# Pitting third-party pity party pitters
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 16, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663 "2004-03-16T17:06:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/41 "2004-03-17T02:04:07Z")
I just realized that I’m not exactly certain what you’re arguing. Are you saying that the way things are happening now are against the rules? Or are you saying the rules should change to reflect your new vision?
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/42 "2004-03-17T02:25:05Z")
I’m saying that the way things are happening now is not according to the rules AS I UNDERSTAND THEM, and, further, that laxness on these particular rules contributes as much to bandwidth wastage as Reeder’s political threads, which are not agains the rules AS I UNDERSTAND THEM.
In other words, if bandwidth is REALLY the reason Lynn has limited Reeder’s participation, there are other wasters of bandwidth which seem, TO ME, to be first in line for dealing with. Since it ultimately makes no sense to me that bandwidth IS the real reason for Lynn’s draconion discrimination, I’m convinced that she’s dishonestly censoring Reeder for annoying her, personally, rather than for actually breaking any rules.
If I were the emperor of the universe, Lynn would admit her dishonesty and rescind her special limits of Reeder’s participation, and instead would threaten to ban people who persist in posting MPSIMS threads in the Pit. But since I’m NOT emperor of the univers, all I can do is express my opinion, my dismay, and my frustration, regarding this particular aspect of SDMB administration. Clearer?
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### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/43 "2004-03-17T02:28:03Z")
**lissener** , if this is actually about Reeder, you should have been more upfront about it rather than trying to make some kind of example out of others. And if it is about Reeder (and it seems to be), count me the hell out of this discussion.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/44 "2004-03-17T02:35:53Z")
\>blink\<
\>blink\<
More up front?
\>blink\<
“Reeder” was the FOURTH WORD IN MY FUCKING OP!
I stated–rather less clearly, it seems, than I should’ve, but that was due to poor writing, not subterfuge–that, in the face of all the egregious bandwidth wastage, Lynn’s backhanded censorship of Reeder was hypocritical and unModeratorlike.
Both elements were part of my point: whiny bandwidthsuckers, and Lynn’s hypocrisy. I tried to connect both points in my OP, and have struggled to add clarity along the way.
\>blink\<
More up front? Whaa . a . . a . . . a ?
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/45 "2004-03-17T02:38:03Z")
So fine, an annoyance that I’ve always been willing to live with was pushed over the edge by the egregious dishonesty of Lynn’s actions. Though the latter exacerbated the former, my annoyance with the former was real, and was not intended as a cover for my discussion of the latter; it was meant as a jumping off point.
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### Author:  [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/46 "2004-03-17T02:41:15Z")
May I be the first to wish you “farewell” and “good luck in life.”
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/47 "2004-03-17T02:43:00Z")
:rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/48 "2004-03-17T02:44:45Z")
> [@iampunha](#):
>
> Your definition, perhaps. Even if they were objectively MPSIMS, they are rants, and as such this is the place, if any, for them to go.
>
> I personally would rather see someone venting anger at a defective plastic knife than anything **Reeder** can muster.
I have this nagging feeling that somewhere along the line we were told that _mild_ rants belonged in MPSIMS and that the really angry and naughty ones belonged here. That might not have been gospel, though. I’m just not sure.
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### Author:  [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/49 "2004-03-17T02:58:13Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> \>blink\<
>
> \>blink\<
>
> More up front?
>
> \>blink\<
>
> “Reeder” was the FOURTH WORD IN MY FUCKING OP!
See, now if I were as stupidly psycho and dangerously obsessive about you as Reeder is about Bush, I’d have started a new thread titled “LISSENER: DANGEROUS LYING MENACE AND THREAT TO HUMANITY!!” since, in fact, “Reeder” was the _fifth_ word in your fucking OP, not the fourth.
As it is, being the mild mannered fellow I am, I’ll simply point out that your count was mistaken in this thread rather than start a new one in accordance to my interpretation of the Admin’s wishes about starting useless, redundant threads.
Hmmm.
I feel…censored…somehow by this.
The humanity!
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/50 "2004-03-17T04:01:44Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> So fine, an annoyance that I’ve always been willing to live with was pushed over the edge by the egregious dishonesty of Lynn’s actions. Though the latter exacerbated the former, my annoyance with the former was real, and was not intended as a cover for my discussion of the latter; it was meant as a jumping off point.
