Pretty sure nobody suspects Sam is trolling.
Who said anything about trolling?
nm
This isn’t new. There have always been some posters who have specific rules that only apply to them. Handy wasn’t allowed to give out medical advice in threads. Reeder wasn’t allowed to make threads about George W Bush. **Mookieblaylock **wasn’t allowed to post any threads about his depression.
When a poster has abused a certain topic in the past, sometimes they are given a ban on a certain subject or topic.
JohnClay has had a number of “TMI”, not-a-good-idea, threads about his personal life, mental health, or relationships that have been shut down and he’s been talked to about it a few times…so, yes, there has been a small topic ban placed on him that are not on others, as other posters (such as Sam) haven’t yet shown they need one.
Okay, that makes more sense. I was responding to Tuba’s comment that this isn’t a place for anyone’s blog. Which is just flat out false.
So it’s not MPSIMS but it’s MPSIMS-BNYPB. But not your personal blog.
Got it!
IIRC, there’s a theory that JohnClay isn’t entirely on the up & up.
The pigeon eggs thread is a good point, however.
On the other hand, closing that thread risks war, at the very least.
Oh I agree, it would not be a wise move to close that thread. But in the interest of fairness, I’d rather not have mods close threads because they are bloggish. If nobody is interested in that thread it will die on it’s own merits.
Gotta hand it to Sam though, his thread is a long time favorite. I know, I once pitted that thread a few years ago and the teeming millions raked me over the coals for it! 
It seems he was asking for advice in this thread, despite the blog-like format.
Is there some explanation that can be made public about this specific ban, then?
Is the reply by twickster not specific enough?
It’s never been a secret.
Probably this one.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17573359&postcount=20
Hi I didn’t recall being told not to post on my mental illness then I found this:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17411823&postcount=17
BTW I studied a psychology course at university and went quite well since I’d read up on it earlier. BTW that statement didn’t involve me starting a thread about it.
There are two issues here, since JohnClay’s thread wasn’t actually shut down due to being to mundane or pointless, but due to a poster-specific ban on a topic. I don’t have a problem with poster-specific topic bans.
I don’t have a problem with closing threads for being too mundane and pointless either, but I have to say that although it’s come up many, many times, I’ve never seen a very clear explanation for why it happens. It always comes down to the fact that TPTB don’t like them, which is certainly sufficient reason, but I’m curious why they don’t like them. They seem perfectly innocuous, since almost by definition, they tend to fall off the page naturally, and the ones that don’t clearly weren’t too mundane or pointless to start an actual discussion. I suppose there could be a fear that if they don’t lock them that the people posting them might be undeterred by failure and start to post more like them until the front page of MPSIMS is clogged with them, but that seems unlikely, and I don’t think it’s ever been offered as an explanation. But then again, nothing has, besides, “We don’t like them and we can close any threads we want.” Which, again, fair enough. Doesn’t really bug me. But I don’t get it. And that does bug me. Inordinately so!
Not really. It said he wasn’t allowed to post about his mental illness, not why.
Have you read the threads?
If you’re asking if we’re going to start making ATMB announcements, as we do for bannings/suspensions of longtime posters, no, we’re not going to do that – it would amount to public shaming of the poster.
When we tell someone not to post on a particular topic, we communicate that prohibition to that poster, who is the only one who really needs to know about it. For the rest of you, it’s just rubbernecking on a matter that doesn’t concern you.
Re: threads that are too mundane and pointless – we don’t allow post-count padding, posting for the sake of posting. These threads can serve that function. Despite the fact that people would prefer that we not do it at all, it’s certainly not something we do often. I don’t recall offhand – though I’m sure someone will jump in and search – the last time I did it, but would guess that I do it well less than once a month (maybe once every other month? I’m guessing here). Considering the number of threads started in MPSIMS daily, I’m not exactly putting my jackboot on the throats of the TM.
Agreed.
The pigeon eggs thread (with due respect to Siam Sam) seems like getting rust in your car- it is forever.