As many people point out over and over, this board was born using sarcasm and snark. It’s what all the old timers loved about the columns. I wasn’t aware it was disallowed in ATMB because it sure turns up there a lot. Selective enforcement doesn’t help in making for clear rules.
Sarcasm is certainly not forbidden in general, or snark. I can comment on some politician in P&E and call him a “paragon of truth” while quoting an article citing his corruption. As you said that sort of thing is baked into the culture here.
What I can’t do is say something like “you missed the point at least a dozen times, you really are a genius”. When it’s folded into an insult is where I see moderation happening.
(Of course I’m not a mod and not trying to play as one, just explaining my understanding of the rules.)
And just to clarify, my point about sarcasm was to support your suggestion that another comment might merit moderation when it hadn’t received any.
No I didn’t report it. I saw nothing wrong with it and apparently neither did anyone else, even ECG. Comments like that are so common in ATMB I never even considered it.
I really don’t care about any of this one way or the other except that it seems we’ve run out of open thread in which to observe that those who do clearly missed an opportunity in creating a thread titled: DrDeth takes a vacation.
Carry on.
Since it was my post that you quoted, why did you mention it if you didn’t have a problem with it?
I’d like to correct a factual error about the guidelines for moderators. We aren’t supposed to give direction or warn posters in threads outside our areas, except in extreme circumstances. But we are encouraged to close threads that seem to be getting out of hand. That causes no harm, and the appropriate mod can review and reopen if appropriate.
And that being said, the op has been answered, and this thread seems to be going off the rails. So I’m going to close it until @engineer_comp_geek gets a chance to review it.
I agree. I think it’s best to leave this closed.