# Oh, Marley, why? (closed thread) **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 20, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771 "2011-07-20T22:31:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/1 "2011-07-20T22:31:37Z")
**Marley23** , Whatever happened to the policy of, “Let’s let the SDMB amuse themselves for a while”? I refer, of course, to our new [guest](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=616990) who seems to believe that playing games with text makes his anchor arguments more convincing. Thanks for reading, Frank P.S. While I’ve got your attention, you have become an extremely good mod. I apologize for my previous lack of believe that you could or would. I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/2 "2011-07-20T23:00:21Z")
And he didn’t even use big-ass flashing rainbow text to close it, as the rules surely demand. (Don’t they?) I agree, **Marley** ’s a good mod. He has, as my dear old mother used to say, a head on his shoulders. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/3 "2011-07-20T23:11:30Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > P.S. While I’ve got your attention, you have become an extremely good mod. I apologize for my previous lack of believe that you could or would. I was wrong. Quit flattering him. He’s got a big enough ego now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/4 "2011-07-21T00:40:00Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I agree, **Marley** ’s a good mod. He has, as my dear old mother used to say, a head on his shoulders. I’ll give him the shoulders. _YOU_ can give him head. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/5 "2011-07-21T01:39:58Z")
The annoying thing is that I was about to post a link to an informative article chock-full o’ stats and insights that show that illegal immigration from Mexico has been plummeting recently, mostly due to improving conditions in Mexico (contrary to popular U.S. perceptions) and increased enforcement and dwindling prospects for illegals in the U.S. So, since I’m not interested in starting a new thread (and it would probably turn into a clusterfuck anyway) I’m just gonna quote it here to get it out of my system. Yell at me if you must, I don’t care. 😛 > [@](#): > > Douglas S. Massey, co-director of the Mexican Migration Project at Princeton, an extensive, long-term survey in Mexican emigration hubs, said his research showed that **interest in heading to the United States for the first time had fallen to its lowest level since at least the 1950s.** “No one wants to hear it, but the flow has already stopped,” Mr. Massey said, referring to illegal traffic. “ **For the first time in 60 years, the net traffic has gone to zero and is probably a little bit negative**.” The decline in illegal immigration, from a country responsible for roughly 6 of every 10 illegal immigrants in the United States, is stark. The Mexican census recently discovered four million more people in Mexico than had been projected, which officials attributed to a sharp decline in emigration. > American census figures analyzed by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center also show that the illegal Mexican population in the United States has shrunk and that **fewer than 100,000 illegal border-crossers and visa-violators from Mexico settled in the United States in 2010, down from about 525,000 annually from 2000 to 2004**. Although some advocates for more limited immigration argue that the Pew studies offer estimates that do not include short-term migrants, most experts agree that far fewer illegal immigrants have been arriving in recent years. > The question is why. Experts and American politicians from both parties have generally looked inward, arguing about the success or failure of the buildup of border enforcement and tougher laws limiting illegal immigrants’ rights — like those recently passed in Alabama and Arizona. Deportations have reached record highs as total border apprehensions and apprehensions of Mexicans have fallen by more than 70 percent since 2000. > But Mexican immigration has always been defined by both the push (from Mexico) and the pull (of the United States). The decision to leave home involves a comparison, a wrenching cost-benefit analysis, and just as a Mexican baby boom and economic crises kicked off the emigration waves in the 1980s and ’90s, research now shows that the easing of demographic and economic pressures is helping keep departures in check. > \ > If these trends — particularly Mexican economic growth — continue over the next decade, Mr. Passel said, changes in the migration dynamic may become even clearer. **“At the point where the U.S. needs the workers again,” he said, “there will be fewer of them.”** [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/06/world/americas/immigration.html?scp=6&sq=mexican%20immigration&st=cse](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/06/world/americas/immigration.html?scp=6&sq=mexican%20immigration&st=cse) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/6 "2011-07-21T02:01:16Z")
Personally, when there’s a smackdown or closure to be given, I’d like to see mods superimpose a neat, diagonal, luminous red line over each paragraph, and write in the margin (in vertical, bold-face, 20-point Times, with a contemptuous 2 Hertz flash): IRRELEVANT! ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/7 "2011-07-21T02:22:57Z")
I wish that it had been moved to the Pit. This is actually the first time I’ve ever wished such a thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/8 "2011-07-21T11:50:34Z")
I’m wondering why the thread was closed instead of issuing a warning when one poster told the OP to fuck off. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/9 "2011-07-21T13:32:00Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I’m wondering why the thread was closed instead of issuing a warning when one poster told the OP to fuck off. > > Regards, > Shodan Consistency in moderating is not one of the strong points around here. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/10 "2011-07-21T16:47:17Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I’m wondering why the thread was closed instead of issuing a warning when one poster told the OP to fuck off. I closed the thread rather than warn the OP for ignoring my instructions, that poster for the “fuck off,” and one or two others for other comments. I thought that was a better solution. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/11 "2011-07-21T20:01:40Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I closed the thread rather than warn the OP for ignoring my instructions, that poster for the “fuck off,” and one or two others for other comments. I thought that was a better solution. Why couldn’t you do both? I swear I don’t understand why some people get warned for the most marginal stuff, and others skate away with clear and obvious rules violations. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/12 "2011-07-21T21:58:14Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I closed the thread rather than warn the OP for ignoring my instructions, that poster for the “fuck off,” and one or two others for other comments. I thought that was a better solution. Of course you did. Why not give someone from you side of the debate a free pass and simply shut down someone you disagree with at the same time? Yay for efficiency! Seriously, dude, I certainly hope your fully cognizant that your finger is always on the scale—fuck, your damn elbow is on it. 'Cause if you ain’t, the problem is considerably deeper. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/13 "2011-07-21T22:06:43Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Why couldn’t you do both? I swear I don’t understand why some people get warned for the most marginal stuff, and others skate away with clear and obvious rules violations. It’s a mystery I tall you. A MYSTERY! Only of we could detect some type of pattern… ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/14 "2011-07-21T22:51:37Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Personally, when there’s a smackdown or closure to be given, I’d like to see mods superimpose a neat, diagonal, luminous red line over each paragraph, and write in the margin (in vertical, bold-face, 20-point Times, with a contemptuous 2 Hertz flash): IRRELEVANT! You’ve just been irrelevanted by the irrelevantist? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/15 "2011-07-22T11:58:06Z")
What **Contrapuntal** and **magellan01** said. And that is unfortunate, because in general you are a pretty good mod. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/16 "2011-07-22T12:23:34Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I closed the thread rather than warn the OP for ignoring my instructions, that poster for the “fuck off,” and one or two others for other comments. I thought that was a better solution. Ok so using the test of: “What if EVERYONE behaved that way, would I make the same decision?”, it’s ok for everyone to go into any thread on a topic they disagree with, behave like an ass and the thread will simply get shut? Why reward the jerks who disrupt the thread by shutting the thread rather than warning or banning them for being disruptive? The method you’re using: punish the people who are behaving properly by closing a thread isn’t conducive to discussion ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-marley-why-closed-thread/589771/17 "2011-08-01T01:12:15Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Why reward the jerks who disrupt the thread by shutting the thread rather than warning or banning them for being disruptive? The method you’re using: punish the people who are behaving properly by closing a thread isn’t conducive to discussion That certainly makes logical sense, to **me**. Just sayin’…