Then it hit me: Someone did another no-no:
SDMB Posting guidelines FAQ:
The plot thickens . . . (sorry attemp at suspence)
The reason this complaint is here rather than on the pit is because there could be an innocent explanation:
Does the “report this link to a moderator” button automatically drops smilies?
Or not so innocent ones:
Did a moderator remove a smilie on purpose? (Silly evil music here)
Or, did a user complaining about my post removed the smillie on purpose? (More music)
People reading the moderator’s quote will assume (if I had nor replied) I was NOT doing it tongue in cheek, hence my concern. After all, I have a pseudo-anonymous reputation to maintain you know!
I want to leave something clear too: I do not feel upset, but amused, I was actually thinking on creating a big parody on the pit and keep it fun, but I have no time. And I am curious to know if my concern about the rules is right.
Well, it is difficult to tell the difference between humor and adding-a-smilie-to-avert-the-mods sometimes. The implication that december was not a “thinking conservative” (i.e., he was non-thinking) seemed pretty clear to me, so I issued a warning. You can’t say things like “Gaudere, you are a cocksucker :)” or “GIGObuster, you are an idiot. :)” and not be warned just becuase you added a smilie…it must be pretty clear to the mod and the person referenced that the remark is not meant seriously in any way. I just want to avoid situations like posters posting to person X ,“You are a stupid asshole. You like to fuck chickens. Your mother sucked my cock yesterday :)” and thinking, “hee hee they can’t warn me since I used smilies!” If december knows that you meant no insult and I missed an in-joke, I apologize.
I didn’t remove it to make you look bad, I removed it (like I removed “you are next”) becuase it was not a part of the post that I was warning about. If I warn about a post, I generally quote the part I am warning about, not any text before or after that did not affect my judgement. I added the “…” to show the parts I removed in the middle, but did not add “…” at the end of my quote since I clipped it at the end of a sentence, which seemed like a natural break to me.
I don’t think you did anything wrong, Gaudere, but are you aware that leaving the smiley off made GIGObuster look bad, whether that was your intention or not?
Again, my apprehension was because it gave others the wrong impression; it is amazing the number of times I see dopers NOT reading earlier posts in a thread, hence my concern.
I hope there are no more misunderstandings like this. I have to say, in the end, that I still have the utmost respect for you and all the moderators in the SDMB that make this place a great one.
I did not mean to make GIGObuster look bad, and the next time I quote someone I will try to ensure that I include anything that may affect judgment of their statement in anyone’s eyes, rather than focussing on what affects their judgment in my eyes. When I quoted GIGO I did not think I left anything out that would affect judgment of him, since I view “you are stupid” as being the same as “you are stupid :-)” unless I am aware that in the second case that GIGO had a pre-existing relationship with the person referenced that would permit such comments. Which wouldn’t change whether there was a smilie or not.
So it seems to be a miscommunication, one which I will be more careful about in the future, but I would rather not have to quote every letter of every post each time I quote. I think we can cut some slack for honest attempts to distill relevant portions of posts, and accept apologies when these are read other than is intended.
I don’t know if you were responding to me, but if so, I don’t think you did anything wrong, and I don’t think you need to do anything different next time, and I don’t think that any apology is necessary. I think you’re doing a great job.
You like to fuck chickens.