# Socks and immaturity **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 1, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409 "2005-06-01T17:51:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/61 "2005-06-02T03:30:16Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > I can hear the naysayers now: When 18-inch prehensile tongues are outlawed, only outlaws will have 18-inch prehensile tongues. Well, them and [Gene Simmons](http://www.bluejean.com.tr/nevarneyok/01898/imperiaflex_0_25_0.jpg), of course. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/62 "2005-06-02T03:49:28Z")
Would that be a [Deathtongue](http://www.angelfire.com/ak/captainoftheexplorer/bbillyandtheboingers.html) we are talking about here? ---
**Author:** ![Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/59ef9b/32.png) [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/63 "2005-06-02T04:01:48Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Would that be a [Deathtongue](http://www.angelfire.com/ak/captainoftheexplorer/bbillyandtheboingers.html) we are talking about here? Yes. An 18" double-headed 1920’s style Deathtongue. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/64 "2005-06-02T04:03:16Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Would that be a [Deathtongue](http://www.angelfire.com/ak/captainoftheexplorer/bbillyandtheboingers.html) we are talking about here? :eek: You dare to speak of the dreaded [Death Tongue](http://tower.shadowdark.org/deathtongue.html)? Without garbling? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/65 "2005-06-02T07:38:50Z")
> [@](#): > > **Being tougher with warnings and faster with bannings? Sounds good to me.** IMO, you need to suspend much more often, and ban less often. The problem that I perceive you guys having is that because banning is so final (yes I know a ban can be revoked, but it’s rare) that you leave it as late as possible - to give the person every last chance, and to be sure of making a fair, incontrovertible decision. But if people were suspended more quickly - and repeatedly - they would be gone sooner, and they would have a chance to think about their behaviour. People do eventually grow up and out of their difficult phases. If someone was a bit of a brat, being suspended time and time again would either get them so frustrated that they would go away permanently, or they would actually begin to modify their behaviour. For prolific posters, a month’s freeze is quite a severe hardship. It would hurt. Socking would also be less of an issue. A suspended person, knowing they get to return, wouldn’t want to risk an actual ban by getting caught socking. There is also considerable pride in board “identity” (such as post count) - so I think most people would prefer to return to their pre-suspended known identities than just create a new one. And because it isn’t permanent, you could suspend more quicky and after fewer warnings, and for lesser offences if you so wished. Because people would be less bothered about making a big outcry if they knew the suspendee was eventually returning. There are so many posters who contributed a lot to these boards who are permanently lost - not just in terms of content, but in terms of their $$$ to you. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/66 "2005-06-02T11:48:45Z")
> [@istara](#): > > IMO, you need to suspend much more often, and ban less often. I agree. There seems to be a dramatic jump between a warning and a banning. Using a broader range of interventions would seem to me to be of benefit for both the moderators and the members. A few days time out, thirty days in the cooler… Some interim period for punishment and reflection doesn’t seem particularly unwieldy or unreasonable. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/67 "2005-06-02T13:36:22Z")
> [@istara](#): > > IMO, you need to suspend much more often, and ban less often. > > The problem that I perceive you guys having is that because banning is so final (yes I know a ban can be revoked, but it’s rare) that you leave it as late as possible - to give the person every last chance, and to be sure of making a fair, incontrovertible decision. A sort of enforced timeout/cooling off period, IOW? Sounds logical. It would serve as an effective punishment as well as get the irritant out of posters’ hair. I like the idea, and will fly it past the group. Thanks. Veb ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/68 "2005-06-02T13:40:28Z")
Another vote for suspensions as a **regular** step in board discipline. Sorely needed, and might well keep some bannees whom we’ve lost forever. The real jerks would end up banned; the salvageable transgressors could choose to learn from experience; the angst over Doper X’s exile would simmer **way** down. Heck, it might even take away one of the toys of the snark boards. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/69 "2005-06-02T15:42:03Z")
Gotta agree on the suspensions idea. Simply brilliant and brilliantly simple. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/70 "2005-06-02T15:50:13Z")
