True, but…
Then he gets to another motive. Perhaps he has more than one…
Tomndebb, this is the third time within this thread I have had to remind you that the use of direct personal insults - or a bit of asperity, as you term it - is entirely out of place in this forum. This is not a goddamn bear garden, it’s the forum for “questions, comments and complaints about the SDMB”, and that does not cover directly attacking another poster, no matter how you feel you’ve been provoked. If you have a legitimate grievance with another poster, take it to the Pit; if you feel a poster has crossed the line in attacking you, you alert a mod, you do not respond in kind. I am not a kindergarten teacher mediating your squabbles about who bit who first, and I do not want to have to repeat myself: is that understood?
All rather amusing (if getting a little old now) but, even though parody, doesn’t this kind of post have the capacity to mislead? I certainly thought the first one was genuine and it was only when I checked the status that I began to think otherwise (although even then I’ve seen mods created and the status not changing for an hour or soi.)
What’s more amusing, the person satirizing the mods, or the person apparently sincerely complaining that the person satirizing the mods sounds too much like a mod?
This is the ‘smartest place on the internet’, I’m sure people will manage.
The irony is, if we really were, we wouldn’t have as many threads like this one.
Truer words were never spoken. There are some really brilliant people here. Indistinguishable (who would likely demure at what I’m about to say) would probably qualify for Giga. And there are maybe a couple of others. But most of us are just mugs like me — people with unremarkable intellects and immature social skils.
Having been through the DavidB era in Great Debates, it is my opinion that Tomndebb is one of the best mods the forum has ever had. He and Buck (MEBuckner) do an excellent job. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Hey, Lib! Want to lose ten pounds of ugly fat fast? Just answer the following intelligence questions!
Cecil is…
A) God
B) A god
C) Good
D) Good God!
elucidator deserves
A) All of my money
B) Most of my money
C) as much of my money as he can get his grubby mitts on
While we’re waiting, please fill in all of your credit card numbers below. Don’t forget the expiration dates!
The Nigerian letter is
A) a scam
B) the path to instant riches
c) no, really, a scam
d) There is no such place as Nigeria
e) Band name!
Liberal is
A) a political centrist
B) a political movement centered on the views of the world famous Austrian political philosopher, von Whats-his-face
C) Not to be trusted, ever, ever again…
They aren’t - this whole thread is just tomndebb’s overheated imagination.
Despite tomndebb’s desperate need to rant against any poster with whom he disagrees, the real problem, and the reason that the thread was locked, was this -
The notion is not silly in the least - it is, in fact, directly contradicted by this post.
The problem was that you, intention, were making the Usual Suspects look silly in their blind Obama-worship. tomndebb hates it when that happens. So, he locked the thread. Now that the thread is in ATMB, tomndebb can dance as close to the line as he can manage, attacking your motivations and otherwise doing in this forum exactly what he does not allow in GD. (If you do it back, of course you will be Warned and the thread locked.)
tomndebb seems to have the fixed idea that all rules violations always come in two patterns - [ol][li]from posters with whom he disagrees, or [*]equally from everybody in a thread.[/ol] If posters with whom he disagrees violate the rules, no problem - warn them, even if he has to manufacture rules out of whole cloth to do so. If posters with whom he agrees begin violating rules, he often waits to see if the other side will respond in kind. If they do, that’s pattern 2 and he can lock the thread and pretend not to notice any rules violations. This has the desirable effect of discouraging debate from those with whom he disagrees, without taking official note of the rules violations intended to create such discouragement. [/li]
That’s what happened in this case. You were making Obama and his worshippers look stupid, the Usual Suspects were trolling away as hard as possible, you responded to them in kind, so tomndebb can pretend it is all too complicated for him to do his job and just lock the thread and hope you have learned the lesson.
Regards,
Shodan
Aren’t warnings kept track of for comparison with future violations? Why was it a waste of your time in this case? It certainly lends credence to Shodan’s claims of a pattern.
OK. Since there seems to be a deep desire to have me issue Warnings around, let’s look over the potential Warnings for either direct insults or accusations of lying. Given that, while not cast in concrete as a rule, the issuance of three Warnings in a short period is generally a flag indicating that the staff will review a poster’s privileges to post, is everyone still on board with my going ahead and issuing the Warnings and does anyone still want to make believe that there were no rules violations prioor to my closing the thread?
There might be a little quibbling over the “STFU” comments, but I have consistently held that “Fuck you,” “Go to Hell,” and similar expressions are treated as a direct insult in GD.
Accusing someone of lying is against the rules?
Depending on how you phrase it, yes, in GD you’re not allowed to say “You’re a liar”. There are all sorts of loopholes though–like “That post is an untruth”
Who was doing that again?
In fact, that third example from intention sort of demonstrates what Shodan was talking about, you “wait[ing] to see if the other side will respond in kind”. I guess it’s probably because you hadn’t been to the thread but it’s a strange example to use here.
Scissorjack, I have issued warnings in this thread for your failure to follow moderator instructions. Satire or no, joke or no, impersonating a mod is out of line in this thread. You’ve chalked up two warnings so far on this, I recommend you cease and desist.
Others: this thread is supposed to be about a moderating decision, and not supposed to be a joke-fest. You want to be taken seriously? Pfui.
And “it’s only joke” has never been a valid excuse for things like personal insults. “I was only joking when I called you a half-wit!” Yeah, right. Even if these comments were jokes at the start, once a moderator said to stop it, it needed to stop.
Got it. Thanks Fenris. Hey - how’s your strike going? Have those capitalist pigs that have been oppressing you finally submitted to your (entirely reasonable) list of demands?
Heh–it’s resolved, but we should keep that stuff elsewhere lest we offend the powers that be here 
OK. Ix-nay on the other ord-bay. Got it.
So, if I’m getting this straight–mods can insult posters anywhere they like, including ATMB, with impunity but “impersonating a mod is out of line.” I suppose this makes sense, since a true and accurate impersonation of a mod would inevitably result in blatant insults to someone in an inappropriate forum.
Wonder if anyone will bother to update the various rules stickies to reflect the “mustn’t impersonate a mod” rule? And is it cynical of me to speculate that a more accurate version would be “don’t impersonate a mod and do a better job of moderating than the real mods are doing because that causes butthurtedness and rather than step up the mods’ game we find it easier to tell people to shut up?”
It’s hardly impersonating a mod, since he wasn’t doing the < MOD HAT ON > thing.