# Really Ed? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 10, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897 "2009-03-10T00:34:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/1 "2009-03-10T00:34:45Z")
In this closed [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10920767&postcount=12) lissner: > [@](#): > > I, personally, think Ed’s recent micromanagement is a bad thing. But if it’s driven Liberal to leave these boards for other climes, then I thank God for Ed’s micromanagement. Who’ll join me in a hymn of thanksgiving? and Ed replies > [@](#): > > Now you’re talking. \ Wow, let’s drive the posters we disagree with off the boards. If that ain’t fighting ignorance I don’t know what is.:rolleyes: Sorry I don’t know how to quote closed threads. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/2 "2009-03-10T00:40:08Z")
Driving away posters we disagree with on issues worth debating is a bit different than driving away posters we disagree with on Board policy. If he’d said that because **Liberal** left due to the Dope’s liberal bias or something, it’d be different. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/3 "2009-03-10T00:41:42Z")
I don’t understand. Is board policy not an issue worth debating? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/4 "2009-03-10T00:42:15Z")
I interpreted that as Ed Zotti making a joke about someone singing a hymn of Thanksgiving for Ed’s management. Of course, people’s reading of his comment will be coloured by their preconceptions. (like my reading of it was) ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/5 "2009-03-10T00:45:52Z")
Actually, my first reading was along the same lines as **Arnold** ’s; indeed, **Ed** ’s explicit purpose seemed to be to discourage snarky celebrating of **Liberal** ’s departure (as can be seen by viewing the post in full). It was a bit of a faux pas to allow the interpretational ambiguity, but I wouldn’t really get worked up over it. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/6 "2009-03-10T00:47:06Z")
Ah, sorry, I missed the smiley. My mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/7 "2009-03-10T00:48:10Z")
I’m not a big Ed fan, but now he’s getting pitted for closing threads he didn’t close? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/8 "2009-03-10T00:49:31Z")
I don’t think there’s actually any explicit smiley around, though there seems to be one “implicitly”, so to speak. [You know, the way these things were conveyed before the explicit smiley was invented…] ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/9 "2009-03-10T00:50:11Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > I don’t understand. Is board policy not an issue worth debating? Not really, although that’s just my opinion. It’s kind of a trick question, though; we don’t have debates on board policy; we have flamefests. When something happens vis-a-vis board policy that people dislike, they don’t go find the Pit/ATMB thread about it and calmly note their disapproval. They all go off and start their own threads and hurl invective at **Ed/TD/SkipMagic/Jerry/whoever**. Feel free to skim through all the threads we just had about the Old New Pit Rules. There was one thread with people saying, “hey, this kinda sucks,” and 20-30 full of people going, “how dare you tell me to stop saying fuck, you stupid fuck! I’m leaving!” People have some funny ideas about how we all “add value” to the Boards and such nonsense- as though people who post videos on YouTube suddenly expect a say in how _they_ should be running their business. It’s Web 2.0; users-as-content is becoming the default, but only here does everyone get all shirty when they want to decide what the rules are and the Powers That Be say no. Smart people answer questions in GQ; some do it to show off, some do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Either way, nobody owes them anything except the people whose questions get answered. I look at it this way: we’re all playing the same game, but at the end of the day, Ed’s the one who brought the ball, and he gets to decide who runs with it. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/10 "2009-03-10T00:50:41Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > I’m not a big Ed fan, but now he’s getting pitted for closing threads he didn’t close? Um, no, try again. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/11 "2009-03-10T01:03:03Z")
Sorry, I thought **lissener** ’s comment was rude and pit-a-ble and **Ed** ’s, the owner of the board, even ruder. Not knowing **Ed** as a regular poster I can’t fill in the missing smileys. Thanks to all who know **Ed** better than I and can intuite his posts and hidden smileys. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/12 "2009-03-10T01:08:16Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Sorry, I thought **lissener** ’s comment was rude and pit-a-ble and **Ed** ’s, the owner of the board, even ruder. Not knowing **Ed** as a regular poster I can’t fill in the missing smileys. Thanks to all who know **Ed** better than I and can intuite his posts and hidden smileys. I was a little surprised by it, but Liberal’s gone. I’m sure he cares what people are saying about him, but it’s not as though Ed owes him anything anymore, is it? Personally, I always liked Liberal, but he lost any respect I had for him with his stupid “new neighborhood” OP. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/13 "2009-03-10T01:14:27Z")
Looked like an obvious joke to me. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/14 "2009-03-10T01:37:49Z")
Looked like a joke to me as well. ---
**Author:** ![Wash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9dc877/32.png) [@Wash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wash)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/15 "2009-03-10T03:16:18Z")
Oh for og’s sake, I’m as willing to rake Ed and the other admins over the coals as anyone after the events of the last week or so, but this really isn’t anything to get worked up over. Regardless of whether he deserves it or not, **Ed** ’s not exactly had the best of weeks around these parts and I’m 99% certain that his post was more a dig at himself than anything else. Could he have thrown in a smiley to make things more obvious? Sure, but we’ve all been guilty of similar in the past - a major problem with message boards has always been a tendency to write as if you were speaking directly to the person/group you’re addressing, and inflections and subtelties are so easily lost when tone of voice and body language are not observable. Dismiss me as a brown-noser or whatever you will, regardless of the truth of the matter, but I think quite a lot of people really just need to step away from the Straight Dope at the very least, if not the keyboard altogether, do whatever activity it is that best chills you out for a few days or so, and try to get some perspective. Damn, after the last however long since he started taking a more active role in the Pit, I didn’t think I’d see the day that I’d be defending **Ed**. _That’s_ how stupid this thread is. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/16 "2009-03-10T03:32:54Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I was a little surprised by it, but Liberal’s gone. Do you really think he is not reading this thread right now? Really? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/17 "2009-03-10T03:45:39Z")
Darn. Now I may never a chance to use the nuclear bomb attack on Liberal that I’ve been carefully refining all these years, for a moment when he really needed it. It combines casual racism and condescension with an extra little twist just for him and would probably make some people here laugh while a greater number wouldn’t care for it at all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/18 "2009-03-10T03:52:30Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Sorry, I thought **lissener** ’s comment was rude and pit-a-ble and **Ed** ’s, the owner of the board, even ruder. Not knowing **Ed** as a regular poster I can’t fill in the missing smileys. Thanks to all who know **Ed** better than I and can intuite his posts and hidden smileys. Ed owns the board? No more Chicago Reader owned by Creative Loafing? That seems that it might be a good thing to actually have a business with an owner involved on a daily basis. We could get a whole accountability economy thing going. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/19 "2009-03-10T04:17:02Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Do you really think he is not reading this thread right now? Really? If he is, then he can stick up for himself if he likes. If he’s not, he won’t care either way. He is, by his own admission, gone. That doesn’t mean people should be taking potshots at him, of course, but by the same token why bother fighting his battles? ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897/20 "2009-03-10T04:40:03Z")
Man, you guys are such fucking wimps. (We can still accuse other posters of fucking wimps, can’t we?) **Ed Zotti** ’s been acting like a jack-booted thug since he took over, and yet you all cowtow to him, because – let’s just put it all on the table here – because you all think he’s THE REAL CECIL ADAMS. C’mon, use your heads people! The REAL Cecil Adams retired fifteen years ago, and is living like a king in Patagonia. After all, it’s the _name_ that inspires fear. No one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Zotti! (And yet, it does feel strangely quiet with our dear **Liberal** departed…) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-ed/488897.md?page=2)