I do not think that I was dishonest in any way. I wanted **Reeder** to confine his Bush Pit postings to one active thread, and I said as much. This wasn’t an arbitrary decision on my part, it’s something that had been previously discussed in mod email. **Reeder** is perfectly able to post his gripes about Bush, but he has to confine those posts to ONE active thread. And, in case you’re wondering, if another thread gets bumped up I’ll probably close the older thread, unless it’s more relevant by virtue of new evidence about an old topic. **Reeder** was not censored or restricted because of his political agenda…in fact, mine is nearly identical to his. He’s restricted because he was essentially spamming the Pit.
However, I do believe that you, **lissener** , are being less than honest here, too. Ever since I’ve reprimanded you, you’ve had a chip on your shoulder about me. This thread is merely an excuse to bitch about me.
In any case, the Pit has ALWAYS been the place for rants, no matter how mild. Even if they are about mundane pointless things, if it’s a rant, it goes in the Pit, and if it’s started in MPSIMS, but it’s a rant, it’ll get moved here. That’s policy, and it’s always BEEN policy, even before I took over the Pit. If someone is being too whiny about teenage concerns, then that someone will probably get his or her ass handed to them. Witness Kurdt Kobain, who posted about his woes, and met with a universal or nearly universal lack of sympathy.
Lynn
For the Straight Dope
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/51 "2004-03-17T04:28:08Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#):
>
> In any case, the Pit has ALWAYS been the place for rants, no matter how mild. Even if they are about mundane pointless things, if it’s a rant, it goes in the Pit, and if it’s started in MPSIMS, but it’s a rant, it’ll get moved here. That’s policy, and it’s always BEEN policy, even before I took over the Pit. If someone is being too whiny about teenage concerns, then that someone will probably get his or her ass handed to them. Witness Kurdt Kobain, who posted about his woes, and met with a universal or nearly universal lack of sympathy.
>
> Lynn
> For the Straight Dope
From [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=127766) ATMB thread:
> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> We’ve tended to leave this to the discretion of the poster; if you feel like what you have to say generates enough heat to make it Pitworthy, well, that’s where it goes. Otherwise, it tends to be a MPSIMS-Y sort of thing, no? your humble TubaDiva At least that’s how I’ve seen it, for what that’s worth.
… which is why I was confused. My interpretation of this post was that if the post was liable to be a heavy, in-your-face rant, it went in the Pit (well, duh), but otherwise it belonged in MPSIMS.
So the official stance is that no rants, however mild, are permitted in MPSIMS?
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/52 "2004-03-17T04:31:06Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#):
>
> . . .
> However, I do believe that you, **lissener** , are being less than honest here, too. Ever since I’ve reprimanded you, you’ve had a chip on your shoulder about me. This thread is merely an excuse to bitch about me. . . .
Sorry Lynn; not so. I’m being pissy, yes; but I’m striving to remain honest about what I’m pissy about. It’s true that since you “suspended” Ilsa\_Lund and Esprix I’ve had, well, a more jaded view of your fairness and your handling of a burden that no one doubts is great and thankless. But frankly I have no memory of having been reprimanded by you. By Manhattan, yes. In any case, that is not behind this. I honestly believe that over time you’ve become more and more unfair and arbitrary; that you punish people for breaking a rule before clarifying (or yet revealing) that rule.
Like everyone else here, I think of each moderator as an individual. I’m collectively grateful to you and your several efforts, but being equally human I have a “mental” picture of each of you, and each such utterly, utterly subjective portrait reflects my personal feelings as to each moderator’s judgment, fairness, clarity and, to some degree, serenity. I won’t discuss anyone else here because comparisons are pointless, but I think of you, with all due respect, as stressed out and reactionary. Doubltess justififiably, but still.
(Not to suggest for a moment that my opinion should hold any more weight than anyone else’s, and indeed less than quite a few’s, just answering your accusation of dishonesty.)
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/53 "2004-03-17T04:36:34Z")
> [@dantheman](#):
>
> From [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=127766) ATMB thread:
>
> … which is why I was confused. My interpretation of this post was that if the post was liable to be a heavy, in-your-face rant, it went in the Pit (well, duh), but otherwise it belonged in MPSIMS.
>
> So the official stance is that no rants, however mild, are permitted in MPSIMS?
HAH! Thanks, dan.
Ill-put as my OP was, and feather ruffling as it turned out, apparently–despite the pileone–I’m not the first to voice this sentiment.
