I’m posting this because I don’t think Marley23 should have locked his own thread announcing the banning. Posters should be able to comment on a decision that will permanently take away another posters privileges.
I liked some of mswas’s posts. However, I’m not that familiar with his history, and it sure seemed like his posts today were intended to be “suicide by cop”, but I don’t want see any banning just swept under the rug.
I’m not criticizing Marley for the banning, but “suicide by cop” cases get internal review - hence this thread.
Announcements of bans and suspensions always get locked, but people are free to open a new thread to ask questions.
That was suicide by mod as far as I was concerned, yes. You can read his ‘I’m going to get banned, goodbye’ thread as evidence and to see he had no interest in trying to follow the same rules as everybody else. He had eight warnings since last April, including a suspension in the fall.
O.K. I didn’t know that was S.O.P, but now that I do, I think it makes sense. So me starting this thread also makes sense.
Again, I’m not criticizing you for pulling the trigger on what was obviously “suicide by mod”, but a banning is a big decision. I want posters to take a second look at what led up to it.
Let’s recap. mswas gets warned. Then over in GD he is posting in the “Obvious Facts” thread, when we get this exchange:
[QUOTE=Czarcasm]
[QUOTE=mswas]
What deliberate ignorance are you referring to? Do you think I don’t read people’s explanation of the Big Bang as I am reading this? Do you think I cannot understand the arguments people are putting forward? Not knowing a bit of useless science trivia that has no bearing on practical every day existence somehow reflect poorly on the choice of things I have elected to study? I am certain that I know things that you don’t know. Does that make you ignorant because you know different things that I don’t know?
[/QUOTE]
Or are you just trying to make your contributions to the thread as void of content as the theories of what happened before the Big Bang?
I think that you avoid trying to find out the answers concerning the Big Bang, and that when the means to find these answers are handed to you on a silver platter, you refuse to expend any effort because you might learn something you have already determined you don’t want to learn. This is the deliberate ignorance I speak of-you could increase your knowledge base, but you refuse to do so.
[/QUOTE]
Czarcasm was kind of insulting, but probably within bounds. Next, we have mswas’s response:
[QUOTE=mswas]
See this is another case where you feel smug and superior because of inferior understanding.
I am making an argument related to the OP. Your argument is off-topic. This topic IS NOT whether the Big Bang is real. I’m sorry if you are incapable of comprehending what thread you are posting in, and think that personal attacks are justified. You of course will not be warned because you are a mod, and as such can do whatever you want.
I don’t specifically avoid learning about the Big Bang. It’s just that if I am going to read about science, I’d rather read about cognitive neuroscience than cosmology.
The point of this thread is that the Big Bang is NOT OBVIOUS. I’m sorry that staying on topic is such a trial for you, and that you’d rather follow me around insulting me.
[/QUOTE]
Note: mswas did not level an insult in her response. Please also note—and this is important—that Czarcasm’s post to mswas was as a poster, NOT as a mod. mswas then posts to Mr. Dibble, perfectly on topic. Here, see for yourself:
[QUOTE=mswas]
No. Because matter works differently at different scales, and time is measured by the movement of matter in relationship to other matter.
For all I know the Universe breathes, and we observe an expansion because we are in an exhalation period, maybe it will contract at a later time. Perhaps there are limits on how far apart elements can get from one another, and limits on how close together matter can be. So maybe a billion Earth Years ago all the matter in the universe was closer to all the other matter than it is today, but not necessarily all compact and snug.
I am skeptical that the Universe ever began. That is one of the most commonly shared reliigous faith-based ideas, that the Universe has a beginning.
[/QUOTE]
Now we have Marley23 come on the scene:
[QUOTE=Marley23]
mswas, if you have questions about the rules or moderating, take them to ATMB and don’t call people names. Everyone else is also advised to make sure this argument does not become personal.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t see where mswas questioned the board rules, the moderating, or called people names. She certainly went no further than Czarcasm. Conveniently, Marley didn’t bother to quote her in his moderating post.
Any way, mswas responds:
[QUOTE=mswas]
Umm what? Are you kidding me? I didn’t call anyone any names.
That’s some blue shield hypocrisy right there.