If we get suspended, do the Mods also send a note home to our parents? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/71 "2005-06-02T16:33:34Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > If we get suspended, do the Mods also send a note home to our parents? 😃 Your _parents_!? We don’t dink around with no steenkin’ _parents_. A gen-u-wyne SDMB suspension gets noted on your credit report, college transcript, driver’s record and a leper with a lung transplant will have a better chance at ever getting life insurance. For the terminally paranoid among us, the above is NOT TRUE. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/72 "2005-06-02T17:36:42Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Are there rules about wagging your tongue at the screen? > > Would a giraffe waggling its tongue at a Doper be construed as making death threats? _Breath_ threats, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/73 "2005-06-02T18:11:55Z")
Madam **Thorstein** , you closed a thread after saying,[“This thread is fluff with a few token fucks,”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6221056&postcount=20) yet _this_ thread, which has been hijacked from here to Kingdom Come with only a few attempts to keep it on track, still lives. Care to explain this apparent paradox or do we chalk it up to _yet another_ example of inconsistent modding? 😃 I’m not a jerk but I play one on the internet. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/74 "2005-06-02T18:18:29Z")
**TV** just doesn’t like token fucks. They have to be real fucks for the thread to stay open. Believe me, there are some real fucks in this thread! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ass_For_A_Hat)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/75 "2005-06-02T18:44:42Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > …yet _this_ thread, which has been hijacked from here to Kingdom Come with only a few attempts to keep it on track, still lives. Hijacked? The reason this has mostly been a joke thread is that the OP was incomprehensible, to the point of comedy. Though some commentors may appear to be “on topic”, I submit that they are the true hijackers of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/76 "2005-06-02T18:49:56Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Madam **Thorstein** , you closed a thread after saying,[“This thread is fluff with a few token fucks,”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6221056&postcount=20) yet _this_ thread, which has been hijacked from here to Kingdom Come with only a few attempts to keep it on track, still lives. Care to explain this apparent paradox or do we chalk it up to _yet another_ example of inconsistent modding? 😃 > > I’m not a jerk but I play one on the internet. 🙂 Its your OP. You want it closed? Just ask a mod I am sure they will consider it. But just because you are pissed that must of us did not find you OP particularly clever is kind of a silly reason to lock it. You keep whining that we are not taking your OP seriously, let it go or ask a mod to close it. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/77 "2005-06-02T18:53:40Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Madam **Thorstein** , you closed a thread after saying,[“This thread is fluff with a few token fucks,”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6221056&postcount=20) yet _this_ thread, which has been hijacked from here to Kingdom Come with only a few attempts to keep it on track, still lives. Care to explain this apparent paradox or do we chalk it up to _yet another_ example of inconsistent modding? 😃 Hey, we’re not complete Nazis. (Well, _I’m_ not anyway.) All we ask is that threads start out in a Pit-worthy direction, which this one did. We’re not going to close threads the moment someone makes a joke or an off-topic remark. They may get closed eventually, but we’ll usually let them sputter out by themselves first if possible. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/78 "2005-06-02T18:53:50Z")
(sigh) Note the smilies, Skeptic. I put them there for a reason. Maybe not a GOOD reason, but no worse than the bad reasons I do most everything else. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/79 "2005-06-02T19:01:11Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > (sigh) Note the smilies, Skeptic. I put them there for a reason. Maybe not a GOOD reason, but no worse than the bad reasons I do most everything else. Have I ever mentioned how much I _hate_ smilies? Sigh. Ooookayyy. Since you put the pernicious little things in there I guess I can’t rip your arms off and beat you soundly about the head with 'em. Oh…and the **Giraffe** speaks truly. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409/80 "2005-06-02T19:13:04Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > We’re not going to close threads the moment someone makes a joke You better not let \*\*Lynn Bodoni \*\* hear you say that. She will rip out your tongue and choke you with it then cut off your genitals and eat them then change your title from Mod to Banned. ( **Dropzone** -sorry I missed the smileys) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socks-and-immaturity/306409.md?page=5)