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### Author:  [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/54 "2004-03-17T04:36:52Z")
> [@Fenris](#):
>
> Also, isn’t there a “No Junior Modding” rule?
Yes. That’s why we have that lovely “report this post” feature. Learn it, know it, love it, help the staff moderate by using it:)
> [@](#):
>
> So folks, I’m taking bets: is this a meltdown or an attepted at suicide-by-mod? How many more posts d’ya think before we see **[sub]banned[/sub]** under his name?
Eh, I’d rather not join the betting pool. That sort of thing tends to lend more divisiveness to this place than anything else, and I think the past week or so has shown us enough divisiveness for a while. If he wants to get banned, I think he’s seen enough people get banned around here to know what to do. On a much more personal note (ie not rules so much as personal opinion), openly opining on whether or not someone is gonna try and get banned seems slightly less than kind. Let the guy hoist himself by his own petard if he so chooses; he’s a legal adult, he can take care of himself. Goading him like this (as it seems to me to be, in part, whether or not it was so intended) … doesn’t seem to necessary. To me, anyway.
**dan** , my stance for the past year or however long has been, whenever there is any doubt as to the heated nature of an OP, to put it in the Pit and say “if this is in the wrong place, someone please move it thanks:)” and if I’m going to put something in MPSIMS I make well and truly sure I don’t write it Pit-worthy, if you get my meaning. But then my thread-starting is rather sporadic: 2% of my posts are OPs, and even fewer are Pit thread OPs; most of those have been pitting other board members or things where the topic was not really conducive to anywhere else.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/55 "2004-03-17T17:55:15Z")
My understanding’s always been that rants - however mild - went in the Pit. Speaking as someone who takes care only to Pit inanimate objects, I may say I’ve produced a fair number of lame rants in my time … I may say I’ve read a few, too. Every so often I open up one of the sports threads in here, and have to bite my tongue to keep from posting something along the lines of “How can you possibly get all this het up over such complete trivia?” I always _do_ bite my tongue and hold it back, though, because …
… amazing as it may seem …
… _different people feel different ways about things_. What strikes me as trivial, may be to the sports fan something central to his (or her) being, something which makes fury flow from their hearts like lava from a volcano, something which consumes them and drives them to paroxysms of indignation. The fact that _I_ might not give a monkey’s about it, doesn’t matter to them.
Personally, I like to have somewhere to come and blow off steam over, say, badly-designed kettles. I would be very unhappy if Pit topics had to be deemed Worthy before we could post them. Seriously. Tears would flow in rivulets down my cheeks and cascade onto my desk, and probably get all my papers wet. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?
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### Author:  [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/56 "2004-03-17T18:13:41Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#):
>
> I would be very unhappy if Pit topics had to be deemed Worthy before we could post them. Seriously. Tears would flow in rivulets down my cheeks and cascade onto my desk, and probably get all my papers wet. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?
… Well, at least then you’d have something worthy of Pitting …
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/57 "2004-03-18T14:40:53Z")
> [@dantheman](#):
>
> So the official stance is that no rants, however mild, are permitted in MPSIMS?
I assume the definition of “rant” excludes mildness. Ranting is about violent, angry speech, not mildness. If it is mild, it would be a complaint, or unhappiness, or disapproval, not a rant.
“My husband keeps leaving the toilet seat up, it’s very annoying.” is not a rant. Feel free to place in MPSIMS
“My fucking asshole of a husband keeps leaving the toilet seat up, so I keep falling on my ass in the middle of the night, which makes my blood boil, and I’m just about ready to stick a fork in his eye!!1!!11!!!” is a rant. Please place in The Pit.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-third-party-pity-party-pitters/234663/58 "2004-03-19T19:57:44Z")
I don’t have much time, since I’m on a terminal in an Internet cafe about 3000 miles from home, but I did want to say this:
The difference between a mild rant and a “real” one is that the latter is far more likely to contain invective - and far more likely to incite same in other people. For one thing, coarse language is merely tolerated to a certain extent in MPSIMS (i.e., too much of it and you’ll be summarily warned), whereas in the Pit it’s the norm.
That said, it seems to me that one could post a mild rant (My husband never puts the seat down!) in MPSIMS and a mean one (My fucking husband fucking cheated on me!) in the Pit.
All of which makes logical sense to me, but I since I’d read too possibly contradictory statements by the proper authorities, I wanted some sort of clarification.
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