Why should I go to ATMB? So that you guys can just turn it into another pit-thread pile-on? Whatever, Czarcasm gets to violate the don’t be a jerk rule whenever he wants. It’s cool, I know the score. He’s a mod, he doesn’t have to contribute meaningfully to the discussion, he can call me stupid and ignorant for actually debating ON TOPIC, while he harangues me for assumptions he makes regarding something that is NOT on topic.
[/QUOTE]
At which point, Czarcasm—a mod, mind you, perfectly aware of the rules and capable of handling himself—continues the debate:
[QUOTE=Czarcasm]
Of the scientific theories that are out there, which one, to you, is the most obvious?
[/QUOTE]
At 8:20AM, mswas responds, perfectly on topic, sans insult of any kind:
[QUOTE=mswas]
I am not going to fall into the trap of your hijinks. You are not asking this question in good faith. And it’s irrelevant to the topic.
If I said ‘friction’ you’d just say, ‘ORly the force resisting the relative lateral (tangential) motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, or material elements in contact.’, is ‘obvious’?
If you are arguing the affirmative position, take a stand. I am arguing the contrary, so all I have to do is falsify a hypothesis. So the BBT IS NOT Obvious. If you think it’s obvious then you need to prove that it’s obvious.
[/QUOTE]
At 8:21, mswas starts a thread in ATMB:
[QUOTE=mswas] How long did you giggle?
So how long did you two giggle before the double-team?
[/QUOTE]
At 8:25, Marley23 bans him:
[QUOTE=Marley23]
Bye.
[/QUOTE]
Okay. So we have a mod, Czarcasm, if not actually violating the do not insult the poster rule, coming awfully close. At the very least he was baiting mswas (in the post I provided and several times in the thread prior to that.
Then we have another mod, Marley23, admonish mswas for his response to Czarcasm. mswas’s response at least as within bounds as Czarcasm’s post (more so IMO), but Marley feels the need to come to the defense of another mod AND make a bad call in the process. All the while, mswas demonstrates genuine interest in the thread and continues to stay on topic.
Finally, to register her displeasure with what she saw as—and what was—1) bad moderation and 2) poor behavior by a moderator as a poster, he opens a thread in ATMB and simply asked the one question he did. Was there snark? Sure. But quite tepid compared to a lot of posts in that forum.
So, I hereby request that this injustice be reviewed by the administration. I think Czarcasm should just be reminded that GD is not for insults and that as a mod, he probably she not get as close to the line as he did.
Marley23 should be reprimanded and be made to apologize to mswas.
This was wrong on many levels. There is some irony in it though: by the actions of Czarcasm and (especially) Marley23, mswas has been proven correct that the tiniest fraction—real or imagined—wold get him banned.
I didn’t see the insult either, although I didn’t read the whole thread. It certainly would have been convenient for **Marley **to cite it in his post.
mswas proved to be constitutionally unable to participate in a thread without devolving into insults.
The typical pattern (not just in the last series of post - you have to look at the overall pattern over a LONG time) was as follows:
mswas gets into a heated discussion, NOT in the pit mswas disagrees with another poster’s point. mswas gets frustrated, and loses control mswas calls the poster in question names using a variation on “idiot, mental defective, moron, stupid ass, etc” mswas states that it’s impossible to debate with morons, and their moronic ideas, and therefore wins the debate due to his/her superior intelligence. mswas is warned by the mods
Lather, rinse and repeat, again and again and again.
There comes a time when the mods have to pull the plug, because mswas was JUST NOT LEARNING NOT TO INSULT OTHERS OUTSIDE THE PIT.
Today’s banning was not even close to suicide by cop. It was shoot the guy then sprinkle some crack on him. There was two posters trolling today and neither of them was mswas.
I want to add that I was going to make this same exact thread with exactly the same points. I then took pause and decided not too. Even if it’s overturned which it is warranted in this specific instance, he will just be banned immediately at their next earliest convenience. I would never want to post here under those conditions. This is the same as Carol Stream when the SDMB says its your time to go, well they will be glad to pack your bags. I didn’t even like Carol Stream at all but sadly that paved the way for this.
Which part of mswas was practically asking to be banned don’t you get?
The final straw doesn’t matter one bit. What matters is that mswas went out of his way to get the ban stick. If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else soon enough.
Wouldn’t you be happier posting on another board instead of constantly bitching and whining about this one?