And no one has even brought up the ‘Aye’ affectation. 
It’s not that common, but there are others that sign off in a similar fashion, or just with a name. mtgman, for instance, signs, “Enjoy, Steven” and Mean Mr Mustard uses “mmm”.
If you want a rationale, the consensus on Snoboarder Bo’s catchphrase was that other posters also do annoying things in their posts, and these have been permitted in the past. The catchphrase wasn’t regarded as being out of line with what has been permitted previously.
For the record, my personal opinion would be to not permit this kind of thing. I think that once you have been told that a particular behavior is annoying to a significant number of people, willfully persisting in doing it is trolling. This, however, was not the consensus of the staff.
Regarding the issue of using odd fonts, I think this is rather different in that it has the potential to alter the whole look of the board. Regardless of whether you think a few posts in green font are legible or not, once we permit that then where do we draw the line? I doubt many people would be happy if we had successive posts in bold hot pink comic sans, blue 30 point gothic, and yellow papyrus. In the early days of the board, posting in odd fonts and colors was permitted, and of course some posters abused it. (Some posters will find a way to abuse almost any feature of the board. Our members are very creative that way. ;)) Use of odd fonts/colors has not been allowed in the 15 years I have been a member. The staff didn’t see a reason to allow it now. (For the record I agreed with this decision. IIRC it was unanimous on the part of the staff.)
If you read the ATMB and Pit threads on the two issues, you will see a wide variety of opinions on both. Obviously YMMV. But as staff we ultimately have to come to a decision on such issues (and taking no action is a decision in itself). That’s the consensus we arrived at on the two issues.
Yup. All I was asking for. A reasonable explanation of the thought process. Thank you.
And for the nothing it is worth I understand the can of worms that gets opened once trying to decide what is annoying enough to a significant enough number of people, and can completely understand erring on the side of allowing a certain level of weak trolling as a lesser harm than modding too heavily. The potential impact many odd fonts on the overall look of the board also seems a reasonable explanation to me.
Speaking of the Supreme Court methods and the mods, jerkish behavior, like porn, is known when seen.
I can imagine a mitigating circumstance where someone’s post is annoying but also arguably fights ignorance. Such mitigation doesn’t apply in this case.
Hijack: Why is there such hatred for the comic sans font?
OK fine, a what-if then…
What if every Doper decided to start each of their posts with some utterly irrelevant quote of some silly pop culture meme? How many Dopers doing this would it take before TPTB would feel compelled to step in? I’d certainly see that as lessening the value and enjoyment of this place, myself.
Most systems come down to something like that. Board policy can prohibit jerkish behavior just like the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. But there has to be some group or individual who is deciding if a particular act fits the definition.
Someone else on the internet had the samereaction a few years ago . …
In fact he’s posted it 223 times. I don’t consider that infrequent. FTR, I consider it annoying as hell.
Wow, las cucarachas entran pero no pueden salir. I suggest we find out.
Dibs on “That gum you like is going to come back in style.”
I’d say that there are basically only 2 opinions in the Pit thread. Most people just find it very annoying, the others think its funny not because the gimmick actually funny, but because other people find it annoying.
Its like a trolls wet dream, you could win coming and going with a gimmick like that.
Some of us (well, me, for one) don’t find it annoying (I just mentally translate it to LOL and move on, now), but don’t think the reaction is exactly funny, either.
I didn’t say I couldn’t read it, but it is hard on my eyes. If I had to read a lot of it I’d end up with a headache. However I don’t feel I have to read everything and I just consider people who use hard-to-read fonts/colors inconsiderate morons, not anything to complain to the mods about.
You’d be wrong. I was confused, then amused by the phrase; and said so in the current Pit thread. I’m pretty sure I’ve used the phase IRL since the first time it was used in a reply to me.
That there are people who are willing to troll themselves over this is just gravy. And yes, I really do think they’re doing it to themselves. It’s not a offensive or controversial statement, and he didn’t start using it to inflame others. It’s just a reference they don’t like and can’t seem to shame away, which is used in what seems to be about %1 of Bo’s posts. If their complaining has any effect at this point, it is to make it less likely that it will go away completely.
Likewise it does not bother me much … I just skip him if I notice its him mostly … if I read it, do a quick, “Oh this idiot is still at it? What a Nimrod.” and roll along. (Even less now that I have used his phrase as an excuse to play with the Word Replacer II Chrome extension and would only see ⍥ as “autocorrect” when his performance art “autocorrects” LOL into the phrase.)
But your last sentence and the responses, including his, in the Pit thread, belie your last claim. Complaining makes it persist all the more precisely because it is feeding a troll which is always counterproductive. It is not “just a reference” because he does not even mean to make the reference … his giggle with it began that it is not a reference he means to make, that it automatically happens, a performance art bit, and like lots of performance art, its point to annoy. That’s not the way others here use annoying catch phrases. If it did not begin as trolling per se it has become trolling along the way: the fact that it annoys some and that others enjoy its being annoying is what makes him keep it up all the more. It is weak assed trolling, weak assed enough that it does not cross the line, and it makes sense to err in that moderation direction to me, but no question that it is trolling primarily (not exclusively) defended by people who enjoy seeing trolling gotten away with.
But the point of this thread was to get the rule thought process clarification, which I appreciate having gotten.
Well, I don’t see it as trolling. The only trolling aspect is that some people don’t like it and insist on bitching about it. As my post made clear, that’s actually their problem, and it’s the fact they can’t let it go that is funny. It’s pretty obvious that Bo isn’t trying to bait people into pitting him, so he isn’t holding up his end of the trolling. I still giggle about the usage independent of their Pit threads, and would continue to find humor in it if their pit threads ceased and I forgot about them.
As far as it being perpetuated by the threads: it’s analogous to you parents complaining about your hairstyle. You know there’s nothing particularly fantastic or wrong about your hairstyle, but you’ll be damned if you’re gonna change it just because they said so. It may not be the most mature urge in the world, but people really do behave that way.
I’ve decided that I like the catchphrase-as-nonsequitur-substitution thing and I’m going to use it in place of the abbreviation “ETA”.
Let’s go down to the quarry and throw stuff down there: like this