wondered that, too. As much as he was sticking his fingers in his ears to keep from listening to the rest of the posters, he didn’t insult anyone that I saw. He MAY have been considered a jerk, but I think that’s a very loose interpretation of that word. And I don’t recall him breaking any other rules.
Final straw was here.
Thanks for the links, Skywatcher and leftfield6.
I find this troubling. I know this will be denied, but it appears to me that Marley is was just looking for a reason to ban him. I don’t know the nature of the previous Warnings, but given the few things I’ve read of Melchior’s, I’d venture to guess that they were all pretty minor stuff. And given the activity in the Pit thread about SSM, and looking at Marley’s attitude in that thread, it seems to me that what really got banned was a point of view. That and refusing to allow the other side to set the rules of the debate on a topic that the majority here has decreed closed. I’m not saying that some of what Mechior posted didn’t reflect well on his ability to argue his position, but that’s just hurting himself. And the post that is being offered as the excuse that broke the camel’s back is extremely mild, and certainly not out of place in threads like it.
As John Mace put it:
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Wow. Maybe I’m missing some context but that last comment seems like something many posters here (on the left and right) would say regularly without anyone noticing.
[/QUOTE]
As a general statement, this board is leaning further and further to the left. Which is fine in itself. It’s a problem when the those that push it that way begin to accept the norm of the board as the norm, writ large. When that takes hold, positions that are perfectly reasonable positions to hop in the real world become verboten here. And that just continues the tilt. The best check against this happening is the Moderation of the board. But when some of the Mods, being human, are so heavily invested in a particular point of view that they add to the shift rather than checking it.
I’d say that is precisely what happened here.
Perhaps Marley can supply links to Melchior’s other Warnings. Maybe they were flagrant and egregious and my judgement has been hasty.
You can search for them yourself. I know you’re hyper-focused on the word “liberals” in that “last straw” post, but it was clearly jerkish, trolling, and part of a larger pattern, and I believe it would have gotten him banned even if it had said “conservatives” instead. This wasn’t a political spectrum banning.
A quick list of the warnings. Note that several are unrelated to his views on SSM.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17128400#post17128400
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17205967#post17205967
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17249774#post17249774
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17289349#post17289349
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17288405#post17288405
Want to know why he was banned. Write us an email or PM.
You know better than this.
Just FTR, but it was Marley that banned him, not me.